Epic
The forest was not made in a day. But it can be destroyed in one.
-Is this what men mean by talking about the Roman Empire?
Part 1: Reevaluating Wedge: The Finale
In the past couple of years, I have grown an admiration for the works of <PERSON> and to a lesser extent, Blue Sky Studios. Ice Age and Robots are two films I find highly enjoyable. But Epic is a film I haven't clicked with. But the goal of tonight's viewing is to see if that can change. How can Wedge function in a Saldanha-affected company? Well, the answer is quite complicated.
Part 2: Leafmen or MK?
Let's start with some compliments. <PERSON> is not an anonymous director. His boundless imagination is apparent from the word "go." An animated film about an advanced society of "Leafmen" responsible for the fate of the forest lends itself to interesting visual concepts and even a nice use of Widescreen. But this movie isn't exactly about the Leafmen. The lead is a grieving teenage girl who is shrunk down to the size of a Leafman. The first half hour is very good. But either through comic relief duo <PERSON> and <PERSON> or having a few characters too many, it starts to stumble.
Part 3: The Saldanhization of Blue Sky Studios
Unfortunately, Epic has a problem. 952
After their promising early works and <PERSON>'s leave, Blue Sky seems to have a confidence issue. And I think it stems from <PERSON>. In films like Rio and Ferdinand, they have a tendency to have too many characters and have issues with confidence and trusting their audience. The whole <PERSON> character and scene comes off like how Blue Sky perceives audiences see them. A stammering, stoned, unconfident fraud. It's a shame the Saldanha Bug has bitten <PERSON>.
Part 4: Epilogue
Epic's best scenes are the ones that showcase <PERSON>'s aesthetic and directorial abilities. Because you're gonna need to appreciate his style if you want to get through this hippie-dippie ramble. And when your plot occurs on the Summer Solstice on a Full Moon where a Pod must bloom complete with a blatant Akashic Record reference... you can't get more potheaded than this. I can excuse Avatar's grandstanding because the classical storytelling style is quite charming and that <PERSON> knows spectacle, but Epic seems like it wants Avatar's thunder rather than be its own thing. And when it's a <PERSON> movie, that's a big problem. That being said, I kind of liked the <PERSON> reference. If your child wants to be introduced to 20th Century Fox movies, show them Anastasia. 952