by Kathy Fuller
I kicked off summer with a less than epic bang on Monday when I took my youngest daughter to the $5 showing of Epic at our local theater. A couple things I learned is that a) every mother and their kid under seven goes to the $5 matinee and b) I have no idea why they called this movie Epic.
As a kid’s flick it was enjoyable enough. The animation was pretty good. Not Pixar quality but little else is when it comes to movies like this. The story was okay–a girl shrinks and finds out there’s a hidden world filled with talking slugs, smiling plants, and leaf men. There’s danger–she must not only save the pod which saves this world but she has to get back to her world. There’s humor–a three legged pug steals the movie. And there’s romance–although I don’t know how that works now that’s she’s big and he’s the size of a bug. But it’s a kid’s movie, so I’m trying not to think too hard.
What it isn’t is epic. So why the title? Why set yourself up for epically bad epic jokes? What does epic mean in regard to the story, anyway? And when I peek on imdb.com, why did it take five writers to write a movie based on a book? A movie that wasn’t the least bit epic?