This movie was like an onion. When you first see this movie, you think of a cute, lighthearted movie about a girl who becomes little and saves the forest. How cute! But when you dig deep into this movie, you see layers that aren't so apparent when you're first watching a Disney movie. This movie talks about family and the relationships between a parent and a kid. Peel it back again and you get the destruction of wildlife, and how important it is to preserve our forests. I guess you could also say it was like an onion because it made me cry.
Besides that, the messages in this movie were very well delivered. A teenager just losing her mom goes to live with her father, who doesn't have the best relationship with her. He's invested in catching these little woodland people. When she meets the queen of the forest, she's given the task to save the wildlife. Oh, also she's been shrunk to about three inches tall. She meets Nod, an ex leaf man who took up racing after his dad died.
Both Nod and M.K develop as characters throughout the play. Nod, once only into racing and having fun, learns to step up and become a leaf man, just as his father was. M.K learns how important family is, and strengthens the relationship with her father.
Looking at the production side of Epic, the animation was great. Looking back at the movies I watched when I was younger, like the Little Mermaid and Mulan, I've noticed the the animation has really progressed. Seeing the transition between the bright greens on the leaves to when they shrivel up and turn black is amazing to watch.
The strengths I think for this movie was the animation, because of transitions between light and dark, but the weaknesses would be the time sequence. The movie was very rushed, and the sequence of evens happened very quickly, but when you think about how the movie was aimed at children, they don't have that wide of an attention span.
This movie is definitely good for young kids. It's a cute movie that kids would enjoy, with comedic relief from the slug and snail. When adults watch it with their kids, they will enjoy the movie, but also understand the underlying messages in the film, which makes this a good movie for everyone.
