The second trailer for Blue Sky Studios animated feature Epic arrived yesterday. It is the studios seventh feature, after the success of their Ice Age franchise, and films such as Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! and Robots.
EPIC is a 3D CG action-adventure comedy that reveals a hidden world unlike any other. From the creators of ICE AGE and RIO, EPIC tells the story of an ongoing battle deep in the forest between the forces of good who keep the natural world alive, and the forces of evil who wish to destroy it. When a teenage girl finds herself magically transported into this secret universe, she must band together with a rag-tag team of fun and whimsical characters in order to save their world… and ours’
The film stars the voice talents of Amanda Seyfried, Josh Hutcherson, Christoph Waltz, Steven Tyler, Aziz Ansari, Pitbull, Jason Sudeikis, Beyoncé Knowles and Colin Farrell, and is due to be released on the 24th May. A star-studded cast indeed, which works well as a marketing tool but lowers my confidence in the quality of the film. The film itself looks beautiful. Stunning set pieces and the animation style looks very different to the studios previous films. The thing I’m worried about is the story, it seems very familiar (FernGully, Dances with Wolves, Avatar) and some of the cheap laughs in the trailer only dilutes what seems to be artistic endeavor.
I hope that I am wrong and that this film turns out to be as wonderful as any of Blue Sky’s other animated features. I’m a big fan of the studio, especially Horton, and will go into the film with an open mind. Let us know what you think in the comments below.
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