Epic

I've known Chris Wedge since long ago, when he made the wonderful Oscar-winning film "Bunny".  In fact, he's one of the first guys, along with John Lasseter, who recognized and promoted the potential of computer animation.

He new Blue Sky film "Epic" is now in theaters, and it's a marvel.  It comes from the imagination of the great William Joyce.  And you can certainly see his storytelling and character design in the finished film.

In fact, Chris and William have been working on this feature for many years, and it took the executives at Fox a long time to greenlight this film.

But the wait was worth it!  The story is very engaging with the battle of nature, life and death, played out in the woods of the Hudson River Valley. 

If I do have a quibble, and it's almost always the same criticism of today's animated features, it's that some of the characters are not so well designed - especially the Queen of the Forest, who is voiced by Beyoncé.  The artists tried to make her character look like the pop star.  Big mistake!  It totally took away from the fantasy element of the film.

Also, I'm getting a little tired of the Danny Elfman music.  I loved his early stuff for the cartoon shows, but now he's totally lost his edgy style.  He's become the new John Williams.

But, by all means, please rush out and go see "Epic".  You'll love it!

I give it an A-

--Bill