Epic (PG)
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So... I wasn't entirely sure how much I'd like this, but I thought I'd like it well enough. I mean, it looked pretty cool to me, but I don't think it got epic reviews (pun intended). Anyway, it was in 3D when it came out in theaters in 2013, but I only saw it in 2D, when I watched it on DVD about a year later. But the animation was still pretty awesome. As for the story, it actually was kind of epic. Not the most original thing I've ever seen, and it started out just okay, but as it progressed, I liked it more and more. There were bits of it that it'd be safe to say I loved. So I rated it higher than I expected to at first, though it's also one of those movies where I can compare it to movies I've reviewed in the past which I'm sure I liked better, but when I check my reviews I find I rated them lower than I do this one... which confuses me. So I decided to knock half a smiley off my rating, which is still higher than I expected. But it's not important.

So, there's this girl named Mary Katherine (or M.K., as she prefers to be called). She's like 17 years old, I guess, and her mother has recently died. So she's going to live with her dad, whom I guess she hasn't seen since she was a little girl, when her parents divorced. Her mom had left her dad because he's like this crackpot scientist who is obsessed with proving that there's a civilization of tiny people living in the forest. And M.K. thinks he's just as crazy as her mother did, so she decides to leave home, the same day she moved in.

Meanwhile, her dad is, of course, right. And as it happens, on this particular day, the Queen of the Forest, Tara, has to select a leaf pod to which she'll transfer her magic, so when it blooms that night under the full moon, it can become her successor. This only happens on a specific night every hundred years, so it's pretty important nothing goes wrong with the ceremony. Unfortunately, there are these evil creatures called Boggans, led by a guy named Mandrake, who are enemies of the forest creatures. (There are a bunch of different anthropomorphized plants, as well as other tiny creatures that are normal, aside from being able to talk.) And the queen has an army of tiny soldiers called Leafmen, who are humanoid, and who ride hummingbirds. The main leafman is Ronin, a childhood friend of Tara's, whom she clearly loves. And I think he loves her too, but he's too stoic and committed to his duty to act on his feelings for her. The only other leafman we get to know is Nod, a maverick rookie whose late father was a good friend of Ronin's. Nod gets tired of all the rules he's supposed to follow, and quits the Leafmen. Not long after that, the ceremony where Tara chooses the pod that will become her successor is attacked by Boggans.

As M.K. is about to leave home, her dad's three-legged dog, Ozzy, runs off into the woods, and M.K. chases after him. She doesn't find him, but ends up finding Queen Tara, just before she dies of a wound inflicted in the battle. Tara gives M.K. the pod, and shrinks her down to leafman size. Her dying words are to get the pod to the forest's records-keeper, Nim Galuu (who turns out to be a glowworm). Ronin accompanies M.K. on this quest, and they're joined by Nod, as well as a slug named Mub and a snail named Grub. (Mub and Grub are the movie's comic relief characters, and I do think they're pretty funny, especially Mub... who develops an immediate crush on M.K.) After getting the pod to Nim's place and learning how to take care of it, it gets stolen by Mandrake, who has his own plans for it. (I found his plans totally predictable.) So of course our heroes have to sneak into his lair and recover it, then get it back to their own haven, so it can bloom and produce the next queen, and hopefully M.K. can get big again.

And I guess I don't want to say any more about the plot. But of course it has a happy ending (including one thing I totally did not see coming, and really loved). And... um... yeah, there were really good action scenes, good humor, decent drama, decent characters, and stuff.