Epic **½ (PG) Of all the animated fantasies mixing humans and magic, this is the most...recent. Nothing new or special is to be found in this tale that’s virtually a collage of other films, appealing primarily to those who are too young to have seen many of them. The teen daughter of a ditzy botanist visits him in the woods he studies to the exclusion of all else. That obsession with proving the existence of tiny humanoids caused his wife and daughter to leave. She’s still skeptical until a fluke shrinks her to the size of those entities just in time for a survival struggle between the good green guys and the gray evil forces of death and decay. Thus we’re served a variation on The Borrowers, with the eco-messages of The Lorax, as seen by an Alice down the rabbit hole, who meets a playful young lad with heroic potential (like Aladdin and a slew of other plucky protagonists).
The proceedings are more adventurous than comical, perhaps making the tone a little scary for more sensitive children. But even though this concept may seem overly familiar to older viewers, the package still adds up to a reasonably positive option for family fare. And a good portion of the visuals are above average - especially when viewed on a 3-D screen. (5/24/13)