Stars (vocally) Colin Farrell, Amanda Seyfried, Josh Hutcherson, Christoph Waltz, Jason Sudeikis, Chris O'Dowd, Aziz Ansari, Steven Tyler and Beyonce Knowles Directed by Chris Wedge Eight years after his last directorial effort, the lacklustre Robots, Chris Wedge delivers a movie that does live up to its name. The tales of the fight for nature might have been done numerous times before. Comparisons that come here to mind range from Ferngully to Avatar, where we have the outsider - in this case, MK (Amanda Seyfried) - entering the invisible world of the forest dwellers to help them with their cause and fight against the evil who wants to take over the world or some such. While the Leafmen are identified as the heroes. I was hesitating to use them in the sentence before. They are the guardsmen to Queen Tara (Beyonce Knowles) who rules over a variety of 'citizens' while the bad guy, Mandrake (Christoph Waltz) has his army of Boggans. Jumping of from the book by William Joyce (who's also responsible for PDI/Dreamwork's Rise Of The Guardians), and expanded by Wedge and James Hart (who contributed to other cinematic adventures such as Hook, Muppet Treasure Island, The Last Mimzy and Lara Croft: The Cradle Of Life), the story runs the gamut of an epic adventure that would normally feature thousands of extras to fill in the size and scope. At the same time, the character story is focussed on loss and responsibility. Easy enough themes to aim at the target audience. So, epic and intimate at the same time. The stars do surprisingly well with the vocal calisthenics. Seyfried and Josh Hutcherson deliver their lines with aplomb, hitting the emotions as needed. Colin Farrell as the Leafman warrior running solo, the appropriately named Ronin, seems to shift through the accents a little from time to time while Christoph Waltz again shining as main baddie, Mandrake. Comic relief comes from a pair of slugs - or actually a slug, Mub (Aziz Ansari) who develops a crush on our young heroine, and a snail, Grub (Chris O'Dowd) who aspires to be a member of the Leafmen. Aside from Knowles, other singers who popped up include Pitbull as Bufo, and Steven Tyler as Nim Galuu, keeper of the archive. The animation by Blue Sky Studios (Wedge's company responsible for Rio, Robots and the Ice Age series - mascot Scrat now kicks off the company's logo much like the Luxo lamp for Pixar) delivers an incredibly lush world full on beautiful detail. My preferred cineplex didn't have the 3D presentation, but even then, you could see how the 3D would have played out. The design of the world and it's inhabitants, the scale of the two worlds in contrast, would be utterly impressive where the 3D is concerned. The details are in the nuances of movement, especially when the two worlds collide, and it's quite spectacular. Add to that the adventurous score by Danny Elfman and the computer generated world truly comes alive with grave danger and grand adventure. In all, the movie does deliver where it counts. It's an epic adventure with some grand ideas delivered in an easy and simple enough manner to entertain and thrill.
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