Epic

Epic

Blue Sky Studios

Released: 2013

Director: Chris Wedge

Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Josh Hutcherson, Beyoncé Knowles, Aziz Ansari, Christoph Waltz

Writers: James V. Hart, William Joyce, Daniel Shere, Tom J. Astle, and Matt Ember

Inspired by William Joyce’s book The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs

Rating: PG

Grade: 3/5

TODAY IS EARTH DAY! Happy Earth Day everyone!

In honor of Earth Day I’m gonna take a queer look at Epic!

This movie kinda slipped through the cracks. It’s by the same studio that did Ice Age and they’re gonna come out with the new Peanuts movie soon which is crazy exciting. Keep an eye on them.

I wanted to do this particular movie on Earth Day because THERE’S SO MUCH PRETTY ANIMATED NATURE! Seriously. The animation is gorgeous. If this review-ish blog posty thing doesn’t convince you to watch it, I hope the pictures do.

It’s difficult to distinguish what is norm versus queer in this movie. We are dealing with two worlds: human and forest. But the two worlds aren’t really juxtaposed as queer versus norm because they aren’t in conflict with each other. The main conflict sits within the forest world and the human world comes into play when the Leafmen need help to defeat their enemies, the Boggans. Buuuuuut there are definitely specific characters we can talk about.

First, let’s look at the characters in the human world: MK and her dad. 

Exposition for their situation is that MK is moving back in with her dad since her mom died. He lives with his three-legged dog in a house in the middle of the forest and all he does is look for these tiny forest people he believes exist, despite essentially losing everyone in his life because of his obsession. I’ve got some questions about dad.  The whole thing about alienating people in his life because of his weird obsession, I think he’s a gay dad who came out later in life and that’s the real reason mom and dad separated. I like what this interpretation does to the movie. It makes the father/daughter story much more complex, making their arc entirely about MK coming to terms with her father’s queerness now that her mother is gone and accepting him and his weird forest people obsession.

On to the forest people! BEYONCÉ PLAYS A QUEEN! 

Beyoncé is literally the queen. All hail Queen Bey. Which is cool for a number of reasons. 1) Beyoncé. 2) Beyoncé has magical nature powers that are fly as fuck. And 3) She’s a female political leader with magical powers AND 4) She’s a POC (person of color). Look at all that intersectionality!

We are also introduced to the Leafmen and this world of forest creatures. In the big crowd scene we see all different types of forest people, from little daisies, to slugs, to those stick insect things. Loads of diversity in the forest population, which is really cool representation, even if it’s just of fictional species.

A few other forest people characters to mention: the snail and the slug who take care of the magical pod. They fit into the Timon and Pumba trope of gay male parental figures.

Also, Nim Galoo. He’s mostly just a big hippie, but I’m sure he went through an experimental phase in forest college.

The movie as a whole isn’t super queer. But it’s super Earth Day-y! The whole conflict is all about growth versus decay and beauty versus rot. It’s pretty straight up evil versus good without a ton of nuance. But I guess you could talk about how nature is good and pretty and how being queer is a natural thing and is therefore beautiful…IDK, this one is a stretch. But I stand by my gay dad theory.

MVQ: Beyoncé. Always Beyoncé.

OTP: MK and Queen Tara. Because Beyoncé.

Favorite Moment: When Queen Tara uses her awesome nature magical powers. BeyoncéBeyoncéBeyoncé.