Epic

A teenage girl (voice by Amanda Seyfried) goes to live in the woods with her eccentric father (Dan Green), who believes that tiny people protect the forest. When she magically shrinks to insect size, she finds out Dad was right, and joins forces with two “Leaf Men” (Colin Farrell, Josh Hutcherson) to defeat Mandrake (Christoph Waltz), king of a creeping rot that threatens the forest. It's a bland knockoff of A Bug's Life without the humor, suspense or vivid characters, but somehow it took five writers to concoct (including William Joyce, whose kids' book The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs provided a loose inspiration). Director Chris Wedge executes the thin story studiously but flatly; the animation is inspired, but the story isn't, and lackluster voice work doesn't help. It's in 3-D, which adds little.