Epic Tails Review

Epic Tails is a French animated film released by StudioCanal in the UK. It puts an animalistic spin on Greek mythology.

The city of Yolcos is a paradise where everyone, including the animals, live in harmony because of the Golden Fleece. Pattie is small mouse but dreams big because she wants to go an adventure like her hero, Jason. However, Pattie’s adopted dad, Sam the Cat, is overly protective. Pattie’s chance comes when Poseidon takes the Golden Fleece and demands a statue of him needs to be built within a week.

There are many CGI animated films that come from Europe that are often released during the school holidays in the UK to make a quick buck. Epic Tails was an example of this. Many of these films are unable to compete with their American counterparts on an animation or story level and Epic Tails was no different.

Epic Tails aimed to be an animated version of Jason and the Argonauts or Clash of the Titans that could be safe for young children. Epic Tails was a perfectly cute film. Pattie was a likeable character who may be small but made up for it with her brains and determination. Her plans and problem solving save the day and it sets out a positive message that knowledge is just as powerful and physicality. Pattie and Sam were cute characters, especially Pattie as a small mouse. I have a liking for cats, hence my liking for the chonky kitty in Epic Tails.

There was also some fun little moments of physical humour. The best example of this was early on when a group of rats act as ninjas who raid market stalls. A joke I didn’t realise until later in the film was the Mafia Rats because they were based in Syracuse, i.e. Sicily, home of the Mafia.

However, the praise ends here. It was a film where the creators were throwing in ideas to help stretch the film to 90 minutes. Some of this was done to homage classic films based on Greek mythology since adventures hopped from island to island and facing new challenges, but other things were acts of desperation. This was a film that needed to be padded out with gangster rats and a steampunk robot.

The animation wasn’t anything to write home about. The animals were okay but the rest was stiff and unoriginal. Jason and the Argonauts looked like they came from a Clash of Clans advert since their designs were unimaginative and rigid. I couldn’t help but notice how none of the human characters’ hair moved. The designs for some of the creatures were overly simplistic which meant one of two things, the film was made on the cheap or the animators didn’t care. I hope it was the former rather than the latter. It looked like the type of film Sky Cinema would buy instead of being shown in cinemas.

StudioCanal have highlighted its British stars for its British release. It had Rob Beckett, Josh Widdicombe, and Giovanna Fletcher and it sounded like the filmmakers only had them for a day. Their voice performances were unremarkable. It seems like the strategy for Epic Tails is to hire local celebrities to play the Gods, even if sold to other English speaking countries.

Epic Tails is a typical example of a Euro-animation because younger kids will properly be entertained, but audience members are likely to see all of its faults.