Because you loved seeing Josh Hutcherson fight off bad guys in a forest setting for "The Hunger Games," he's going back into the woods, only this time he's animated.
The Hutch came on "Good Morning America" today to introduce the trailer for a very aptly named "Epic," the latest effort from the CGI wizards at Blue Sky Studios and director Chris Wedge, which will likely be attached to July 13's "Ice Age: Continental Drift."
Virtually dialogue-free, the trailer is set to the haunting chords of "What If This Storm Ends?," by Snow Patrol, and ushers us into an exotic fantasy world with creatures derived from leaves, dandelions and tiny warriors who ride on saddles atop hummingbirds. They're fighting a battle of good against evil with the help of a teenage girl from our world.
Of course we say "virtually" free of a dialogue, as there is a hilarious tag at the end with "Parks and Recreation" funnyman Aziz Ansari breaking the tension as a comic relief snail.
Besides Hutcherson and Ansari, "Epic" features the vocal talents of Beyoncé Knowles, Colin Farrell, Amanda Seyfried and Steven Tyler as someone named Nim Galuu.
We know the story was siphoned from a good source, "The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs" by William Joyce, Academy Award-winning co-director of "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore" and co-director of Dreamworks' upcoming "Rise of the Guardians." He has previously worked with Wedge on "Robots" in 2005.
BONUS FACT! When Wedge first proposed the film to 20th Century Fox, they passed on it, but when he had nearly closed a deal to make "Epic" at Pixar, Fox suddenly had a change of heart.
