August 22, 2013 -- I finally got around to seeing this when it came around to a second-run theater in town this week. It is better than I expected it to be, despite the fact that it got fairly good reviews. You never know with these animated films.

This is a story about a lonely scientist, professor Bomba, who believes there are tiny people living in the woods near his house. He keeps trying to capture pictures of them with remote controlled cameras. Shunned by the scientific community and estranged from his family, he is visited one day by his daughter, Mary Katherine or M.K., as she likes to be called. M.K. tries to get him to abandon his research.

Of course it turns out that professor Bomba was right all along. M.K. is shrunk to a tiny size by a magic spell and gets caught up in a war going on in the nearby forest between tiny beings. The war is between the forces of growth, headed up by Queen Tara, leader of the greens, and the forces of decay, called Boggans, led by the evil Mandrake. The Boggans kill the queen, but not before she has blessed a pod which will bloom into a new queen to lead the forces of growth. The queen entrusts the pod, and the future of the forest to M.K. and her brave general, Ronin.

Ronin and the other greenleaf soldiers ride on hummingbirds and fight with bows and arrows. The Boggans ride on bats and have their own bows and arrows. Mandrake has evil magic powers, as does the green queen. He intends to control the magic pod. He can use it to control the forest so it can never grow back. Ronin, M.K. and Nod, an unconventional greenleaf soldier, are determined to get the pod to a sacred place where it can bloom at the midnight hour in the full moon's light and restore the forest to balance.

The story has a nice combination of reconciliation, drama and humor. There are some very funny jokes and pratfalls in the film. The kids in the audience laughed at the jokes aimed at them, but this film works on an adult level as well. I saw this in a 2D presentation. It is also shown in 3D. The animation is good with some beautiful scenes and some point-of-view action. The voice cast has a number of well-known actors, including Colin Farrell as Ronin, Josh Hutcherson as Nod and Amanda Seyfried as M.K. This film rates a B.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

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Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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