This is a cute animation from France, nice characters and sweet story about friendship and working together.

It's a Greek mythology , Jason and the Argonauts adventure but the heroes are animals, (mostly) in particular a Cat and a Mouse.

When the Gods have a disagreement up in Olympus they play havoc down on earth, Poseidon threatens the seaside town of Yolcos with a tsunami if they don't build a statue honouring him.

Jason is now a bit ancient and the Argonauts are dead but clever little mouse Patti is determined to do her bit to save the town, she is well read on all things Greek mythology and starts the adventure going with a map leading to an island that has a magnificent trident, just what they need for the statue. With the help of some magic and best friend Sam they wake up the Argonauts and set sail on their quest in the refurbished Argo.

There are lots of wonderful animal characters including Ninja Rats and new age giant Scorpions, the baddies are represented by a hoard of Cyclops and their robot, Ray Harryhausen would probably turn in his grave here !?.

The animation quality is superb high resolution detailed CGi for the animals and settings , the human characters are a bit waxy though.

There are lots of nods , homages and music references to other movies , most of which the younger children wouldn't recognise but it was fun for me.

I am not sure if I liked all the voices in this English dubbed version, maybe they could have used actors that could at least do European accents , rather than the British stand up comedians ?

It's mostly aimed at the younger audience who I think would enjoy it.

So, many years after Jason had pinched the Golden Fleece from Colchis, he is now the ageing leader of the happy city of Yolcos and protected by Zeus. When they unveil a rather glittering statue of their patron, this really narks his brother. Poseidon arrives from an ocean maelstrom and promptly threatens them with annihilation unless they build him one too - and it had better have a truly glittering trident, too! The Argonauts are, to be fair, well past their best so it falls to "Pattie" - a rather timid mouse and her orange cat friend "Chickos" to help save the city from oblivion. What ensues here now plays a bit fast and loose with the mythology, but it is still quite en entertaining introduction for youngsters to this fascinating trove of exciting stories and characters. This is a simple story of loyalty and determination tempered with some cyclopses, scorpions, robots, thunderbolts, mythical beasts and it sports plenty of colourful, exciting, escapades and light-heartedness en route to the fairly predictable ending. This is perfectly watchable family fayre that imbues a degree of humanity into just about every creature and easily one you could leave the kids in front of with no fear of anything untoward happening!

Epic Tails is a little silly in its execution and some things fall flat almost from the beginning. Despite that the film is watchable, though I doubt my kids will be requesting it all that often.

I've spent a rather large portion of my life studying classics so I'm always happy to see a new movie about the ancient Mediterranean. Sadly, I don't think Epic Tails is the film to really ignite a passion for the period in children.

The thing that holds it back from being a great movie is the lack of humour, I think. I've just returned from the cinema and there was only one moment when all the kids were laughing out loud. An animated feature like this just needs to be funnier.

The adventure in the story is perfectly adequate and, like I said, the movie is totally watchable. I guess I just wanted it to be something special and it isn't.