Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010)

I was in the mood for a lighter film today, perhaps an adventure, so I picked Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole. I remember it having very mixed reviews, some people finding it a fun family film, while it just didn't work for others. All I remember from the trailers is being impressed with the CG work on the big screen. I had considered going to see it, but I couldn't convince anyone to go see a bunch of owls in armour with me. I set that straight today. Find out which side of the fence I found myself on after the jump!


I'm not sure if I can clarify the story anymore than any of the trailers did. It's your basic good vs. evil story where the youngsters go out on adventure and it turns out all the myths and legends were true and all their heroes are real. The only difference here is that all the characters are owls. We follow Soren as he learns to fly, goes on adventures, meets new friends, and helps save the day. Basically it's got everything you'd expect from a by-the-numbers adventure movie. But don't write it off quite yet.

The graphics in this movie are stunning. There's no better word for it. The detail, the animation, the scope and scale of everything in the movie is wonderful to behold. There's some really great shots like when Soren learns to fly in difficult conditions and he uses his instincts to navigate the air currents in a monsoon. Often the action slows and this is when you really get to see all the great detail in the owls, like their feathers as drops of water splash across them in slow motion. It's actually really clear that it was directed by Zack Snyder, who also directed 300.

Characters like Digger are full of life and great fun to watch

A movie needs more than just beautiful graphics though to make you care about it, and in a movie like this, you need great characters. I really did like a lot of the characters. Digger and Gylfie in particular were my favorites. The problem is, that Soren, the main character and protagonist of the film, was not one of my favorites. In fact, he was down right boring to watch. A lot of the side characters and enemies were interesting, but it's hard to connect to the story when the main character simply isn't. Another problem I had with the characters were their names. I've had a hell of a time just writing this one paragraph simply because I can't remember any of their names. Another one of my favorite characters took forever to find because his name is Ezylryb. What the hell is with that name?! Looking at the character list on IMDB is like reading another language. I really had no idea who most of the characters were name-wise for most of the film.

The bad guys are cool, especially that lady owl at the front (what was her name?) but why do their eyes glow red?

What really matters the most though is the heart of the adventure. I wanted to see this movie because I like fantasy films and the wild locals and exotic other-worldly places you get to see in addition to exciting action set-pieces. All of that is in full effect here just how I had hoped. The bad guys live in a cool elaborate cave system with crazy visible magnetic fields everywhere. Why are they visible? Well they wouldn't be very exciting if they were invisible. Besides, it's a movie about talking owls in armour, I think I can let that slide. The Guardians live in a sweet giant tree in the middle of the ocean surrounded by pits of fire (to keep it warm I guess). None of the locations make any sense, but that's just the way I like it! I also liked that they seemed full of life and fully populated, particularly the Great Tree.

Fantastic graphics make the babies look particularly fluffy

I thought the action was good, and the armour and weapons the owls use were cool. It really seemed like an all out war at the end and was very cool to see. My problem with the ending came from a key moment and the fact that I was supposed to really care about Soren by now, but I really didn't. I'm still not sure if it's just because of him though, or if I just wasn't able to make an emotional connection of significant importance with the characters because they were owls. They really weren't anthropomorphised much at all and so they looked like real owls for the most part. I thought they were cute or cool sometimes, but I just couldn't connect with them, or at least not with Soren like I think I was supposed to.

Besides a slightly weak ending for me personally, I thought the movie was quite good. The adventure and fantasy aspects were strong and I had fun with them. The graphics were amazing, and it had a lot of good characters whose names I couldn't remember, but they were at least distinct enough that I always recognized them. The family drama with Soren, and Soren himself could have been better, so that could be a weak point for some, but overall I can easily say that I enjoyed it and I could easily recommend it. Well, so long as you can get past the fact that they're all owls. On the other hand, if you love owls, why haven't you already seen this movie?