Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (***)
Directed by: Zack Snyder
Starring (Voices): Jim Sturgess, Geoffrey Rush, Emily Barclay,
Ryan Kwanten, Anthony LaPaglia, David Wenham, Helen Mirren, Sam Neill, Hugo
Weaving, Abbie Cornish
Seen: September 24th 2010
*** Out of ****
As far as animated kid’s adventure movies go, Legend of the
Guardians is one of the better and more entertaining ones I’ve seen. Based on
The Guardians of Ga’Hoole by Kathryn Klasky, the story tells of a small family
of owls who live on their own with two sons; Soren (Sturgiss) and Kludd
(Kwanten). Soren is the idealistic one with dreams of heroes of old and a sense
of purpose tied closely to this. Kludd is the more practical and jealous
brother, he believes Soren is worse off for his dreams and ambitions, and is
jealous of the attention Soren gets for what he is.
One evening, when the two brothers venture out of the nest
without being able to fly, they end up on the forest floor, and they are saved
from what looks to be a Tasmanian Devil by two Long Eared Owls, Jatt and Jutt. Their
two saviours turn out to be kidnappers, as they take Soren and Kludd to the
lair of the Pure Ones, a faction of Owls who are anything but pure, and who is
led by Metalbeak, an Owl who wants to take down the Guardians, among whom are
Lyze of Kiel, the owl who cost him his natural beak, with a cunning plan. When Soren
defends one of his captive friends, the diminutive Gylfie (Barclay) from Nyra
(Mirren), Metalbeak’s mistress, he is assigned to picking duty, while Kludd is
assigned to the soldiers, where he grows into a powerful young owl.
Soren and Gylfie manage to escape, and with the help of two
colourful friends, Digger (Wenham) and Twilight (LaPaglia) they eventually find
the Guardians – much to Soren’s surprise and delight – whom they inform of the Pure Ones’ evil plan. The
owls ready themselves for battle, and both groups have more tricks up their
sleeves than one might think. Soren goes through a few training exercises, some
of them under Ezylryb (Rush), whom Soren eventually recognises as Lyze of Kiel,
a legendary warrior who fought in The Battle of the Ice Claws, one of Soren’s
favourite legendary stories as told to him by his father Noctus (Weaving, in
one of two roles).
The battles between the two Owl-factions become rather
intense, and I daresay that this movie is the closest any animated movie has
ever come to something in the vein of a Gladiator or Braveheart in its sense of
presenting battle and honour in battle. Director Zack Snyder, who previously
made such brilliant children-not-permitted fare as Dawn of the Dead, 300, and
Watchmen, crafts something beautiful here, and his fingerprints are evident all
over this movie, as fights between owls and other action sequences have
flurries of momentarily sped-up action leading directly into beautifully
crafted slow-motion shots. The animation in this movie is gorgeous and the attention
to detail is praiseworthy, as I could at all times see individual feathers on
the owls moving and being blown by the wind.
I found myself almost slack-jawed at regular intervals at
the coolness and brash beauty of the animation being presented in seamless and
(I’m still mostly opposed to it, but…) eye-popping 3D. Legend of the Guardians
is a great family movie presented with flair and a lack of fear in children’s
animation I haven’t seen in some time, as violence (still cartoon violence) is
not necessarily shied away from, but shown – children needn’t be coddled into a
false sense of peace when it has to be fought for at every turn in life. Legend
of the Guardians is a pleasant surprise from the same studio that brought the
terribly realised Happy Feet to the screen: this one has the animation as well
as the story behind it to satisfy most viewers with a great story of loyalty
and heroism and I’d recommend it to anyone.
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