- Released: September 24 2010
- Directed by: Zack Snyder
- Running time: 1 h 37 min
- Rating 5/5
Synopsis
After being taken away from his home by the tyrannical Pure Ones, a young barn owl named Soren and his friends go on a journey to find the legendary Guardians of Ga'Hoole, who might be able to put a stop to them.
My Thoughts
Oh, come on, you all knew it would come eventually, seeing how I can’t shut up about this movie for longer than a certain amount of time. Yep, we’re going to take a look at my personal favorite movie. Not just animated movie, just films in general. Let’s dive into Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (what a mouthful). Also, keep in mind I’m judging this for the film alone, and not as an adaptation. I’ve only read the first book in this series.
First things first. Let’s talk about the story. While it’s nothing too unique or original, as it’s really just your general “young hero saves the day”-plot, it is well-executed. It is predictable to an extent, but never boring. You definitely want to see what is going to happen next in the story. So, not the greatest, but for what it is, it’s well done.
The thing everyone talks about with this film is of course the visuals. Because, by God, are they amazing. Okay,first let’s cover the animation. It has held up incredibly well. The movie has this gorgeous semi-realistic style to it. The owls look amazingly expressive and distinct, while also still staying true to their natural designs. Small liberties have been taken, such as certain owl’s sizes or colors, and the barn owls do have different eyes to look more expressive, but it looks simply beautiful. The movements are for the most part really natural-looking. Everything moves as it should. Even the less realistic things, like owls playing an instrument or fighting using weapons, look perfect.
Something else that has to be mentioned is how everything is designed. What is great about this world is that, while the owls are capable of doing and wearing things that are typically considered human (using said weapons, blacksmithing, writing, wearing armor), it is all perfectly designed to fit into owls. Everything is owl-sized and fits with their anatomy. They aren’t given human armor, but instead wear helmets that perfectly fit their faces and, rather than having more human-like weapons, have special tools and arms that go around the talons. Even the smaller things, like dens and environments are perfectly suited to the owls, down to the thrones being decorated perches rather than chairs. The film has a beautiful style which mostly relies on natural shapes, fitting perfectly.
The backgrounds and environments look amazing, too. While nothing looks quite totally photo-realistic, this world looks greatly immersive and like it could exist. Each set looks masterfully designed digitally, with so many tiny details added that it’s just great.
Another visual tidbit I want to touch on is the colors. These are simply amazing, and has some of the best use of colors I’ve seen in any animated movie, with each scene having an unique tone and feel to it, largely simply because of the palettes they chose to use. The harsher and darker browns and grays of the Pure Ones’ canyons are a great contrast to the softer, more soothing and vibrant colors, mostly golds and oranges, we get to experience at the home of the Guardians.
The characters are great, too. Soren is a bit of the everyguy who has the pure heart, but he makes for a great main character as we get to experience this harsh world from his point of view. At first you just hope for him to get back home to his family, but then he ends up playing a much bigger role than anyone could anticipate in the elimination of the Pure Ones. His love for his family members is just really pure, even Kludd, who sides with the villains throughout most of the film. He also has a really sweet friendship with Gylfie. Speaking of her, she’s our secondary protagonist. She’s strong-willed and won’t hesitate to speak her mind, and I like that about her. She has to be one of my favorite characters of this film.
There’s also the rest of the Band: a burrowing owl named Digger, a great gray owl named Twilight that labels himself a “poet-warrior”. The latter two serve as comic reliefs, though Digger is definitely the goofier one of the duo. While I don’t feel quite as much a connection with these characters than I do Soren and Gylfie, they’re still good-characters and never get too obnoxious or tone death in their antics. Twilight, despite his tendency to burst out into (bad) songs and poems, is actually quite an honorable character, even flying among the Guardians in the final attack on the Pure Ones. Some other major good characters we get introduced to are Yzylryb, an old owl and mentor of Soren’s, and Mrs. P., Soren’s nursemaid snake. We also have the many owls at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree, including Otulissa.
Honestly, I feel like she could’ve been written out of the movie. She’s mostly here to be a love-interest to Soren, but she appears in so little scenes and does so little of impact outside of spouting some quick exposition that she might as well not exist. I also feel like honestly a romance arc wasn’t necessary in this story. Ah, well, for what we got, I’m glad it’s as minor as it is, as we really didn’t have the time in this film to develop a deep romance. So having Otulissa just be here in a few scenes as a minor role kinda works, in a way, too.
For our characters on the side of evil we have the Pure Ones. They are led by Surtr, a merciless and tyrannical greater sooty owl who goes by the title of Metal Beak after having lost his in war. While his motivations may not be too clear and he isn’t the most deep villain, for what he is, he does his job extremely well. Not all villains have to have deep and tragic backstories as to what they do. Surtr’s job is to be the ultimate Big Bad, to strike fear into those that oppose him and watch the movie, and he fits the bill for that perfectly. Everything, from his appearance to his voice to his movements, shows how much this isn’t an owl to reckoned with.
For our characters on the side of evil we have the Pure Ones. They are led by Surtr, a merciless and tyrannical greater sooty owl who goes by the title of Metal Beak after having lost his in war. While his motivations may not be too clear and he isn’t the most deep villain, for what he is, he does his job extremely well. Not all villains have to have deep and tragic backstories as to what they do. Surtr’s job is to be the ultimate Big Bad, to strike fear into those that oppose him and watch the movie, and he fits the bill for that perfectly. Everything, from his appearance to his voice to his movements, shows how much this isn’t an owl to reckoned with.
To contrast him and be our secondary villain, we have Queen Nyra. Where Surtr is big and bombastic in every way possible, Nyra is the more subtle and manipulative of the two. Her fighting style even is much quicker and light-winged, rather than relying purely on strength. Nyra might actually have more screen time than Metal Beak, and, honestly, I do not mind. She has such an amazingly intimidating yet also oddly charming and enchanting personality that you definitely want to see more of her. The fact that she even made it out alive of the movie made me regret the fact that we likely will never see her fate.
Thirdly, we have Kludd. It’s interesting to see his development, as he is the villain that has the most depth to him. He starts out in the movie already scoffing at Soren and his ideals, but is then taken in and carefully manipulated by Nyra into finding loyalty to the Pure Ones, to the point Kludd eventually totally identifies as a Pure One soldier and refuses to redeem himself when being given the chance. Even if Kludd’s character already started out as a bully in the movie, it’s still heart-wrenching to see him and Soren be torn apart, especially if you see how much Soren loves his brother despite how he treats him. It’s also really strong to see that the final straw for Soren that gets him to bring down Metal Beak himself is seeing Kludd fall into the flames to his “death”. You just see in Soren’s expression that he hates Metal Beak more than anything, after all the hurt he caused, and how now he made Soren lose his brother. There’s more sub-villains, but these are really the only major ones that matter. And they’re amazing. I could watch these baddies all day. It is also implied that Kludd survived and became the next Metal Beak after Surtr, which is something I really would’ve loved to see in a potential sequel (which we never got so far).
What else is there to talk about? Well, let’s get into the world building. I just love this world in the movie. Owls are the dominant ruling species in this one, and society is really adjusted to this. There are distinct Kingdoms for different types of owl species that fit into each respectively. Like already mentioned earlier, the world is perfectly built around birds, with how they wield tools specifically designed for them. The world also has a fantasy vibe to it, despite it being implied to take place on an alternate version of Australia. The world feels grand and epic, and we get to see many well-designed settings these owls inhabit. A lot still feel unexplored. Not to say that this movie dropped plot points or anything, it’s didn’t. I merely mean that, if there was to be a hypothetical series based on this, or multiple movies, etc., there’d be much more of the Owl Kingdoms to explore than what was shown here. I honestly wish we got to spend more time at some of these places, as we have so many to explore, and only a limited running time.
The soundtrack is amazing. It perfectly feels in tune with this world and the environments and scenes we get to experience. It’s memorable, it grand, it’s epic, it’s soothing. It’s everything it needs to be.
The pacing, for how much it has to convey, also works really well. We have a lot of story to get through in the movie: from Soren and Kludd being snatched and recruited at St. Aggies, to Soren and Gylfie escaping and gathering the band, to the journey to the Ga’Hoole tree, to them training there and preparing for the war, to the grand fight finally happening, to the conclusion of the film where Soren and the Band get promoted to the rank of Guardian. I honestly do not find it to be too rushed. If it had been a movie with more time, I definitely feel like some things could’ve been flashed out more, but, for what they had to work with, they did it well. The one and only scene I feel has no real place in this movie is the one where Soren and Twilight are chilling in a tree with an asleep Digger and Gylfie, while Twilight plays a song on his lute. Nothing happens during this scene, not even character bonding, it’s just a random comedy relief moment for Twilight that brings the movie to a halt. I honestly feel like this scene could have been cut, and we wouldn’t lose anything. This is really the only major criticism I have with the movie, though.
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole is an amazing fantasy epic with good wring, amazing visuals, great characters, an awesome soundtrack, and a rich world. I honestly have a hard time coming up with criticisms for this entire film. I could probably find more flaws in it if I’d read the books, but I never got past the first one, and honest, that’s fine.
Just check this one out already. I cannot recommend it enough, especially if you’re a fan of animal stories, fantasy, animation, or multiple of these. This movie in a way feels like it’s made for me, since it fits perfectly into the nice that I’m the most interested in. I absolutely love it for this. Now, do keep in mind that this isn’t a film for the youngest viewers. There is quite a bit of violence and death in this one. But it never goes over the top dark. There’s enough light-hearted moments to round out the darker ones, and there’s no blood or anything. So, aside frmo that, I highly urge you to check this one out. My no. 1 favorite movie.
What else is there to talk about? Well, let’s get into the world building. I just love this world in the movie. Owls are the dominant ruling species in this one, and society is really adjusted to this. There are distinct Kingdoms for different types of owl species that fit into each respectively. Like already mentioned earlier, the world is perfectly built around birds, with how they wield tools specifically designed for them. The world also has a fantasy vibe to it, despite it being implied to take place on an alternate version of Australia. The world feels grand and epic, and we get to see many well-designed settings these owls inhabit. A lot still feel unexplored. Not to say that this movie dropped plot points or anything, it’s didn’t. I merely mean that, if there was to be a hypothetical series based on this, or multiple movies, etc., there’d be much more of the Owl Kingdoms to explore than what was shown here. I honestly wish we got to spend more time at some of these places, as we have so many to explore, and only a limited running time.
The soundtrack is amazing. It perfectly feels in tune with this world and the environments and scenes we get to experience. It’s memorable, it grand, it’s epic, it’s soothing. It’s everything it needs to be.
The pacing, for how much it has to convey, also works really well. We have a lot of story to get through in the movie: from Soren and Kludd being snatched and recruited at St. Aggies, to Soren and Gylfie escaping and gathering the band, to the journey to the Ga’Hoole tree, to them training there and preparing for the war, to the grand fight finally happening, to the conclusion of the film where Soren and the Band get promoted to the rank of Guardian. I honestly do not find it to be too rushed. If it had been a movie with more time, I definitely feel like some things could’ve been flashed out more, but, for what they had to work with, they did it well. The one and only scene I feel has no real place in this movie is the one where Soren and Twilight are chilling in a tree with an asleep Digger and Gylfie, while Twilight plays a song on his lute. Nothing happens during this scene, not even character bonding, it’s just a random comedy relief moment for Twilight that brings the movie to a halt. I honestly feel like this scene could have been cut, and we wouldn’t lose anything. This is really the only major criticism I have with the movie, though.
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole is an amazing fantasy epic with good wring, amazing visuals, great characters, an awesome soundtrack, and a rich world. I honestly have a hard time coming up with criticisms for this entire film. I could probably find more flaws in it if I’d read the books, but I never got past the first one, and honest, that’s fine.
Just check this one out already. I cannot recommend it enough, especially if you’re a fan of animal stories, fantasy, animation, or multiple of these. This movie in a way feels like it’s made for me, since it fits perfectly into the nice that I’m the most interested in. I absolutely love it for this. Now, do keep in mind that this isn’t a film for the youngest viewers. There is quite a bit of violence and death in this one. But it never goes over the top dark. There’s enough light-hearted moments to round out the darker ones, and there’s no blood or anything. So, aside frmo that, I highly urge you to check this one out. My no. 1 favorite movie.
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