I'm a sucker for talking-animal movies, so when I saw advertisements for Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole,
based on the intermediate series about warrior owls, I was intrigued.
I'd seen the books but had never read them, and I thought this might
serve as a good introduction to that world. Now that I've watched it, my
interest in the books has dwindled. Granted, it's generally not a good
idea to judge a book by its film adaptation, and I do get the sense that
this story would work better on paper. But I can't say the plot really
grabbed me either.
Legend of the Guardians is a
computer-animated movie directed by Zack Snyder and starring a host of
voice actors from England, Australia and New Zealand. Some of them, like
Helen Mirren, Hugo Weaving, David Wenham, Anthony LaPaglia and Sam
Neill, are familiar to me; most aren't. All of the characters, aside
from a peculiar snake who serves as a nursemaid to the family of Soren
(Jim Sturgess), are owls, and all of them have unusual names, and all
those accents sort of blended together for me and I had a rather hard
time telling everyone apart. My favorite characters are Digger (Wenham)
and Twilight (LaPaglia), who basically serve as comic relief, which is
sorely needed in this dark and sometimes disturbing movie.
The
animation, while perhaps not quite at a Pixar level, is very well done,
particularly when it comes to the backgrounds. The enormous Tree of
Ga'Hoole, where the legendary Guardians live, is breathtakingly
gorgeous, and some of the scenes of the owls in flight are as well.
There's a Tolkienish quality to the film, with the Guardians whom Soren
seeks light-bathed, ethereal and reminiscent of the Elves. Meanwhile,
the evil owls from whom the kidnapped Soren escapes reside in a
stronghold reminding me of Saruman's fortress of Isengard. Here, the
cruel Pure Ones, led by Metalbeak (Joel Edgerton) and Nyra (Mirren),
forge weapons and build an army out of abducted owlings brainwashed into
obedience.
It's a pretty basic quest story, with Soren,
having been taken by the Pure Ones, making his escape with some help
from the grizzled Grimble (Weaving), who assures him that the legends
he's heard about the Guardians are true, that they really do exist and
he must go to them for help before Metalbeak's rise to power is
complete. Undertaking this mission involves a leap of faith, as Soren
must decide whether to believe Grimble or his own brother, Kludd (Ryan
Kwanten), who says it's a load of hogwash. But Kludd has chosen to ally
himself with Nyra, and he and Soren never saw eye to eye anyway, so the
budding hero makes his choice, laying the groundwork for a future
showdown with his hard-hearted sibling, who later uses their little
sister as a means of gaining greater rank within the Pure army.
It's a simple story, but I found it hard to stay engaged with it. My
mind kept wandering, and the oppressive feel of the film didn't help.
While there's nothing too graphic, the movie is certainly violent, and
the depiction of the brainwashing of the young abductees is just plain
creepy. It's dark, and frankly, it's also dull more often than not. At
more than an hour and a half in length, it's on the long side for an
animated film, and the length doesn't do it any favors. I also found the
use of pop music rather incongruous and distracting (though I have to
smile that one of the included songs is by Owl City).
I like
the epic feel of the movie and the way it explores ideas about faith and
about the boundaries between legend and reality. Parts of it are
visually dazzling, and some of the banter between Digger and Twilight is
pretty funny. The voice work is fine as well, with Weaving, Wenham,
LaPaglia and a bone-chilling Mirren standing out the most. But I
wouldn't watch it again, and if a sequel comes out, as the film's
conclusion suggests may be the case, I think I'll give it a pass.
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