Owls
are kinda nasty. I’m putting that out there right now. Beautiful,
graceful and mysterious, yes, but also kinda nasty. In one of our
earliest scenes in Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, a
field mouse is minding its own business, taking the night air, when
silently out of the clear midnight blue sky, the moonlight flashes off a
pair of talons and the mouse has ceased to be. It’s now a meal for a
winged predator and his family. Unfortunately, we’ll be seeing the
mouse again.
Based on the successful Scholastic series of books by author Kathryn
Lasky, Legend of the Guardians gets underway after that sad farewell to
the rodent with scenes of domestic tranquility inside an owl’s nest. We
meet Soren, his brother Kludd, baby sister Eglantine and their loving
parents. Soren is every feather a dreamer and he regales his little sis
with stories of the legendary Guardians who fought the evil Metal Beak
and his band of Pure Ones for the freedom of the owl world. His dearest
wish is to one day fly to the mythical Great Ga’Hoole Tree and become a
Guardian. Kludd sneers at his brother’s fancies but envies Soren’s
superior skills as their father trains his two young owlets to fly.
Kludd’s impulsive act of jealousy finds the brothers hurtling out of the
safety of their nest and on the ground; the worst place for any owl to
be, exposed to predators of every kind -- even their own kind. The
siblings are saved from the jaws of sure death to face a possibly worse
fate as a gang of marauding owls kidnap the pair to serve as slaves
under Metal Beak and his queen, Nyra. The evil twosome are collecting a
special magnetic metal (- from regurgitated owl pellets!) that
when combined will create a weapon that will control all of owlkind.
The brave Soren, now joined by the tiny, feisty Gylfie, quickly plots an
escape, but finds his brother less than excited at the prospect of
leaving. Grimble, a kindly old owl whose family was stolen by Nyra,
helps the two new friends find their way out of the terrible slave pit
and sets them on the path to find the Guardians so they can put a stop
to the rule of Metal Beak and the “Pure Ones” once and for all.
Exciting and exuberant, Legend of the Guardians is a great piece of
animation. Writers John Orloff and John Collee craft characters we care
about and whose personalities shine through the restricted range of
emotion the owls’ faces can display. Known as the deadliest hunters in
the avian world, we revel in the power and beauty of owl flight and the
film’s 3D technology is shown at its best, as the owls swoop through
freezing torrential rainstorms and spiral through midair battles. As
might be expected of the director of 2007’s action zeitgeist
300, Zack
Snyder brings a high level of intensity to the film’s battle scenes,
which are often downright scary with the owls going to war in
frightening helmets and deadly sharpened metal claws tied to their own
talons. I wondered how many children wouldn’t be startled by the
realism of the birds’ features, which even in repose can look very
forbidding. Snyder’s owls are only sporadically cute as he opts for
more realism in their design than sweetness. The whole movie is a dark
affair not only because of the nocturnal habits of its main characters
but its tone is quite grave despite ultimately being the story of a boy
reaching his dream. The lesson of Soren’s completed quest to meet the
Guardians he fantasised about for so long is be careful what you wish
for. The brutal reality of war isn’t anything at all like Soren’s
innocent, happy daydreams back home in his tree. One must wonder if
Snyder consciously chose to make the film as intense as it is expecting
more out of his younger audience than many other filmmakers might, or is
it a miscalculation? I think it works; I’ve never been one for coddling
the kiddies overmuch and Snyder is judicious in showing no bloodshed and
not dwelling too long on heavier action, yet he never dumbs down his
film and that’s to be admired. What may not be so admirable are the
zillion other literary and cinematic references saturating Legend of the
Guardians. I defy anyone to see this film and not walk out with Howard
Shore’s Lord of the Rings score in their head. So much of our premise
and characters are cribbed from Tolkien one wonders where the royalties
go? Metal Beak wears what looks like a bird version of Sauron’s iconic
mask and hovers on a high cliff overlooking his minions down the
mountain working to complete his weapon. His mate, Nyra is an evil
feathered fiend version of the beautiful and terrible Galadriel and the
snowy white king and queen of the Guardians are very like Elf royalty.
Heck, Elrond himself, Hugo Weaving, plays Soren’s dad and David Wenham,
Lord of the Ring’s Faramir, plays our twitchy comic relief, Digger, the
burrowing owl. As for other references, Geoffrey Rush’s crusty one-eyed
Ezylryb, Soren’s great hero, is a wizened eccentric along the lines of
Star Wars’ Yoda and the entire island of the Ga’Hoole tree must be
located off the coast of Avatar’s Pandora. It’s even got luminous
jellyfish floating through its outsized twisty limbs. Will the kids
mind this unsubtle mishmash of pop culture potpourri? Not a lick and
neither will their parents and that’s mostly due to the amazing airborne
action and to the carefully crafted characters. Jim Sturgess plays
bright and naïve as our young hero, Soren, who takes the journey from
wobbly-winged owlet to battle-ready hero in mere days. Helen Mirren as
the slinky, wicked, sharp-eyed bride of Metal Beak is every inch as
terrifying as her spouse. Anthony LaPaglia is a hoot (All pun
intended) as Twilight, a warrior owl who would rather spend his days
singing his awful poetry very badly to any willing victims and quite a
few unwilling ones. All the actors sink perfectly into their animated
counterparts, making the audience’s connection with the characters that
much more seamless.
Packed with thrills and excitement for the entire family, Legend of the
Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole is one of the most entertaining films of
the year. It’s so good, you’ll hardly mind the mouse pellets.
~ The Lady Miz Diva
Sept. 24th 2010
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