Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole is a coming of age film. Two brother barn owls named Soren and Kludd (brothers) get caught up with an evil brood of owls (aptly named the Pure Ones) planning some sort of great destruction. Soren barely escapes to go find help. Regretfully, his brother isn’t so lucky and chooses (by his own will) to stay behind with the evil side. Thinking his plight is quite hopeless, Kludd dismisses his brother and begins to work with the evil birds in helping to take over the world. Regretfully for Kludd, Soren actually finds his way, thanks to some extra owl friends, to the Guardians and gives them information about the impending doom the Pure Ones might have already begun to set on the world.
I will stop there so that you can see the rest yourself.
I didn’t know what to think of Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole. The review for the theatrical release was mixed at best. Some people really appreciated the story that Snyder wove together, while others praised more of the animation and 3D in the film. Both seemed to never work together in the reviews that I read. So what did I think? Well, I think the animation was out of this world gorgeous. In comparison to other films of this type there isn’t a lot out there that can touch the look and feel of Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole. Seeing the individual movements of the feathers and the reaction of the elements with the owls was unbelievably detailed. The first time around I thought the animation was stunning. The second time around with this movie and I simply couldn’t believe that this movie wasn’t made by Pixar; it was just that good.
What’s even better is how the owls looked unique from each other. The animators did a great job of personalizing the characters. Lyze was an old worn owl that had been through wars. His feathers were ruffled and kind of wildly spread about. It would be like if you woke up in the morning and didn’t come your long hair (for those of you lucky enough with long hair). Lyze looked beaten and brutal, but war torn and still spunky. It was a perfect look for the character. Another good example is the difference between the brothers, Soren and Kludd. Soren looked like the ‘fresh meat’ of the owl class; beautiful, honorable and untested. His brother looked the same way, though the animators gave a hint of red and a nice Stripes’ (from Gremlins) mini-mohawk for ‘evil’ personality. It was all very detailed, all very great.
Now, animation aside the story did seem just a tad rushed. It wasn’t like The Golden Compass, which was very rushed — though still fun to watch. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole did its best to explain the story in a short amount of time without giving too much of an explanation and boring the viewer to death. That’s the problem with converting a book to screen, you not only have to decided what you want to cut out of the story, but you have to make the leftovers work together seamlessly (which is a heck of a job). Snyder and crew did their best and what you get from the story is a series of plot points that go together, but they don’t have enough padding in between to make it all seem satisfying. At the end you’ll enjoy the trip, but deep down in your heart you will know there could have been more.
In the end, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole is a good film, but nothing more than that. You’ll die looking at the pretty eye-candy, but you’ll really want a bit more story to go with it.
As for the Blu-ray portion of this film all I can say is that it was made for kids. I’m not being condescending about that, as I’m extremely impressed with the amount of ‘owl’ information that was packed into the Blu-ray. I sat down and played a wonderful ‘match game’ with my kids (who received Memory for Christmas — the game, not actual memory). We also went through a wonderful information segment called ‘True Guardians of the Earth’ where Modern Family‘s Rico Rodrigues and Digger the owl kind of go through gobs and gobs of great info about owls. There was also a feature called ‘WB Maximum Kid Mode’ which is sort of like a nice picture-in-picture info box as the movie moves along. I admit that I didn’t pay much attention the picture, as information from the animators, actors and director filled the screen. It was quite cool. Other things offered were artwork galleries and a music video. You also get a very short Looney Tunes cartoon (made for 3D — best if you have a 3D television for this one) called ‘Fur of Flying’.
Anyway, I was really impressed and intrigued with the features, as they complimented the film quite beautifully. It made me want to pet an owl, but not catch one of their pellets (eww).
Finally, as for the picture and audio quality…
The visuals were already gorgeous, but the transfer and upgrade to HD made the experience even better. While it didn’t improve the story, it will make you quite happy that you own a 1080p set. For example, when you see Soren flying through a thunderstorm with Lyze and his gizzard guides him through the rain perfectly then you’ll fully appreciate how gorgeous this looks on Blu-ray. Now, not to be outdone the audio comes in at DTS-HD and it sounds just as good as the visuals look. You’ll hear all the creepy clanging of the claws, the screeching of the owls and all the wonderful flapping of bat wings that you can stand. It’s truly good stuff.