LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS: THE OWLS OF GA'HOOLE
5 out of 5 stars

are you really that surprised that i, jinalee, lover of owls and rice university grad, would rate this less than a 5? of course not! plus what a visually striking movie with a great storyline about good vs. evil owls! it’s about OWLS, dammit... what is there not to like about this?! :P


so, you’re asking what makes this a great story? well, i will tell ya... this one starts out with idealistic dreamer soren, who is a tyto owl, beautiful with his chestnut and white feathers living with his family in the forest. he dreams of becoming a guardian someday, which we learn that there’s a group of owls living in the great tree and keepers of the peace among all the different owl kingdoms. soren has a brother kludd and sister named eglantine, and one night while their parents are out hunting for food, soren and kludd decide to practice their “branching” skills, which is to fly from branch to branch since they are just young owls. (AKA owlets! isn’t that a cute name?) they fall to the ground, and suddenly they’re both snatched up by these horned owls that take them to the evil metalbeak’s orphanage called st. aggie’s, run by metalbeak’s wife nyra. there, soren literally takes a small elf owl named gylfie under his wing, and finds that st. aggie’s is nothing but a prison for young and kidnapped owls. an old owl named grimble decides to help soren and gylfie by teaching them to fly, so they can alert the guardians about metalbeak and the pure ones’ plans for owl kingdom domination! of course, along their way, soren and gylfie befriend the lute-playing “poet warrior” owl twilight, a twitchy digger owl appropriately named digger, and very random...the pink snake housekeeper/nursemaid mrs. p! (LOL why a snake was chosen to be a nursemaid for owls...i will never know)

LOL i think a lot of people would think of this as the owl version of 300, which the fight sequences definitely reminisce of, but overall, the graphics/animation of this movie is truly beautiful. the flight sequences are done well, the script is funny and very cute, and great voice talent casting! you can’t go wrong with helen mirren, geoffrey rush, jim sturgess, hugo weaving, and sam neill! there’s a lot of great personalities among the different species of owls, and you really become a part of their world. i think the creators of this movie truly had fun designing all aspects, and you can really see that in the final product. BTW...for those who doubt that the great owl can’t be ferocious, take a closer look @ metalbeak, then tell me what’s so cuddly/cute about him... :P

p.s. i could have done it w/o the owl city song in one of the scenes...please save that shit for later or until after the movie! other than that, even the music was appropriately done with that LOTR style singing. ;)