Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls Of Ga'Hoole
Theatrical Release Poster
Directed by	Zack Snyder
Produced by	Zareh Nalbandian
Screenplay by	John Orloff John Collee
Based on	Guardians of Ga'Hoole
Starring	Jim Sturgess Geoffrey Rush Emily Barclay Anthony LaPaglia Joel Edgerton David Wenham Ryan Kwanten Helen Mirren Sam Neill Hugo Weaving Miriam Margoyles
Music by	David Hirschfelder and Adam Young (Owl City)
Editing by	David Burrows
Studio	Village Roadshow Pictures Animal Logic Cruel and Unusual Films
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	September 24, 2010 (2010-09-24) (North America) September 30, 2010 (2010-09-30) (Australia)
Running time	97 minutes
Country	Australia
Language	English
Budget	$80 million
Box office	$140,073,390

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole is a 2010 American-Australian computer-animated fantasy film based on the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series by Kathryn Lasky. Zack Snyder directed the film, with Jim Sturgess, Geoffrey Rush, Emily Barclay, Helen Mirren, Ryan Kwanten, Anthony LaPaglia, and David Wenham voicing the characters.

Warner Bros. distributed the film with the Australian companies Village Roadshow Pictures and Animal Logic, the latter having produced visual effects for Happy Feet. Production took place in Australia, and the film was released in RealD 3D and IMAX 3D on September 24, 2010.

Plot

Soren (Jim Sturgess), a young barn owl, lives in the forest of Tyto with his family: his father, Noctus (Hugo Weaving); his mother, Marella (Essie Davis); his older brother, Kludd (Ryan Kwanten); his younger sister, Eglantine (Adrienne DeFaria); and Ms. Plithiver, (Ms. P.) the family's nest maid, a kindly snake. Soren enjoys listening to the 'Legends of Ga'Hoole,' which are mythical tales of warrior owls. In jealousy of Soren's flight talent one day, Kludd pushes him off a branch, but inadvertently falling himself as well. On the ground, being flightless, they are attacked by a tasmanian devil, but are kidnapped by owls, Jatt and Jutt, during the attack.

As the owls take them to St. Aegolious, the canyonland home to the Pure Ones, Soren meets Gylfie, a young elf owl as well as many other young owls who have not yet fledged. At St. Aegolious, the second-in-command of the Pure Ones, Nyra, begins to say that the young owls are their slaves. When Soren and Gylfie protest, the two are punished as 'pickers.' Kludd, who openly rejected Soren, then comes to be a soldier to the Pure Ones. Grimble, the captor of Gylfie, secretly tells them that he is disloyal to the Pure Ones and manages to teach them to fly. However, Nyra soon catches them just as they are about to fly away. Grimble then sacrifices himself to allow the owls to fly away seeking the 'Great Ga'Hoole Tree.' To warn the mythical Guardians about the Pure Ones plan against them.

Along the journey, they meet Twilight, a Great Grey owl and Digger, a Burrowing owl. They also find Mrs. P, Soren's nest maid, who had left the family nest in search of Soren and Kludd.

The owls carrying the snake are guided to a shrine run by an oracular echidna, spiny anteater, who provides comic, but accurate descriptions of the party and guidance to the object of their quest. Despite a fierce storm, assisted by the Guardians the party manages to reach the Great Tree, where they are trained in different chaws, or classes. The Parliament of the tree listens intently to the Band's story. One owl, Allomere, a Great Grey, objects the story; however, another owl, a Whiskered Screech Owl named Eyzlryb, supports it.

Allomere returns from a scouting mission from St. Aegolious with news that scouts were killed in an ambush by the Pure Ones. He had brought to the tree 2 moon-blinked, entranced, owlets, one of which is Soren's sister, Eglantine. Angered, the Guardians invade St. Aegolious. Soren manages to break her trance and Eglantine reveals that Kludd had kidnapped her and given her to Allomere. Shocked by this deception, the original band quickly flies to the Guardians' aid. Allomere's treason had led them into a trap. The Guardians have been physically and mentally paralyzed by a mind and gizzard-destroying 'flecks' operated by bats and made of metal bits gleaned by the enslaved 'Pickers' in the months before.

Soren manages to disable the flecks and is confronted by Kludd, who leads the battle into a forest fire. Soren dodges Kludd's attack and tries to save his brother before Kludd accidentally falls into the forest fire. Furious, Soren returns to the Guardian's aid, and hurts Metal Beak, the leader of the Pure Ones, badly. However, Metal Beak descends and is about to kill Soren when the younger owl manages to impale the enemy leader on a burning stick from the fire. Nyra calls the attack to a retreat and Soren returns to his tree to meet Eglantine and his parents and are honored as Guardians of Ga'Hoole.

Cast

• Jim Sturgess as Soren, Noctus and Marcella's second child and son, Kludd's younger brother, Eglantine's older brother and leader of the "Band".
• Emily Barclay as Gylfie, Soren's best friend and navigator of the "Band".
• David Wenham as Digger, Twilight's best friend and tracker of the "Band".
• Anthony La Paglia as Twilight, Digger's best friend and warrior of the "Band".
• Joel Edgerton as Metal Beak, leader of the Pure Ones and Nyra's husband. He wears a helmet over his head, to hide his missing beak, which was cut off by Ezylryb.
• Helen Mirren as Nyra, Metal Beak's second-in-command and wife.
• Ryan Kwanten as Kludd, Noctus and Marcella's oldest child and son, Soren and Eglantine's older brother and an eventual member of the Pure Ones.
• Adrienne DeFaria as Eglantine, Noctus and Marcella's youngest child and daughter and Soren and Kludd's younger sister.
• Abbie Cornish as Otulissa, a Short-eared Owl, an aspiring navigator.
• Hugo Weaving as Noctus, Marella's husband and Soren, Kludd and Eglantine's father and Grimble, an owl who was captured by the Pure Ones and works for them only under duress.
• Essie Davis as Marella—Noctus' wife and Soren, Kludd and Eglantine's mother.
• Leigh Whannell as Jatt, member of St Aegolius.
• Angus Sampson as Jutt, member of St Aegolius.
• Miriam Margolyes as Mrs Plithiver, Soren, Kludd and Eglantine's nursemaid.
• Barry Otto as The Enchidna, a mystic.
• Richard Roxburgh as Boron, leader of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole and husband of Barran.
• Deborra-Lee Furness as Barran, Boron's second-in-command and wife.
• Geoffrey Rush as Ezylryb, a mentor at the Great Tree and legendary warrior.
• Sam Neill as Allomere, member of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole spying for the Pure Ones.
• Sacha Horler as Strix Struma, member of the Great Ga'Hoole Tree.
• Bill Hunter as Bubo, blacksmith of the Great Ga'Hoole Tree.

Production

Warner Bros. acquired film rights to the book series Guardians of Ga'Hoole by Kathryn Lasky in June 2005. The studio planned to produce the series as a computer-generated animated film under producer Donald De Line with Lasky writing the adapted screenplay. In April 2008, the project was under Village Roadshow with Zack Snyder attached to direct and Zareh Nalbandian producing. A new screenplay was written by John Orloff and Emil Stern. Production began in Australia in February 2009. The film was developed by the digital visual effects company Animal Logic, following its success with the 2006 film Happy Feet. It features a song by Owl City "To the Sky". Along with the film was an all new 3D Looney Tunes cartoon entitled "Fur of Flying".

Reception

Critical Reception

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole has received mixed reviews from critics. The film's photorealistic visual animation, voice acting, cinematography and 3D effects were praised, while criticism was directed towards the film's character development and adapted plot, which were seen as 'esoteric' and 'predictable'. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 51% of 116 sampled critics gave the film positive reviews and that it received a rating average of 5.6 out of 10. It reported the critics' consensus as "Legend of the Guardians' dark tone and dazzling visuals are to be admired, even if they're ultimately let down by a story that never lives up to its full potential."

Box office

In the USA it took in only $4.5 million on opening day, ranking third at the box office in the USA. It ranked second on Saturday, earning $6 million, and was No. 1 on Sunday, earning $4.6 million (USA). Overall, it earned $16,112,211 on its opening weekend, reaching second place at the box office behind Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps in America. This makes "Legend of the Guardians" Zach Snyder's first film not to reach No. 1 on its opening weekend in the USA; overall a disappointing start, only earning a fraction of this year's animation line-up and more in line with Warner Bros. other 2010 family films Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore and Yogi Bear. In its second weekend, the film held very well, slipping only 32% to $10,887,543 and holding onto second place, this time behind The Social Network, claiming the title of the biggest second-weekend hold for an animated feature in 2010. The film ended its run in February 2011 with a $55.6 million domestic (USA) gross, making it a disappointment and only ranking as the sixth highest-grossing animated feature for the year. However, in the wider market, it was a major success, grossing over $84 million from its international release, bringing the total up to $140 million.

Awards and Nominations

Group	Category	Recipient	Result
38th Annie Awards	Animated Effects in an Animated Production	Sebastian Quessy	Nominated
	Music in a Feature Production	David Hirschfelder	Nominated
	Production Design in a Feature Production	Dan Hee Ryu	Nominated
	Voice Acting in a Feature Production	Geoffrey Rush	Nominated
Satellite Awards	Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed Media		Nominated
Saturn Awards	Best Animated Film		Nominated
AACTA Awards	AACTA Award for Best Visual Effects	Grant Freckelton	Won

Snippets of the film were shown when the company behind the animation, Animal Logic won the Byron Kennardy Award.

Soundtrack

Main article: Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (soundtrack)

WaterTower Music released the film's official soundtrack on September 21, 2010.

Video game

Main article: Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (video game)

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment released a game based on the film, as well as including some elements from the books, for the Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo DS platforms on September 14, 2010. The game was developed by Krome Studios for Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 with the Nintendo DS version developed by Tantalus Media.

External links

• Official website
• Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole at the Internet Movie Database
• Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole at Rotten Tomatoes
• Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole at Metacritic
• Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole at Box Office Mojo