Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
File:Legend of the Guardians Poster.jpg Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Zack Snyder
Screenplay by	John Orloff John Collee
Produced by	Zareh Nalbandian
Starring	Jim Sturgess Geoffrey Rush Emily Barclay Anthony LaPaglia David Wenham Ryan Kwanten Helen Mirren Sam Neill Hugo Weaving
Edited by	David Burrows
Music by	David Hirschfelder
Production companies	Village Roadshow Pictures Animal Logic Cruel and Unusual Films
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release dates	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 first three books of 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 fledgling Barn Owl, lives peacefully in the forest of Tyto with his family. His father, Noctus (Hugo Weaving), his mother Marella (Essie Davis), his older brother Kludd (Ryan Kwanten)and his younger sister Eglantine (Adrienne DeFaria). Noctus enjoys telling Soren and Eglantine stories of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole, a mythical group of warrior owls, who once saved all owlkind from the evil "Pure Ones" in a great battle in which the Guardians' leader, Lyze of Kiel, defeated the Pure Ones' leader Metal Beak. Kludd, however, calls Soren soft-headed for believing in such stories. One night, while branching, a jealous Kludd pushes Soren and loses his balance in the process, and they both fall to the ground below. They are attacked by a Tasmanian devil but are saved and also kidnapped by a pair of Long-Eared Owls, Jatt (Leigh Whannell) and Jutt (Angus Sampson).

They are taken to St. Aegolious, home of the Pure Ones, where Soren meets captive Elf Owl Gylfie Emily Barclay, and her captor, Boreal Owl Grimble (also played by Weaving). The two are roughly thrown into a crowd of other kidnapped owlets. Nyra (Helen Mirren), second-in-command of the Pure Ones and Metal Beak's mate, introduces herself and claims that all the owlets now work under Metal Beak and the Pure Ones. Soren and Gylfie protest, and are sent to be "pickers", along with most of the captive owls. Kludd denies his brother, and goes away to be a soldier with other selected owls. They are tutored by Nyra in the ways of the Pure Ones, who believe that Tyto owls, Barn Owls and their relatives, are the strongest species and as such deserve to rule the kingdoms.

The other captured owls are forced to sleep under the full moon. Gylfie informs Soren that this will cause "moon-blinking," a trancelike state in which owls lose all sense of will and individuality. Soren and Gylfie manage to stay awake, and are not moon-blinked. They are brought to a large cavern to pick through owl pellets for small metal flecks. Soren discovers that the flecks en masse cause weakening pain in owls when he is ordered to deliver a fleck to the bag they are kept in. The full bag is then carried away by a large bat to a gigantic metal container. Metal Beak (Joel Edgerton) and an unknown owl watch from above, making a bargain in which the unknown owl will receive a portion of the owl kingdoms and "the Tree" in return for laying a trap for the Pure Ones' enemies, implied to be the Guardians of Ga'Hoole.

Grimble, having suspected Soren and Gylfie, secretly takes them to his library and reveals that he is not truly a Pure One, and his family was captured by the Pure Ones to force him into their service. He wishes to teach them to fly and send them to warn the Guardians of the Pure Ones' plans. Meanwhile, Kludd has become a strong soldier and his promise prompts Nyra to ask him about Soren's similar potential. Hoping to recruit him, they interrupt Grimble's lessons with Soren and Gylfie. Nyra attacks the three, and Kludd joins the fray on her side, ignoring Soren's pleas. Grimble sacrifices himself to hold them back, and Soren and Gylfie barely escape to begin their quest. On their journeys, they meet a quirky Burrowing Owl named Digger (David Wenham), a bard-like Great Gray Owl named Twilight (Anthony LaPaglia), and Soren's old nursemaid snake Mrs. P (Miriam Margolyes), whom Twilight had planned to eat. They join Soren with the promise of leading him to the Sea of Hoolemere, the location of the Great Tree, home of the Guardians.

Soren and his band are mobbed by crows on the way to the Sea, and nearly lose Twilight's lute, in which Mrs. P is riding. The battle brings them to the shore of the Sea of Hoolemere and the home of an Echidna mystic (Barry Otto); the crows deliberately led them to the meeting so that the Echidna could give them their bearings to the Great Tree. Far out over the ocean, the group encounters a fierce hurricane, and Digger falls towards the sea. Soren dives after to save him, only to find himself and Digger being rescued by a pair of enormous Snowy Owls with armored masks - the Guardians of Ga'hoole. They lead the band through the storm and to the Great Tree.

Digger's saviors are Boron and Barran, the king and the queen of the Tree. They and the ranking officers of Ga'hoole hear Soren's tale in parliament. The search-and-rescue squadron leader, a great gray owl named Allomere (Sam Neill), expresses doubts about Soren's story, but battle-scarred Whiskered Screech-owl Ezylryb (Geoffrey Rush) defends him and Boron eventually agrees, sending Allomere with a scouting party to St. Aegolious. The four begin their training in the different trades of the tree. During one lesson, Ezylryb takes them out to learn how to "really fly," using a powerful storm to teach the young owls how to use the wind currents instead of fighting them. Soren briefly masters the technique of flying by instinct, though he loses control when he starts trying to think about what he's doing. After the lesson, Soren converses with Ezylryb in his hollow. While there, he learns that Ezylryb is, in fact, Lyze of Kiel. Soren is disillusioned with the seemingly heroic stories when he sees his hero's disfigurements and hears that the battle in the stories wasn't as heroic as he thought. At that point, Allomere returns without his scouts, informing the king that they were ambushed, the scouts were killed, and he barely managed to return with two moon-blinked owlets; one of whom is Eglantine, who was kidnapped by Kludd. Outraged, the Guardians go to war. At the urging of Ezlyryb, Soren reluctantly stays to tend to Eglantine. She soon awakes, to Soren's delight, but with shocking news: she wasn't rescued, but given to Allomere to bring back. Allomere is revealed to be the unknown traitor, and Soren and his friends rush to the Guardians' aid.

When the Guardians arrive at St. Aegolious, they are indeed drawn into a trap; Allomere peels off at the last moment and the Pure Ones unleash the power of the flecks against the Guardians, leaving the owls helpless on the ground. Soren and the band arrive minutes too late, just as Metal Beak and Nyra send the bats to finish off the disabled Guardians. Soren sends Twilight, Digger and Gylfie to hold back the bats while he plunges into the burning forest fire carrying an oil lamp which becomes engulfed in flames after flying through the fire. Meanwhile, the band's unprecedented arrival causes Metal Beak to distrust Allomere. Believing that he betrayed him, he calls in a group of bats, which proceed to viciously kill Allomere off-screen.

Soren plunges into the flecks' magnetic field to drop the flaming oil lamp on the mechanism which holds open the lids over the flecks; the fire spreads across the machine, burns through the ropes and the lids slam down, freeing the Guardians. With his plan disrupted, Metal Beak orders The Pure Ones into battle. Ezylryb and Metal Beak square off, as do Soren and Kludd. Their fight leads them both ending up in the burning forest. Soren tries to speak sense into Kludd, but Kludd will have none of it, and announces how The Pure Ones believed in him when no one else did. He attacks Soren with renewed vigor, sending them both tumbling over a fallen tree where Kludd breaks his wing. Pleading for Soren to save him, Soren, mistrusting him but still caring about him, tries to pull him up. Nearly having been saved, Kludd suddenly tries to kill Soren again by pulling him into the flames, however Soren dodges, and Kludd falls into the flames instead. Soren, grieving for his brother, spots Ezylryb, Metal Beak, and Nyra engaged in fierce combat. Filled with rage, he snaps off a burning branch and flies off to help. Taking Metal Beak by surprise, he arives just in time to save Ezylryb's life. The veteran warlord easily overpowers Soren and thrown his branch away. Soren manages to regain it just as Metal Beak comes in for the kill, and he impales himself on Soren's branch. A shocked Nyra retreats with the remaining Pure Ones, and Soren is greeted by his friends.

They return to the Great Tree with all the owlets and Soren is greeted by Eglantine and his parents, with Noctus telling Soren that he made the stories that he told them real. Soren, Gylfie, Twilight, and Digger are made Guardians of Ga'Hoole. In the epilogue, Soren reveals that Kludd's body was never found and Nyra is still out there with a contingent of Pure Ones. Kludd is then shown to be alive, now with the glowing red eyes of the other Pure Ones, walking and staring down at Metal Beak's body and mask, hinting at a sequel with Kludd as the new Metal Beak. Soren recounts the tale to young owlets. Ezylryb interrupts and takes Soren and all the new Guardians flying into a new brewing storm full of 'baggy wrinkles'.

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 reaction

Legend of the Guardians received mixed reviews, with critics praising its visuals, voice-acting, cinematography, and 3D effects, but criticising its character development and adapted plot, which was seen as 'esoteric' and 'predictable'. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 51% of 116 sampled critics gave the film positive reviews and that it got a rating average of 5.6 out of 10. It reported the critics' consensus, "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 #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 #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.

Soundtrack

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

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 IMDb
• 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