Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole movie poster.

The film, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole is a computer animated film based upon the Guardians of Ga’Hoole fantasy book series by Kathryn Lasky.  Legend of the Guardians, which is apparently a loose adaptation of the first three books in the series, follows the adventures of a young owl kidnapped by a patrol of evil owls and thrown into an ages old conflict.

Legend of the Guardians is directed by Zack Snyder, master of the faux-historical 300 and the superhero faux pas, Watchmen.  The computer animation is the work of Australian digital visual effects company, Animal Logic, which also produced the Oscar-winning Happy Feet.  Unlike Happy Feet, Legend of the Guardians may be too dark, too violent, and too intense for children younger than 8 or 9 years-old.

An easy way to describe this film is as Lord of the Rings with owls.  Like LotR, Legend of the Guardians is visually astounding, especially when its characters (mostly all owls) take to the air for breathtaking displays of avian aerial prowess.  The story features all the familiar characteristics of the hero’s quest, and the character drama is sometimes as dull as the flying and fighting are attention-grabbing.  But this is done with owls, and that’s the hook that makes this movie work.

For a long-winded and more detailed version of this review, go here.