Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole Review

• 18th Oct 2010

For me it was Watership Down. For many of you it was probably Star Wars. Your first big, proper movie. Your first taste of darkness, warmth, life, love and death on screen in one big, memorable bang.

Legend of the Guardians could have been that film for the young ‘uns of today. It certainly follows the same formula. A young, naive hero with a heart of gold heads off on a quest, building up a merry band of fellow travellers along the way. He finds a mentor, has some kind of epiphany, and proves himself a warrior by defeating the representatives of evil. It’s a story that’s been told again and again, probably since Tolkien wrote The Hobbit. That in itself isn’t a problem – but the success of any story lies in its telling.

This film doesn’t tell the story as well as some of its predecessors. It tends to rely on stock characters rather than developing personalities, events proceed in an unnaturally hurried and abbreviated manner, and it all sticks a little too rigidly to convention without the excitement of risky originality.

There’s some lovely banter between the lesser characters that hints at complexity (baddies with a sense of humour, a grand old poet warrior who can’t sing to save his life), but generally we’re stuck with the same old stereotypes. Including the feisty but diminutive token female – it seems we can imagine a world in which owls can be blacksmiths but not one where a female can play a powerful, leading role.

Having said all this, the London premiere of this film conjured the rare sight of a group of children sitting stock-still for 90 minutes. Not a rustle of popcorn or a whinge for the loo to be heard. They were transfixed.

Visually, this is a mesmerising film. Director Zack Snyder has taken animation soaring to new heights. In a masterful, sophisticated handling of the medium, he shows us a world whose three dimensions we take for granted – we simply peer through the screen into a world that seems as tangible as our own. The beauty is in the detail – the texture of bark, wind rustling through feathers, drops of vapour in the air, all are rendered with painstaking, breathtaking clarity. It’s just plain stunning.

There’s also a blackness and grittiness to this film that will give it impact for younger viewers unused to such honesty. Fear, conflict and death are all tackled with an uncompromising and appealing truthfulness. As anyone who saw the death of Bambi’s mum could tell you, often it’s the dark stuff that resonates.

It might just be that all it takes to make this film work is a young pair of eyes. Everything seems original to one who hasn’t already seen too much. And any brave new world, particularly such a beautiful one, is awe-inspiring. However, it might turn out that Legend of the Guardians lacks the personality, warmth and originality to hold a place in someone’s heart as their first great film. Who knows? Only a pub conversation in about twenty years’ time will tell.

Kathy Alys