Zack Snyder, you sneaky bugger. The acclaimed director known for his adaptations of 300 and Watchmen, makes his animated debut with Legend of the Guardians. For those who aren’t familiar, this movie is about owls, badass owls. Not enough of a description? Okay, the story follows Soren (Jim Sturgess) and his brother Kludd (Ryan Kwanten) as they grow from friends to enemies after being kidnapped by a cult of bigoted owls. Soren embarks on a journey to find the guardians, legendary heroes of their world. Kludd takes the opposite road of brainwashed evil soldier jerk.
It takes time to adjust to the fact that everything happening is in a world of cartoon owls, though at some point that campiness transforms into an epic movie. I didn’t think that was possible. Though I did find that gizzards found their way into the script too much. Personally, I don’t relate very well to owl-type things like owl pellets, but the second half of the film is focused more on the characters and less on what their species is. Plus, with the use of voice talent that strayed from Hollywood’s A-List, the voices belonged to the characters and not the talent’s past performances.
I am told (by Wikipedia) that the film is based on the first three books of a series of around 20 stories. While that presents plenty of material for sequels, the film is self-sustaining and will only have a sequel if its cash pull is enough. In regard to Legend’s pacing, I found it to be a fitting length for a movie searching for the epic feel it presents. However, after months of being billed as a children’s movie, I must say that it was slow at times for a younger audience. I just can’t help but think that Legend of the Guardians would be a fun franchise for kids to grow up with. Especially, with a director like Snyder, who continuously shows he knows how to adapt well-known stories to the big screen. I enjoyed it deep down in my gizzard…. Sigh. (7.5 out of 10)
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