Legend of the Guardians; The Owls of Ga'hoole

Legend of the Guardians; The Owls of Ga'Hoole is, no matter what anyone tries to tell you, a kids film. Yes, its based on a series of books (what isn't these days?) and directed by Zack Snider, of 300 and Watchmen fame, but it's a kids film. And that's not a bad thing.

Going in to it, I was expecting a really good show of 3D rendering and visual effects that made you go 'oooh' and 'awwww'. It delivered. Sure, I could knock it and say "so what? there's more to films than special effects". But what's the point in that? It's a cartoon in 3D, which, in my books is pretty cool in itself, and it's not got that nasty 'I'm made by Pixar so I'm gonna be amazing' stigma to it. (grrr, Pixar: BOO!).

The story is simple enough - a young owl and his brother get kidnapped by some nasty red tinged owls with metal masked faces; to be put to work either joining the 'pure ones' army (if they are the correct breed), or else to become a 'picker'. Which sounds as glamorous as it is - they basically have to go through the owl pellets (the bits of animals they cough out) and try to find little metal fragments, which somehow are magnetic and have an amazing ability to cause harm to owls...(yeah!?).
The main owl and his little crew of friends he acquires along the way flee the horrible owls to find the mysterious 'Guardians' and ask for their help. And then they train to fly and fight and the rescue begins.

I won't spoil the rest for you.

I liked the film - but it required quite a lot of attention as the minute you turned your head from the screen you would be lost - not knowing which owl was which if there was more than one of the same breed on the screen at once. It was mighty confusing at times, and for a kids film, I think that's not really what they intended. Visually it was stunning, and the voice cast were great - it was cute and you can really get caught up in some of the scenes (I was the girl holding her head in her hands and gasping "NO!" when something terrible happened - much the amusement of my boyfriend). However, I would have much preferred it if Snyder had done what he did best; gore it up and make it a story of sheer violence and glossy owl fighting scenes. It was too smooshy to be an adults film, but too confusing to be a kids film.