I have been anticipating this movie since I saw the very first trailer online. As my boyfriend can attest, I was like a kid at Christmas when I saw the trailer and the exquisite detail that was promised by that teaser. As a self-proclaimed raptorphile, I am incredibly critical of the way birds are portrayed in movies, books and television. I will yell at the television when a commercial set in the desert shows the image of a turkey vulture while the sound of a red-tailed hawk is played over it. So, as you can imagine, I went into this movie with a bit of trepidation. Would they portray the birds as they truly are? Would they sugarcoat the way that owls eat their prey? Would they *cringe* show them eating fruits and nuts? I hoped against hope that these artists had done their homework, but at the same time I knew I would have to suspend some disbelief. After all, it is a family movie in which the animals talk.
I was happily surprised by "Legend of the Guardians". I saw the movie in 3D in a near-empty theatre at the first showing on a weekday. Now, I don't often tell my friends that they should see a movie in 3D, there aren't that many out now that do it justice or seem to require the technology in order to enhance the performance. This one is different. I certainly recommend seeing this movie in 3D if at all possible. The 3D is not overtly obvious, but serves to enhance the detail and artistry already present in the film. It is beautiful in its subtlety and dramatic in its grandeur. The artwork itself is so intricately detailed that you can see each vein of each individual feather. Sometimes this is a bit overstated in the film, but it is definitely eye-catching. The story is cute, but not too cute. It is, in essence, a fairy story. A movie based on childrens' novels. But there are also some deeper themes running through it. Doing the right thing, even when all those around you are convinced that their way, though wrong, is better. Being a good and honest person, or owl, as it were. The evils of child slavery and brainwashing. Purifying or glorifying a "pure race" which was reminiscent of the Nazi movement, though on a smaller scale. The bonds of family and friendship as well as leadership are also apparent throughout.
My pet peeves were surprisingly minor in "Legend of the Guardians" and most could be excused with the necessity of character or appealing to a wider audience. The snake blinks, though rarely. When she does blink it is not with true eyelids, but more like the eye just closes which helped me forgive the artists. The snake was also a loving, maternal character, a switch from most childrens' movies in which the snake is the villain. The male leader owls were larger than their female counterparts. In most raptors we have what is called reverse sexual dimorphism, essentially a fancy term for the female being larger, usually by about 1/3 body weight. I was able to let this slide as well since it generally only applied to the leaders and you can't really respect a male animal leader whose female cohort is larger than he. If it were a matriarchal society then yes, the female might have been larger. For the most part, the owls of both sexes within a given specie were roughly the same size in the film. I know there were one or two other minor faux pas, but a few days after seeing the movie and I have completely forgotten them. This must mean they were not all that obvious and I was picking nits, as it were.
Some choices made in this movie made me want to stand up and applaud. One of the first images is of an owl snatching a live mouse off a branch and carrying it back to his tree. Score one for realistic portrayal. Another warm, fuzzy raptor moment is when they show a owlet coughing up a pellet. Actually, pellets play a rather large role in this film and I was glad to see their being acknowledged. The use of beak movement to articulate talking was accentuated using the soft tissue around the beak and the tongue and not any deformation of the beak itself (i.e. they did not make the birds turn the natural downcurve of the beak upwards into a "smile"). Calls in the movie matched the owls they were meant to come from. Barn owls sounded like barn owls! There is very little sound of wings while the owls are flying unless it is a clumsy flight and meant to sound awkward. At times I was a bit confused about whether it was meant to be dawn or dusk (in which most of the action takes place) but they made a point to do very little during daylight hours, which is accurate for most owls. I can forgive the need to keep the burrowing owl character awake during the crepuscular and night hours while his friends are all awake. The birds do make and use tools in the film, but they do not use their wings as "hands". And when gripping an object with their foot is is biologically believable, meaning they do not alter their foot from the three forward, one back position.
Of course, the entire movie is visually stunning. There was one establishing shot in particular, that almost made me forget I was watching an animated movie. It was that beautiful and realistic. It wasn't even showing the birds but it stood out to me as being visually perfect. Computer artists have really captured the way to make fire, textures and water believable to the human eye.
The soundtrack was superb and will resonate with those who love the more classical, dramatic pieces as well as drawing in the audiences who have become more familiar with pop songs or songs by pop artists inserted into montages (there is at least one I can think of that worked very well). The dialogue levels are loud enough to be understood, unlike some movies in which the music or effects drown out dialogue. The Australian and British accents are also quite understandable and lend a somewhat foreign and lyrical nature to the birds. Many of the big-name actors were so adept at camouflaging their voices that I could not name them until the credits rolled. I enjoyed the cute humor that was neither insulting and cruel nor too juvenile. The burrowing owl is particularly funny and I could relate him to some friends I have who always tell the worst jokes but you laugh anyways because at heart they are truly witty.
Clearly, these artists did their homework and put all that they learned into the movie so that their audiences could appreciate how remarkable these birds truly are. However, I am left wondering if the general public will pick up on the nuances I was able to catch and whether they will believe that at least 80% of what they see in this movie is biologically accurate. As for myself, I plan on seeing this movie at least once more, maybe more if I can scrounge enough change from the depths of my couch cushions to catch another matinee when I can sit alone in the theatre and marvel at the Owls of Ga'Hoole.
