Sjoerd Jonker What a nice ride! A young dreamer, taken from his home to a land of evil. He managed to escape along with his new companion who was also kidnapped. They found shelter by local peasants, who were willing to aid them to for full their quest to vanquish the rising thread in the west. Together they went north and arrived at the mystical isle 'Ga'Hoole' where the Guardians live. They are the only ones that can bring a permanent end to this evil recovered from the Battle of the Ice Claws. Together they returned to St. Aegolius to take down the Pure Ones once and for all. Victory! The Guardians restored the peace once more thanks to our brave owls who not only brought the message, they saved the Guardians from certain death. They stood for the King and Queen not only as heroes, but also as rightful Guardians. The End!The Legend of the Guardians is a striking story in a medieval, fantasy world populated by owls, but the movie has its flaws. Besides the light script, the whole story they told us is too brief. As a feature film the length is good, but being put in a story like this, there are many elements that I missed during the film. There was more A LOT MORE that they could tell us to give the story more spice. There weren't even romance scenes guys, already they missed one entire important ingredient! Anyway they could've told us more about the mysterious flecks in St. Aegolius. We know that they are harmful to the so called 'Gizzard', though we still do not know how the Gizzard really works on owls and why metal flecks have a negative effect on it, not to mention that it is still a mystery how the flecks wind up in prey that the owls eat. We also did not know much about The Battle of the Ice Claws. They could've showed us interesting flashbacks how the conflict between the Pure Ones and the Guardians happened(were the King and Queen there?), when Soren found out Ezylryb is Lyze of Kiel(in order to make more emotional involvement) in his hollow. BTW we still don't know why he called himself Ezylryb. Was it because his fans would be disappointed for the rest of their lives, because of the fact that their hero is a little screech owl full of battle scars, or did he changed his name because he simply did not want to be remembered as a hero, who is to say. Furthermore I feel that they missed some critical scenes. For example they fail to tell us what the current state is of the world. Is the whole world torn apart by the previous war or is the world fully recovered yet the inhabitants just did not know what is going on with their young-lings? We simply know nothing of this world and how it is ruled. Furthermore there are several other things that were too brief, The Owl God: Glaux, The Echidna(one of the most rushed characters), Grimbles family(we still don't know what became of them), The reunion with Soren's parents at the very ending of the film(the parents did not even mentioned Kludd), The King and Queen(the queen never showed up during the final battle) and being moon blinked(does this works on every animal or just owls?)Not only is the story brief it is also as straight as an arrow. By that I mean that it is too obvious what is going to happen next during almost every scene and since the scenes are in general brief it makes them only more predictable, not to mention that the story itself is unoriginal, but I'll let that one slide, because otherwise I would be a massive hypocrite for liking tons of other movies. Anyway, it would have been fine if just a handful of scenes were predictable, but in this case the complete film is predictable. For example: Soren was the dreamer in the beginning and Kludd was not convinced that the Guardians even existed. And that is fine, but there was not one moment that caused the slightest turbulence in their visions. The result of this is that we feel little emotional attached when Kludd had fallen in the fire, because he was a bad brother the whole time. It was also obvious that it was going to happen one way or another. They could've lessen both by hiding his personality more in the beginning. As for Soren he is obviously the 'good guy' in this, no two ways about it. But there are certain aspects they missed to build him up as a character. For example after he escaped from St. Aegolius he didn't even bother about his own brother or his parents! He didn't feel like going back was an option and he didn't asked the necessary questions that make us sympathize with him. For example: 'But what about my brother, he is still in St. Aegolius?'(When they found shelter at Twilight's and Digger's place) or: 'You're right Mrs. P, I can't go without letting my parents know what has happened, can I?'In conclusion: The film is not perfect, that is clear, but I see the ambition behind it even though they played it safe by telling the story at minimal length with its light yet decent script in order to satisfy all audiences. The visuals are superb with an outstanding lighting from the time of day. Metal Beak is great! He is more like an idea than he is a person and he was everything that Soren isn't and that makes him a good villain. The music is intriguing and the art style is just marvelously done! And I must also give the trailers credit, since they were the reason for finding my favorite band: Thirty Seconds to Mars.

Steve Zack Snyder's first animated feature. You know what that means. Dark and lackluster plotting predicated by his inveterate practice of tacky slow-motion. But seriously, if anybody can get you to love a slo-mo sequence, it's Zack Snyder. It's like a guilty pleasure, watching his films. Bolstered by strong animation from Animal Logic, you have a gorgeous feast for your eyes. While Snyder's films typically miss the emotional mark, you can still count on a good time. He will always be that director with the fun-to-watch films, so long as you're not expecting much else. Sometimes fun is enough. 6.5/10 — watching Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole.

Mehdi Zouaoui The movie was a bit stereotypical as most of the movies that don't bring novel twists in the plot. A young owl that through misfortunes or misadventures reaches something it couldn't do at home. It identifies with novels that are bildungroman where the characters maturates while the events are folding up. I liked the animation and the resolution of it which reflected a great labor done by the animator.The climax of the movie was a bit unrelated and didn't build or perfectly match with the flow and plot of the whole and I think that there should have been some spices in order to keep it on.

tapio_hietamaki I'd heard that this movie is surprisingly dark. Well, it isn't that bad. Sure it's got some themes that are quite heavy for a kid's movie, but so do classic Disney animations (The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast). Legend of the Guardians is your basic fantasy adventure with a kind, young protagonist and his wacky companions. They must fight a villain who's assembling an army of bad guys and the protagonist's brother chooses The Dark Side.The thing is, all the characters are cute owls. They look gorgeous - you can see every feather stirring in the wind. All the visuals are pretty much breathtaking (for an animated film).There are some fight scenes but nothing really graphic happens. The owls wear funny pieces of armor and it's implied that they tear each other apart with their talons but the film is bloodless. In the end everybody learns a lesson. The story is based on a young adult fantasy novel. Personally I would've preferred an animation film like this based on Redwall.