Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
I was of course very excited for this movie. Owls! And I have read all the books. I've seen the movie a couple times now, and it seems that it won't be in theaters much longer, since it's not doing all that great.
Non-spoilery stuff above the cut, spoilery stuff below.
First, it's GORGEOUS. It is some of the most awesome texturing and attention to detail ever. Of course I am not a professional animator, but to my untrained eye, it was incredible.
I highly suggest people see it on the big screen (I enjoyed it in 3D and also saw it in 2D -- if you can handle 3D it's worth it). Just for the HOLYCARPWOW art, if nothing else.
The Awesome:
The Not-So-Great:
SPOILERS for both the books and movie.
WTF HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO OTULISSA? First, they changed her species. She is a Spotted Owl in the books, and this is a Big Deal in the book, she's VERY proud of her ancestry. They changed her to what seems to be a Short Eared Owl. I was trying to think of why, and decided it had to do with the other part of the movie that REALLY ruffled my feathers -- they made her a LOVE INTEREST OF SOREN.
Looking at Spotteds v. Short Eareds, I think they decided Spotteds are not "pretty" enough. They have a kind of "old man" look to them (I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't specifically been looking for this hahaha). Short Eareds can be made to look all sultry and pretty, I guess, and have a more feminine look. Ugh. Whatever.
Making Soren interested in Otulissa romantically would've been like making Harry fall for Hermione in the HP movies. It's just wrong. In the books, the band can't STAND Otulissa at first, because she's snotty, know-it-all, and stuck up. It takes a long time for them to like her, after she has proven herself. And finally, both Otulissa and Soren have love interests in the books, and they are much more appropriate, and not each other. Bleargh.
She's hardly even in the movie; it would've been better to just leave her out, rather than mess with her character like this.
They weren't very clear that Mrs. Plithiver is blind, in the movie. In the books, the nestmaid snake species doesn't have eyes, just dents. So that kind of made me sad. Maybe they thought it would creep little kids out.
I didn't really like how they portrayed Twilight, and Digger lacked some of his greatest strengths, but it wasn't horribly uncomfortable like with Otulissa. I am sure it was because of how condensed the movie is, and that also interfered with the Band's relationships to each other. Only Gylfie and Soren seemed to have a connection.
I'm gonna read the books to Zlato. Hehe.
The movie is definitely worth it for animation and owl geekery. I will definitely get it on BluRay.
Non-spoilery stuff above the cut, spoilery stuff below.
First, it's GORGEOUS. It is some of the most awesome texturing and attention to detail ever. Of course I am not a professional animator, but to my untrained eye, it was incredible.
I highly suggest people see it on the big screen (I enjoyed it in 3D and also saw it in 2D -- if you can handle 3D it's worth it). Just for the HOLYCARPWOW art, if nothing else.
The Awesome:
- The owls had a ton of feather detail. And the feathers grew in the right patterns, even the complex way feathers grow around the face. Close-ups of the owls' facial discs had me staring at the growth patterns. Heh.
- THEY GOT THE OWLS' FEET RIGHT. Swivel toes and all. WHEW. I was so worried. Hahaha.
- The bio-mechanics of flight were done VERY well. They used their tails to steer, wing feathers moved and shifted, flapping was natural and not just up-and-down, etc.
- The movie was full of, "Hold that thought, here is a slow-mo majestic scene of eye candy." But it doesn't take away from the movie, in fact, with the rushed pace of the plot, it gives you time to catch up.
- Battle and flight scenes are gorgeous and well done.
- As in the books, different owl species are faithfully represented in an accurate manner, with artistic liberty to differentiate characters and the fantasy setting, of course. Colors and patterns were done extremely well. They even got the sounds right -- they didn't make Barn Owls hoot, etc.
- Backgrounds, water, trees, rocks, clouds, etc. are also beautifully portrayed.
- I loved their owl and bat armor/weapon designs.
The Not-So-Great:
- In terms of the animation, art, and portrayal of owls, there was one thing that bugged me: The females in the movie always smaller than the males. -_- This was especially glaring to me with the snowies.
- Plot. It's rushed and a bit confusing if you haven't read the books. This is because they took five or so of the books and condensed them into one movie. Heh. The people I've talked to who HAVEN'T read the books (including Zlato) still enjoyed it, so I think it's worth seeing despite this!
- Inexplicably, they set it in Australia. The owls are primarily North American species. The books are set in North America or something like it, with wolves, caribou, raccoons, etc. (Some of these feature QUITE prominently in the plot at some points.) Instead, there are Tasmanian devils and echidnas in the movie. Weird. Well, at least they were well designed. Heh.
- The score kind of sucked. The random English-language pop song used for a montage made me wince. The rest of the score was bland. I *did* like the use of Dead Can Dance for some gorgeous scenes. I felt like it set an appropriate mood. Plus I already really liked the song they used. Heh.
SPOILERS for both the books and movie.
WTF HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO OTULISSA? First, they changed her species. She is a Spotted Owl in the books, and this is a Big Deal in the book, she's VERY proud of her ancestry. They changed her to what seems to be a Short Eared Owl. I was trying to think of why, and decided it had to do with the other part of the movie that REALLY ruffled my feathers -- they made her a LOVE INTEREST OF SOREN.
Looking at Spotteds v. Short Eareds, I think they decided Spotteds are not "pretty" enough. They have a kind of "old man" look to them (I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't specifically been looking for this hahaha). Short Eareds can be made to look all sultry and pretty, I guess, and have a more feminine look. Ugh. Whatever.
Making Soren interested in Otulissa romantically would've been like making Harry fall for Hermione in the HP movies. It's just wrong. In the books, the band can't STAND Otulissa at first, because she's snotty, know-it-all, and stuck up. It takes a long time for them to like her, after she has proven herself. And finally, both Otulissa and Soren have love interests in the books, and they are much more appropriate, and not each other. Bleargh.
She's hardly even in the movie; it would've been better to just leave her out, rather than mess with her character like this.
They weren't very clear that Mrs. Plithiver is blind, in the movie. In the books, the nestmaid snake species doesn't have eyes, just dents. So that kind of made me sad. Maybe they thought it would creep little kids out.
I didn't really like how they portrayed Twilight, and Digger lacked some of his greatest strengths, but it wasn't horribly uncomfortable like with Otulissa. I am sure it was because of how condensed the movie is, and that also interfered with the Band's relationships to each other. Only Gylfie and Soren seemed to have a connection.
I'm gonna read the books to Zlato. Hehe.
The movie is definitely worth it for animation and owl geekery. I will definitely get it on BluRay.