The Guardian Legend
"Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole" (2010) Starring: Jim Sturgess, Emily Barclay, David Wenhem, and Joel Edgarten. Directed: Zack Snyder.
This is the story of a young owl who, along with his brother, is kidnapped and forced to work under some evil owls who are intent on owl domination. Eventually he escapes and searches for some legendary good owls to help defeat them and stop their nefarious, brainwashing, and planning to conquer the world ways.
This movie is really good. The animation is for the most part phenomenal, the backgrounds are stunning and the characters are well realized. The voice acting is also spot on which shores up a couple of the weaker points of the movie. Finally, the movie really is just a whole lot of fun to watch, which honestly surprised me.
The weak spots involve some of the writing. The story is very familiar. This isn't a bad thing, but you won't be surprised by some of what happens. Truth be told I could say that about pretty much every Disney film animated or otherwise. Another issue with the writing is the fact that there are scenes that feel cramped and not as fully realized as they could be. Another half hour on this film might have been enough to flesh them out. As it stands though things will be said and done and then there is an, "And we're moving on," feel at times that stops the movie from being truly great. I could argue that it's sort of an inverse Miyazaki syndrome but instead of the ending just being a, "Well I'm tired of making this let's wrap it up feel," it's on an individual scene basis.
The final weak spot is one that the movie itself cannot help. That problem is the fact that owls have beaks. I know, shocking right? Well, beaks aren't the most emotive of mouths out there. Therefore while there are subtle movements to indicate smiles, frowns, etc. there really isn't enough emoting. On the plus side, the eyes do work well and the voice acting and camera work along with the music are strong enough to generally overcome it.
Overall, this so far has been my favorite animated movie of the year. I haven't seen Toy Story 3 so I can't say whether or not it's better but, I will say that Legend deserves academy consideration for best animated film of the year. It could have even been a classic movie, but the weak spots do weigh it down a bit. Still, it's worth seeing.
*** out of ****
This is the story of a young owl who, along with his brother, is kidnapped and forced to work under some evil owls who are intent on owl domination. Eventually he escapes and searches for some legendary good owls to help defeat them and stop their nefarious, brainwashing, and planning to conquer the world ways.
This movie is really good. The animation is for the most part phenomenal, the backgrounds are stunning and the characters are well realized. The voice acting is also spot on which shores up a couple of the weaker points of the movie. Finally, the movie really is just a whole lot of fun to watch, which honestly surprised me.
The weak spots involve some of the writing. The story is very familiar. This isn't a bad thing, but you won't be surprised by some of what happens. Truth be told I could say that about pretty much every Disney film animated or otherwise. Another issue with the writing is the fact that there are scenes that feel cramped and not as fully realized as they could be. Another half hour on this film might have been enough to flesh them out. As it stands though things will be said and done and then there is an, "And we're moving on," feel at times that stops the movie from being truly great. I could argue that it's sort of an inverse Miyazaki syndrome but instead of the ending just being a, "Well I'm tired of making this let's wrap it up feel," it's on an individual scene basis.
The final weak spot is one that the movie itself cannot help. That problem is the fact that owls have beaks. I know, shocking right? Well, beaks aren't the most emotive of mouths out there. Therefore while there are subtle movements to indicate smiles, frowns, etc. there really isn't enough emoting. On the plus side, the eyes do work well and the voice acting and camera work along with the music are strong enough to generally overcome it.
Overall, this so far has been my favorite animated movie of the year. I haven't seen Toy Story 3 so I can't say whether or not it's better but, I will say that Legend deserves academy consideration for best animated film of the year. It could have even been a classic movie, but the weak spots do weigh it down a bit. Still, it's worth seeing.
*** out of ****