Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole

There aren't many animations that one would sometimes hear odes about and other times absolute damnation. "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole" is exactly such a movie. There are voices that damn it and others that absolutely adore it. I tend to lean towards the more positive ones because I quite enjoyed the film. It's not a particularly new story, but it's presented with love for animated movies and children. That's what I liked about it. (25/02/2014)

Beautiful, elaborate animation, Snyder's sense for the visual aspect of the film and for action scenes reasonably interspersed with some pretty spectacular slow-motion versus a story seen hundreds of times, which brought nothing new, and a not very likable main character. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole is good to watch, a real feast for the eyes, which passes by quite quickly and doesn't particularly offend, I think. As family entertainment it’s good. But it also shows that it wanted to be something more - perhaps the cornerstone of a great feathered saga. And unfortunately it didn't give me that feeling. I wouldn't watch this cartoon again of my own free will. Three stars and a bit for only to the aforementioned positives, the music (Williams theme!) and the original dubbers.__P.S. If you want top animation and a great story, watch Rango. (03/07/2011)

It must be the first time that a wonderful trailer made me look forward to an animation film and the result could not be other than disappointment. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole would be very good if it was consistent. It’s a very dark fantasy where evil owls use an almost Nazi rhetoric on the one hand, but on the other, it’s a childish family movie with cute plush animals. Hmm. Visually, it’s beautiful, but I wasn’t a fan of the random switch between one mode and the other, though the darker passages were a lot of fun. The rating is 7/10, but in this case, four stars would be too much, so three. (08/12/2010)

Nice animation, and I liked the soundtrack at one point. But otherwise? NOPE. Maybe I'm squeamish, but I absolutely hated the owls fighting with each other. Plus it was such an infantile story, boilerplate characters, weird ambitions and goals, even the motivations of the protagonists and antagonists. I didn't like it. There are thousands and thousands of other and better cartoons out there. A weak 2 stars. (15/11/2011)

I can't help but think that making soldiers out of owls and letting these gentle and dignified animals go head to head was a bit far-fetched. And yet the animation is truly beautiful, the set design and the music in particular completely absorbed me, and, despite the slight lack of humour, I felt at home in the owl world from the beginning. But the last twenty minutes disappointed me a lot, and though they were shot as impressively and effectively as the rest of the film, the overall picture of the story based mainly on the brilliantly invented owl traditions and myths was irrevocably distorted. Still, thumbs up, because I would never have expected such a pleasant and accessible movie from Snyder. 70% (06/11/2012)