Preview: Legend Of The Guardians
A report on witnessing fifteen minutes of Zack Snyders's take on The Owls of Ga'hoole.
What did I think when I first saw the trailer for Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls Of Ga'Hoole?
"Oh god, not more 3D."
"Oh god, I hate talking animals."
"Owls are creepy."
So I mainly went along to see Warner Bros' 15 minute preview footage for something nice to do in my lunch, and to see if there were any spare totems rolling around on the floor. I didn't expect to sit there completely transfixed, wiping a tear from my eye and witness the most incredible CG animation I've ever seen.
While I admire Zack Snyder's eye for striking visuals, there's an emotional void in 300 and Watchmen. It's hard to believe that the same man has adapted these sweet children's fantasy novels, Guardians of Ga'Hoole, and has seemingly captured a heart-soaring epic adventure in the manner of The Lord of the Rings.
Snyder sent a recorded message to introduce the scenes, explaining that he and his wife finally wanted to work on a film his kids could see. The story follows an idealistic young owl, Soren, who grows up enthralled by his father's epic stories of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole, a mythic band of winged warriors who had fought a great battle to save all of owlkind from the evil Pure Ones.
We first watched a scene where Soren and his brother Kludd fall from their tree into the clutches of the Pure Ones. The animated birds are stunning, from their expressive eyes, to the translucency of their beaks, and the ruffling of their feathers. The detailed design of each bird is incredible, with endearing characteristics apparent even from this preview. So much for my fear that all the owls would be boring and indistinguishable from one another. Snyder's owls are almost photoreal - he hasn't gone for the cartoon effect. Yes, they have anthropomorphic qualities, i.e. they speak, laugh, write on parchment, fashion weapons and helmets, but keeping the owls as beautiful as Mother Nature already designed is a winning move.
Many breeds of owl are majestically portrayed, from masked to eagle, to the twitchy digger, and if this film gives the world anything, an appreciation of these magnificent creatures will be it. It's where the 3D comes into its own, replicating the natural thrills of flight and the hunt. The technology is suberb; there is no "barrier" or blurring of vision. The 3D is seamless, and where I find it a distraction normally, here I've finally seen it put to good effect.
The rest of the scenes showed Legend of the Guardians to be a classic spirited tale of a young boy, er owl, finding his feet, er wings, before becoming as brave as his own heroes. One thing to note about this Australian production is the pleasing consistency in accents. British actor Jim Sturgess voices our hero Soren, and adopts an Aussie twang alongside Ryan Kwanten's Kludd. Abbie Cornish, David Wenham and Emilie de Ravin fill out the youthful roles, before we meet Geoffrey Rush's brave Ga'Hoole warrior Ezylryb and Helen Mirren's evil Queen Nyra.
The final clip was the most breathtaking (resulting in the aforementioned tear). Soren is training to fight in a night storm, with Snyder previously pointing out that they incorporated actual slowed-down footage of lightning into the shot. The resulting sight of the owls flying through torrential rain is staggering, and it's hard to believe an animation could produce such stomach-lurching action.
That was the end of the 15 minutes and it left me begging for more. On 15 October Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls Of Ga'Hoole will hit cinemas, and if this preview was anything to go by, it's not only going to be one of the most astonishing works of animation ever seen, but the kind of spectacle Avatar promised but didn't deliver.
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