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Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole

2010
Fantasy, Adventure
1h 37m
Kathryn Lasky's popular children's books are the inspiration for this captivating animated feature about Soren, a barn owl kidnapped from his peaceful forest home. His abductors bring him to an orphanage, where he must train to become a soldier. Despite the toil and hardships, Soren makes friends, and together the young birds attempt to escape.
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Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole

2010
Fantasy, Adventure
1h 37m
Your probable score
Avg Percentile 41.06% from 1047 total ratings

Ratings & Reviews

(1046)
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Rated 05 Dec 2010
70
71st
Sure the story has been told before, sure it has some lousy characters and sure you know how its gonna end, but that doesn't change the fact that Snyder has managed to make a great animated action film about OWLS!? If you can manage to liberate yourself from the frustrationen about the story line youre in for a slow-motion thrill ride of proportions. Superb animation and Snyders trademarks saves the day, uh and did I mention that it was about OWLS, f-ing OWLS!?
Rated 06 Dec 2010
54
27th
It felt like a generic children's movie that Snyder was trying to make into a movie that spoke about being disillusioned as a youngster. Unfortunately the film gives into idealism and morality instead of growing into its potential. I didn't really expect anything else though, it was a children's movie after all. It's a shame though, that we have to spoon feed our kids this rainbow and sunshine BS instead of giving them real world advice.
Rated 29 Dec 2010
7
65th
Lord of the Rings - Revised Owls Edition. Had a great time with this. Surprisingly dark, filled with dazzling visuals, fairly engrossing and only pulled back by some silly battle shots but c'mon it's still impressive for owls. Keen for a sequel.
Rated 13 Oct 2013
57
33rd
Owls plus Every Heroes' Journey Cliche Ever plus purrty images enhanced by dubious chemicals minus a reason to care about anything = worth about 57 points.
Rated 04 Oct 2010
95
95th
With the epicness of an Arthurian novel, the magic of Native American folk tales, and a sense of urgency resembling the 2008 US elections, all I have to say is: Owls are BAD. ASS.
Rated 15 Oct 2010
60
28th
Excellent animation. Weak script. Cool new Roadrunner short.
Rated 02 Nov 2010
25
17th
Not sure there were any characters in this movie, but the animation sure was pretty. My biggest beef is that they had Owl City make the song. Get it? Owl City? Barf.
Rated 10 Dec 2010
62
14th
Decent enough though I'll forget it all in a day. It takes half the film to build any sort of interesting momentum, the characterizations are annoying and the message is a mess but it has some good moments and nothing terrible.
Rated 10 Dec 2010
90
79th
Guess I can't comprehend the bad reviews in any way. First of all, The Owl's of Ga'Hoole is one of the most beautiful animated movies I've ever seen. The characters are absolutely great and the story is quiet interesting, too. Zack Snyders first animation movie offers a lot to it's viewer, and entertains more than all the other animated flicks that came out this year like despicable for example!! Wonderful cinema.
Rated 20 Dec 2010
65
10th
The CGI was spectacular, everything else was completely forgettable.
Rated 23 Dec 2010
75
77th
Visually spectactular. The storyline is schematic (who cares). Pretty awesome.
Rated 30 Dec 2010
19
15th
I'm impressed. No matter which animal they pick up and they can build up a natural looking, cool eye-candy. But David Lynch was right: owls are not what they seem. They have no brains at all. At least in this story there was nothing to cling to. Shame for so well done animation.
Rated 01 Apr 2011
75
60th
Beautiful and interesting film about young owls who become adults during a conflict between forces of good and evil. But despite the stunning visual and the extraordinary work of animation, the plot seems contained to avoid scaring the children. This becomes problematic because we are talking about war, fear, love, hate, life and death. Excessive caution in tackling the issue weakens the strength of the original story and expands the distance between the audience and what happens on screen.
Rated 22 Apr 2011
60
52nd
Works just fine. The animation is exceptional, and although some of the voice acting is a little dodgy, for the most it is passable. As expected from Snyder some of the cinematography is brilliant. The screenplay is pretty clumsy, but for what is essentially a kids movie the script is more than strong enough. I thought the characters worked pretty good too, and once I was past the weirdness of them being owls I enjoyed this for the most part. Sets itself up for a sequel... which I would watch.
Rated 07 Jul 2011
60
22nd
Absolutely beautiful, and probably Zack Snyder's best movie: it's only barely morally repugnant!
Rated 20 Aug 2011
55
25th
Looks very nice, but the plot never really grabbed me and ultimately, I found myself growing kind of bored. Too bad, since the visuals were fantastic.
Rated 27 Feb 2013
70
28th
Suffers a bit from pacing issues and a generic (yet rather effective) fantasy storyline. Where the movie really shines is with its gorgeous visuals, and it's also nice to see a children's movie with some darker overtones (a nice introduction to Nazis). The voice acting and touches of humor were also quite good.
Rated 30 Jun 2017
35
4th
far too predictable for my tastes. I really was not that wowed by this one. I seen this awhile ago, and I cannot really remember alot about it. it was pretty dull, I remember being so disinterested that I would not even warrant this a second viewing. Maybe reading the book would have made it tolerable, but this just did not do anything for me. I usually enjoy cartoons and fantasy, so this definitely dropped the ball, if in fact it ever had the ball.
Rated 14 May 2019
3
56th
Pleasantly un-neutered brutality missing from many of its contemporaries. Aspects of The Black Cauldron and even Watership Down in the savagery. Maybe a little generic story/character wise, but as a high concept fantasy movie to gawk at, I'm not offended by it. Uncomplicated and imperfect, but ambitious and overall well done.
Rated 17 Oct 2010
5
0th
"Snyder's wildlife adventure returns him to genius: extreme, dream-like action cinema that expresses his pop-art faith."
Rated 30 Oct 2010
70
41st
It's totally about socialism vs. fascism.
Rated 28 Nov 2010
10
9th
"3D has jumped the shark. Again." - Paul Schrodt
Rated 06 Dec 2010
71
50th
Visually very beautiful, had some good jokes, epic owls (!) fighting scenes. Overall I enjoyed it quite a bit. Do not expect anything serious,just accept this movie as it is - film for kids with a sense of childish innocence in it.
Rated 08 Dec 2010
80
79th
I really enjoy this one
Rated 11 Dec 2010
90
0th
Amazingly beautiful and action-packed.
Rated 13 Dec 2010
21
8th
There were some cool slow motion shots... of owls... flying. Yeah, it was bad.
Rated 27 Dec 2010
70
23rd
Weak story and very beautiful owls. Very, very beautiful.
Rated 30 Dec 2010
80
22nd
Enjoyed it thoroughly - more for the visual gorgeousness than anything else. I guess it won't stand much of repeated viewing. Full of cliches. A journey - collecting some crazy friends on the way - some baby cuteness - a sexy bad female character - one eyed villain - unlikely hero .. And it leaves you wondering in a world filled with owls how do they make fire, how did they build those arches, equipment and misc artifacts .. rope and lever ?? They could have atleast made them crude/simple enough
Rated 02 Jan 2011
90
68th
O.O pretty
Rated 17 Jan 2011
61
35th
Zach Snyder once again excels in style and falters in substance. While the film has incredible visuals, with all of the aerial sequences having a breathtaking quality, the script and story are simple and lacking. A fun enough family adventure, though a warning to those with really young kids, this picture may be a little too violent (lots o' dead birds).
Rated 19 Jan 2011
48
24th
Watched a blu-ray copy purely to see what it would look like on my new TV. Looked great! Other than that though....
Rated 04 Feb 2011
4
43rd
The most unapologetically prototypical hero's journey this side of George Lucas, with some nice visuals (and, yes, Zack Snyder going into slow motion for one specific action then speeding back up again). I enjoyed bits of it, but the real problem is that it just feels SO condensed and rushed, never giving sufficient time to any specific story thread. I wonder if it might have been better as a TV show.
Rated 06 Feb 2011
85
91st
This movie surprised me by being wonderfully good! A well conceived and well executed storyline and it looks gorgeous in 3D.
Rated 26 Feb 2011
63
11th
Awesome visuals, uninteresting story.
Rated 01 Mar 2011
72
51st
It looks absolutely stunning.
Rated 05 Mar 2011
60
31st
Beautifully animated, not a bad story for the kids but otherwise average.
Rated 27 Mar 2011
56
31st
A stunningly animated feature with a stiff and beaten story. Things are never given time to actually flourish, the plot jumps from one to another in a heartbeat and suddenly the movie ends with a big fight and foreboding warning of a sequel. This is probably one of those movies where you've had to have read the books beforehand to really appreciate it because the only that kept outdoing itself was the quality of animation. And it had Geoffrey Rush, as the most interesting character no less.
Rated 01 Apr 2011
5
17th
Ga'hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooole
Rated 05 Apr 2011
40
34th
So owl fights in slow motion you say?
Rated 27 Apr 2011
74
57th
Great Visual but kids tale.
Rated 28 Apr 2011
73
28th
A film with stunning animation (plus amazing use of 3D) and solid voice work that is held back from greatness by a generic storyline derivative of countless other fantasy films and dialogue that, while often serviceable, occasionally gives way to unintentional laughs (take a shot every time a character uses the work "gizzard" in a sentence). Regardless, it makes for solid entertainment, if not much more.
Rated 07 May 2011
65
50th
Beautiful on a visual level and I totally mean it. But the story is not engaging enough and I think kids will be scared or even bored by it.
Rated 07 Jun 2011
50
44th
You don't give a shit about anything! The characters are weak, the story is predictable and everything has been seen before. Visually it is very beautiful, but that's not enough.
Rated 13 Jun 2011
66
51st
Might be going against the trend here but I didn't think this was half bad. It is a little slow in parts and there are times where it might be a little scary for younger viewers. Beautifully animated.
Rated 23 Jun 2011
85
19th
Owls are cute
Rated 11 Jul 2011
60
15th
It looks nice, but I fail to see the appeal of an owl fairy tale. The story is imaginative, but it doesn't really matter because it was off-putting from the get go, on top of that it really doesn't take you for much of a ride. This movie should be reserved for only children eight and under, or if you're really looking for some owl-on-owl combat--never, ever thought I'd say that.
Rated 07 Aug 2011
70
37th
Beautiful animation and an exciting story, plus quite a few genuinely funny moments... don't know why this wasn't more of a hit.
Rated 28 Nov 2011
8
86th
For the 30 Seconds To Mars song in the trailer, lol
Rated 02 Jan 2012
30
5th
The air battle scenes are quite good, but the narrative is irritatingly lazy. I was bored and thrilled at the same time while watching this.
Rated 12 Jan 2012
65
54th
For the first half, I wasn't really into it. I was too preoccupied with the fact that the characters were owls and with the supernatural plots devices. But I eventually got into it and ended up kinda digging it. It had a pretty conventional plot for a family film, but it was still enjoyable. It had some nice wit to it too; I found myself laughing out loud more than once. The animation was quite beautiful too. So, yeah, if you can get past the owls, it ain't half bad.
Rated 18 Mar 2012
85
45th
I was pleasantly surprised with solid heroic story and absence of 'humans destroy nature' references.
Rated 04 Apr 2012
72
14th
I never read the books so I cannot compare. I did find it to be just an average animated care with some beautiful animation and a story that isn't really boring. I guess I was mostly underwhelmed. It's not a bad movie, but it's just not as great as it's made out to be.
Rated 17 Apr 2012
78
51st
As you'd expect, the books are better. Not just because they have more info, but the tone is darker, the characters are defined much better, and for someone who wants to have a good read AND learn about owls, the books are incredible. This movie may look amazing, and serves as a good childrens/family movie, but I wish they had stayed more faithful to the source material; it really would have made the film more appealing to a mass audience.
Rated 15 Jul 2012
65
13th
Nothing I need to watch again, so predictable even for children.
Rated 05 Aug 2012
60
23rd
21:9, Real 3D. Story and characters are average at best, but visuals and 3D are stunning.
Rated 03 May 2013
60
52nd
The film looked amazing and the characters were for the most part interesting. However, it all fell flat when the whole film is rushed to the point it felt exhausting to even watch. I think the film would have benefited of some characters being cut. It would have left more space for other characters to interact and given the story more time to flesh out.
Rated 23 Jul 2013
55
35th
5 pretty good
Rated 21 Oct 2013
50
11th
It has owls! And it's an animated movie! Therefore you have to do pretty damn bad to only score that low with me... Might have to do with a more than shallow and absolutely predictable storyline. The same actually goes for the characters. Technically it's done pretty neatly though. Thanks for that...
Rated 30 Dec 2013
35
34th
just beautiful views. nothing else.
Rated 15 Nov 2014
65
39th
average
Rated 04 Jul 2015
69
47th
If I were to judge this movie entirely by it's animation, I'd say it's a great film. Very successful. Unfortunately, you have to get into the story, the writing, and pretty much everything else, and that kills it. Movie ends up being mediocre overall.
Rated 13 Nov 2015
67
76th
To preface, I haven't read the books. Legend of the Guardians is flawlessly animated; the feathers, the wind, the rain, it's art in motion. Unfortunately it's downhill from there. The plot is decent, though a little conflated in places. The score is good, though a few tracks are quite jarring. The voice acting is okay, though it took a while to get used to (especially the main characters). On the whole, it's still thoroughly enjoyable, and it occasionally reminded me of the Eagles in LotR.
Rated 08 Dec 2015
40
15th
Glossy, yes, but terribly grating.
Rated 28 Dec 2015
55
30th
The visuals are utterly phenomenal; probably some of the best I've seen in an animated movie not from a major studio. Unfortunately, the story is very familiar, and Zack Snyder's over-stylized direction often gets in the way. There are a couple of surprisingly likable stretches, but overall, this is just kind of average.
Rated 14 Mar 2016
65
41st
Visually stunning, but storywise bit weaker.
Rated 15 May 2016
58
8th
Great Animation, dumb story
Rated 23 Sep 2016
70
63rd
Great visuals and one of the best CGI usage but story telling is poor and also sadly story's itself is not that great either.. I always heard from my friend about how the book of this film is good or something. But movie is not that great at this part. But visuals and cgı composition is like revolutionary.
Rated 28 Mar 2017
85
90th
A talented voice cast adds additional quality to breathtakingly beautiful animation. The story may be nothing more than a small, quick vehicle from set piece to set piece but I really did not mind, since each scene is full of humour or action and is always, always incredibly gorgeous.
Rated 22 Jul 2017
82
53rd
B+
Rated 05 Nov 2017
45
18th
Like a bastard child of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, that happens to be an owl. But imagining Helen Mirren sitting in a studio and making screech sounds was pretty fun.
Rated 16 Apr 2020
68
15th
Zach Snyder's images mostly look like they should be airbrushed on the side of a van.

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