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An amalgam of form and content, Zack Snyder’s
Legends of the Guardians is 95 minutes of wholesome entertainment that should keep both children and their parents satisfied THERE are animation films and there are animation films and they vary in content and treatment. But The Lion King did make a major difference. It made those once-papery figures throb with life and feeling. The Little Mermaid was another. After that, the standard has not been consistent. But for a change, Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’hoole is up to its high standards, an ideal amalgam of form and content.
The use of 3D is alluring, to say the least. It strikes a new blow for digital animation. The protagonists are a pair of squabbling owlets, who are "birdnapped" from their tree-top abode by an avian warlord. One of them escapes from the fascist captors but the sibling decides to stay back and so is on the dark side. So it is the good
old-fashioned battle between the good and the evil, which is dealt
with all its visual splendour in Tolkienesque style. May be the
slow-motion shots of graphic violence could have been reduced or
better spaced out. But that apart, it is 95 minutes of wholesome
entertainment that should keep both children and their parents
satisfied. Quite an achievement these days when children films tend to
fall between two stools. Ideal family fare. Go for it.
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It
is a breathtaking adaptation of the popular children’s fantasy
novels and it is surprising that filmmaker Zack Snyder should helm
such a project. It is not his forte. However, the man, who gave us
such mega adventures as 300 and Watchman, does full
justice to the subject. Snyder imbues a standard hero’s quest story
with visual panache and uses a distinguished ensemble of vocal talent,
Jim Sturgess and veterans Helen Mirren and Geoffrey Rush included.