Review of Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010) by Shiira — 27 Sep 2010

Rip-roaring though the action scenes may be, a feast for the eyes and the senses, "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole" is in reductionist terms, "Star Wars" with owls, and that's when it's not busy being "Lord of the Rings"(and even, a little of "Schindler's List") with owls; nocturnal birds anthropomorphized into jedi knights and hobbits, stormtroopers and orcs, who could be any number of interchangable animals, since the generic narrative never strays far from the same hero quest template found in so many fantasy-based films.

But the film's subtext fascinates, as it's spectacularly inappropriate for a children's movie. Modeled after Nazi Germany, young owls are kidnapped from their homes by the Pure Ones and deposited at labor camps, in effect, making "The Diary of Anne Frank" passe, and so twentieth century.

Metalbeak(an obvious Darth Vader, or Hitler stand-in) is planning a Krystallnacht, a two-step pogrom that would eradicate the Guardians, then their home, the mythical kingdom of Ga'Hoole, a far-away place that Soren(Jim Sturges) always believed was real, while his brother Kludd(Ryan Klanten) had regarded as nothing more than a rumor.

Without the steadying influence of their parents, the sibling rivalry culminates in a divergence based on ideology(a difference that can be glimpsed in its incubative stage back home), as Kludd, a Tytos owl looking to get out of his brother's shadow, starts working for the Pure Ones in the capacity of a Judenrat-like affiliate, and Soren, a freedom fighter like Luke Fly-walker(sorry), not only preserves his species, but storytelling, as well, both owl and oral tradition alike.

From the outset, Kludd was already displaying the capacity for totalitarianism, with all that harrumphing toward his family's ideals in the communal tree. He hated Soren for his love of literature(a literature that also function as a liturgical work of art); his spirituality and benevolent nature.

Kludd was a bad egg. After Grimble chooses Soren and Gylfrie to be a sort of Schindler's owls, he helps them escape to Ga'Hoole, where the fe-di meets Ezylryb(Geoffrey Rush), the author of his father's favorite story.

Decrepit and resigned to irrelevance, the corporeality of The Lyze of Kiel creates a disconnect in Soren's mind from the picture his father helped paint; the writer, as it turns out, is not a hero, a lesson learned for the naive owl who now understands the difference between fact and fiction.

It's a juxtaposition that reappears later in the film, finding expression in the diegesis, the geography of the labor camp, where the magnetic force field(read: crematorium) is situated next to a brush fire(read: a bonfire for book-burning).

To Kludd's satisfaction, the real Guardians, and the abstract version of their exploits can both be extinguished. (Ezylyrb is among the dying Guardians.) But Soren, like David, slays Metalbeak, slays Goliath, and protects his kind.

More importantly, he preserves his kind's culture.