Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010) comes from Kathryn Lasky's children's series. A young owl falls from the nest with his brother, is abducted, and is taken to the camp of a cult raising an owl army. He escapes and has to find the legendary Guardians of Ga'Hoole. The strange thing about it is the director: Zack Snyder. This is the only animated film by the man who made 300 and Watchmen, and his manner is unchanged. Ramping between slow motion and normal speed, choreographed battle, a dark palette. It plays less like a children's cartoon than like a war film. It was produced at Animal Logic in Sydney, and the feather work and wing mechanics are still held up as some of the best animation of their kind. It runs 97 minutes. Good for: visually ambitious animation, epic fantasy, and animal sagas. Less good for: the fighting, and owls tearing at each other with talons, is harsh for young children. Compressing the first three books into one film means the mythology is assumed rather than explained, and characters take sides before you know who they are.