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kamreadsandrecsTalking animals are a mainstay of childhood memories for many people all around the world, mostly in the animation world. While it's possible to make it look as if a real animal is talking through some fancy camera tricks and judicious computer editing (Dr. Doolittle, anyone?), the most memorable talking animals have tended to come from the world of animation - and, mostly, from the world of Disney. The Fox and the Hound. Bambi. Lady and the Tramp. The Aristocats. The Rescuers Down Under. The entire freaking cast of The Lion King, which showed us that animals can be totally epic. And this isn't even counting the animal sidekicks that appear in all the other movies: Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio. Sebastian and Flounder from The Little Mermaid. Iago and Abu from Aladdin.
Of course, it wouldn't be fair to say that Disney's the only one that has talking animals. The Land Before Time is a great example, as it's not Disney at all, but has memorable characters and an equally memorable storyline. I remember crying when Littlefoot's parents were killed, and I still feel my throat close up a little whenever I catch the movie on TV nowadays. There's also All Dogs Go to Heaven, made by the same people behind The Land Before Time and which can sometimes be viewed as a response to Disney's "talking canines" movies like Lady and the Tramp and 101 Dalmatians. And then there's Swan Lake, which is not by Disney but follows a similar pattern of a princess with animal sidekicks, although the princess does turn into an animal herself, which is a bit more Sword in the Stone than anything else.
With the introduction of CGI animation, it's no surprise that this trend of talking animals should appear in that medium as well. The most memorable would definitely have to be Pixar's Finding Nemo, which has made accurately-depicted fish come off as incredibly sympathetic and endearing (Flounder from The Little Mermaid doesn't count, because a real flounder is actually a rather ugly fish and does not look nearly as cute or endearing as Flounder). Of course, Pixar isn't the only company that has tackled endearing talking animals: Animal Logic has Happy Feet, which is about a tap-dancing penguin who can't sing, which also happened to win Best Animated Feature Film during 2006 Academy Awards - out beat out Cars by Pixar. This was rather surprising at the time because Pixar is a perennial favorite at the Oscars.
This year, 2010, Pixar came out with Toy Story 3, the concluding chapter in the story of Woody and Buzz Lightyear and all their friends. Much like last year's Up, Toy Story 3 is considered a top contender for this year's Best Animated Feature Oscar, and for many of the same reasons.
This year, Animal Logic decided to test the waters, and see if they could compete against Pixar - with talking owls.
Based on the first three books in a series of children's books by Kathryn Lasky, The Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole has been advertised as an epic journey-type movie, with a feel very much like that of The Lord of the Rings - which is rather interesting, as Animal Logic worked on some of the computer animation used in that particular movie.
Anyway, The Legend of the Guardians is a very different movie when compared to its predecessor, Happy Feet. The latter was very Disney-esque, with lots of musical numbers and dancing and "Believe in yourself, and you can do anything!" going on in the movie. The Legend of the Guardians does not have that - well, there's no dancing, and not much singing either. The only time anyone sings is when Twilight breaks out into song because, you know, he's a bard, and that's what bards do. And there's no dancing, unless you count fighting as a kind of dance. The movie actually verges on the PG-13 instead of G, given the violence that goes on in it.
Though to be fair, it's a graceful kind of violence. The animators at Animal Logic took the time to study how owls move and behave, and were very careful to study species differences while they were at it. All that study has gone into the animation of the characters, and I have to say, it's some of the most impressive animating I've ever seen. When the characters are in motion, whether in flight or while fighting, they look realistic and awe-inspiring in their beauty. I know it's kind of hard to imagine owls looking totally epic, but trust me, these owls look very, very epic when they fight and when they fly. They all move like proper owls, which is great because owls look great in real life to begin with.
The top-notch visuals are matched by a top-notch voice cast. While the voice actors for Soren (Jim Sturgess) and Gylfie the Elf Owl (Emily Barclay) are relative unknowns (to me, anyway), the rest of the cast is as awe-inspiring as the animation. Geoffrey Rush plays Ezylryb, a Whiskered Screech Owl who turns out to be Lyze of Kiel, Soren's personal hero. Ryan Kwanten, most known as Jason Stackhouse in True Blood, voices Soren's brother Kludd. David Wenham, most known for his portrayal of Faramir in The Lord of the Rings, voices Digger, the quirky and twitchy Burrowing Owl. Anthony LaPaglia, best known for his role as the character Jack Malone in the TV series Without a Trace, voices (and sings) Twilight the Great Gray Owl. Helen Mirren voices Nyra, the queenly (because she is, damn it) Barn Owl who is the right-hand (wing?) female of Metalbeak the Sooty Owl, who in his turn is voiced by Joel Edgerton, the young Owen Lars in the last two Star Wars prequels. Rounding out the awesome cast are Sam Neill as Allomere the Great Gray Owl, and Hugo Weaving pulling double duty as Noctus the Barn Owl (Soren's father) and Grimble the Boreal Owl.
Now that does this mean for the viewer? Combine all that acting power with excellent animation, and what you get is a very sympathetic bunch of characters. Soren and Gylfie might be a wee bit irritating at times, but it's easy to stop being irritated at them when there are other characters to love, or love to hate. Owls can be difficult to sympathize with, since only a few species have a high "cuteness factor," and all the rest of them look like deadly killers (which is what they really are, anyway), but in this movie, it's pretty easy to sympathize with Soren and Gylfie. It's easy to like Digger and Twilight when they do show up. It's easy to feel a sense of fear when Nyra and Metalbeak are around. Boron and Barran, the Snowy Owl King and Queen of Ga'hoole, look and sound appropriately majestic. Even Mrs. Plithiver, the nestmaid-snake who looks after Soren, Kludd, and their little sister Eglantine, is so well-animated and voiced that people who don't like snakes might find themselves changing their minds about them once they see her.
So: great cast, and great animation. Does this make it a suitable contender against Toy Story 3 for Oscar gold? Actually, no, because there is one thing that Legend of the Guardians lacks, or rather, does not do very well: a good story.
The main problem with The Legend of the Guardians is that the basic storyline has been done to death in many other movies before it. Kid wants to become a hero. Kid finds himself or herself in a situation that requires him or her to become a hero. Kid finds like-minded people who help him or her on his quest to become a hero, which essentially means learning to be himself or herself. That, in just a couple of sentences, is the entire plot of The Legend of the Guardians, with a few additions here and there that, really, don't change the story all that much. Anyone who's seen a lot of fantasy movies, or reads a lot of fantasy literature, will have seen the entire plot of this movie from a mile away, based solely on the trailer.
Of course, it's possible to argue that that same plot has been used in other movies and novels before, and I won't disagree: it's the basic plot of the Hero's Journey, or the monomyth, which is discussed in-depth by Joseph Campbell and other like-minded scholars. That same pattern has been used over and over again in other novels and other movies, but what makes it fail in The Legend of the Guardians is that it is applied in far too straightforward a manner. It's as if there's not a lot of time to really let the plot develop, and instead it's driven forward from one event to the next in an almost frenetic manner that makes the plot very obvious to viewers. There's not enough twists in the story, not enough world-building, not enough character-building to give the story its full potential.
That part about the world-building is what disappoints me about this movie - not that it's badly done, but more like there wasn't enough of it. I wanted a more complete, concrete glimpse of the world these owls inhabit, and how the characters fit into that world. Take Gylfie, for example. She mentions, in passing, that she's from the desert, but we see so little of her that we don't really know her quirks, the ones that could have come from her "culture" and made her the owl she is when she meets Soren. All we know is that she can navigate by the stars because that's what they're taught to do. The characters are so stripped down that, while you might like your first impression of them, you might find yourself wanting to know a little more, only to find out that they're not going to get more.
I have the feeling that this movie will definitely be nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars, but I highly, highly doubt that it will win. Animal Logic might have beat out Pixar the last time these two went head-to-head at the Academy Awards, but this time Pixar will likely win this round.
Of course, it wouldn't be fair to say that Disney's the only one that has talking animals. The Land Before Time is a great example, as it's not Disney at all, but has memorable characters and an equally memorable storyline. I remember crying when Littlefoot's parents were killed, and I still feel my throat close up a little whenever I catch the movie on TV nowadays. There's also All Dogs Go to Heaven, made by the same people behind The Land Before Time and which can sometimes be viewed as a response to Disney's "talking canines" movies like Lady and the Tramp and 101 Dalmatians. And then there's Swan Lake, which is not by Disney but follows a similar pattern of a princess with animal sidekicks, although the princess does turn into an animal herself, which is a bit more Sword in the Stone than anything else.
With the introduction of CGI animation, it's no surprise that this trend of talking animals should appear in that medium as well. The most memorable would definitely have to be Pixar's Finding Nemo, which has made accurately-depicted fish come off as incredibly sympathetic and endearing (Flounder from The Little Mermaid doesn't count, because a real flounder is actually a rather ugly fish and does not look nearly as cute or endearing as Flounder). Of course, Pixar isn't the only company that has tackled endearing talking animals: Animal Logic has Happy Feet, which is about a tap-dancing penguin who can't sing, which also happened to win Best Animated Feature Film during 2006 Academy Awards - out beat out Cars by Pixar. This was rather surprising at the time because Pixar is a perennial favorite at the Oscars.
This year, 2010, Pixar came out with Toy Story 3, the concluding chapter in the story of Woody and Buzz Lightyear and all their friends. Much like last year's Up, Toy Story 3 is considered a top contender for this year's Best Animated Feature Oscar, and for many of the same reasons.
This year, Animal Logic decided to test the waters, and see if they could compete against Pixar - with talking owls.
Based on the first three books in a series of children's books by Kathryn Lasky, The Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole has been advertised as an epic journey-type movie, with a feel very much like that of The Lord of the Rings - which is rather interesting, as Animal Logic worked on some of the computer animation used in that particular movie.
Anyway, The Legend of the Guardians is a very different movie when compared to its predecessor, Happy Feet. The latter was very Disney-esque, with lots of musical numbers and dancing and "Believe in yourself, and you can do anything!" going on in the movie. The Legend of the Guardians does not have that - well, there's no dancing, and not much singing either. The only time anyone sings is when Twilight breaks out into song because, you know, he's a bard, and that's what bards do. And there's no dancing, unless you count fighting as a kind of dance. The movie actually verges on the PG-13 instead of G, given the violence that goes on in it.
Though to be fair, it's a graceful kind of violence. The animators at Animal Logic took the time to study how owls move and behave, and were very careful to study species differences while they were at it. All that study has gone into the animation of the characters, and I have to say, it's some of the most impressive animating I've ever seen. When the characters are in motion, whether in flight or while fighting, they look realistic and awe-inspiring in their beauty. I know it's kind of hard to imagine owls looking totally epic, but trust me, these owls look very, very epic when they fight and when they fly. They all move like proper owls, which is great because owls look great in real life to begin with.
The top-notch visuals are matched by a top-notch voice cast. While the voice actors for Soren (Jim Sturgess) and Gylfie the Elf Owl (Emily Barclay) are relative unknowns (to me, anyway), the rest of the cast is as awe-inspiring as the animation. Geoffrey Rush plays Ezylryb, a Whiskered Screech Owl who turns out to be Lyze of Kiel, Soren's personal hero. Ryan Kwanten, most known as Jason Stackhouse in True Blood, voices Soren's brother Kludd. David Wenham, most known for his portrayal of Faramir in The Lord of the Rings, voices Digger, the quirky and twitchy Burrowing Owl. Anthony LaPaglia, best known for his role as the character Jack Malone in the TV series Without a Trace, voices (and sings) Twilight the Great Gray Owl. Helen Mirren voices Nyra, the queenly (because she is, damn it) Barn Owl who is the right-hand (wing?) female of Metalbeak the Sooty Owl, who in his turn is voiced by Joel Edgerton, the young Owen Lars in the last two Star Wars prequels. Rounding out the awesome cast are Sam Neill as Allomere the Great Gray Owl, and Hugo Weaving pulling double duty as Noctus the Barn Owl (Soren's father) and Grimble the Boreal Owl.
Now that does this mean for the viewer? Combine all that acting power with excellent animation, and what you get is a very sympathetic bunch of characters. Soren and Gylfie might be a wee bit irritating at times, but it's easy to stop being irritated at them when there are other characters to love, or love to hate. Owls can be difficult to sympathize with, since only a few species have a high "cuteness factor," and all the rest of them look like deadly killers (which is what they really are, anyway), but in this movie, it's pretty easy to sympathize with Soren and Gylfie. It's easy to like Digger and Twilight when they do show up. It's easy to feel a sense of fear when Nyra and Metalbeak are around. Boron and Barran, the Snowy Owl King and Queen of Ga'hoole, look and sound appropriately majestic. Even Mrs. Plithiver, the nestmaid-snake who looks after Soren, Kludd, and their little sister Eglantine, is so well-animated and voiced that people who don't like snakes might find themselves changing their minds about them once they see her.
So: great cast, and great animation. Does this make it a suitable contender against Toy Story 3 for Oscar gold? Actually, no, because there is one thing that Legend of the Guardians lacks, or rather, does not do very well: a good story.
The main problem with The Legend of the Guardians is that the basic storyline has been done to death in many other movies before it. Kid wants to become a hero. Kid finds himself or herself in a situation that requires him or her to become a hero. Kid finds like-minded people who help him or her on his quest to become a hero, which essentially means learning to be himself or herself. That, in just a couple of sentences, is the entire plot of The Legend of the Guardians, with a few additions here and there that, really, don't change the story all that much. Anyone who's seen a lot of fantasy movies, or reads a lot of fantasy literature, will have seen the entire plot of this movie from a mile away, based solely on the trailer.
Of course, it's possible to argue that that same plot has been used in other movies and novels before, and I won't disagree: it's the basic plot of the Hero's Journey, or the monomyth, which is discussed in-depth by Joseph Campbell and other like-minded scholars. That same pattern has been used over and over again in other novels and other movies, but what makes it fail in The Legend of the Guardians is that it is applied in far too straightforward a manner. It's as if there's not a lot of time to really let the plot develop, and instead it's driven forward from one event to the next in an almost frenetic manner that makes the plot very obvious to viewers. There's not enough twists in the story, not enough world-building, not enough character-building to give the story its full potential.
That part about the world-building is what disappoints me about this movie - not that it's badly done, but more like there wasn't enough of it. I wanted a more complete, concrete glimpse of the world these owls inhabit, and how the characters fit into that world. Take Gylfie, for example. She mentions, in passing, that she's from the desert, but we see so little of her that we don't really know her quirks, the ones that could have come from her "culture" and made her the owl she is when she meets Soren. All we know is that she can navigate by the stars because that's what they're taught to do. The characters are so stripped down that, while you might like your first impression of them, you might find yourself wanting to know a little more, only to find out that they're not going to get more.
I have the feeling that this movie will definitely be nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars, but I highly, highly doubt that it will win. Animal Logic might have beat out Pixar the last time these two went head-to-head at the Academy Awards, but this time Pixar will likely win this round.
