Title : Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
Directed by Zack Snyder
Produced by Zareh Nalbandian
Screenplay by John Orloff, Emil Stern
Based on Guardians of Ga'Hoole by Kathryn Lasky
Starring : Jim Sturgess, Geoffrey Rush, Emily Barclay, Anthony LaPaglia, Joel Edgerton, David Wenham, Ryan Kwanten, Helen Mirren, Sam Neill, Hugo Weaving, Miriam Margoyles
Music by David Hirschfelder and Adam Young (Owl City)
Editing by David Burrows
Studio : Village Roadshow Pictures, Animal Logic
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date(s) : September 24, 2010 (North America), September 30, 2010 (Australia)
Running time : 97 minutes
Country : United States, Australia
Language : English
Budget : $80 million
Box office : $140,073,390
Synopsis
Soren (Jim Sturgess), a young Barn Owl, lives in the Tyto Forest with his family: his father, Noctus (Hugo Weaving); his mother, Marella (Essie Davis); his older brother, Kludd (Ryan Kwanten); his younger sister, Eglantine (Adrienne DeFaria); and Mrs. Plithiver aka Mrs. P (Miriam Margolyes) the family's nest maid, a kindly blind snake. Soren enjoys listening to the 'Legends of Ga'Hoole,' which are mythical tales of warrior owls fighting against the evil rebellion of owls that call themselves the Pure Ones. One day, in jealousy of Soren's branching ability, Kludd pushes him off a branch, but inadvertently falls himself. On the ground, they are attacked by a Tasmanian devil, but are saved/kidnapped by owls, Jatt (Leigh Whannell) and Jutt (Angus Sampson).
As the owls take them to St. Aegolius, the canyonland home of the Pure Ones, Soren meets Gylfie (Emily Barclay), a young elf owl as well as many other owlets. At St. Aegolius, the queen of the Pure Ones, Nyra (Helen Mirren), begins to say that the young owls are their slaves. When Soren and Gylfie protest, the two are placed as 'pickers.' Kludd openly rejects Soren and receives training to become a soldier to the Pure Ones. Grimble (Hugo Weaving), Soren and Gylfie's captor, secretly tells them that he is disloyal to the Pure Ones and manages to teach them to fly. However, Nyra catches them just as she comes to invite Soren to be a soldier. Grimble then sacrifices himself to allow the owls to fly away seeking the 'Great Tree of Ga'Hoole' to warn the mythical Guardians about the Pure Ones' plan against them.
Along the journey, they meet Twilight (Anthony LaPaglia), a Great Grey Owl and Digger (David Wenham), a Burrowing owl. They also find Mrs. P. who had left the family nest in search of Soren and Kludd.
The owls, carrying Mrs. P in Twilight's lute, are guided to a shrine run by an oracular echidna (Barry Otto), who provides comic, but accurate, descriptions of the quintet and guidance to the object of their quest. Despite a fierce storm, the group, now called "the Band", manages to reach the Great Tree with assistance from the Guardians, where they are trained in different chaws, or classes, one of which is taught by Strix Struma (Sacha Horler). The Parliament of the tree listens intently to the Band's story. One owl, Allomere (Sam Neill), a Great Gray Owl, objects to the story. However, a Whiskered Screech Owl, Eyzlryb (Geoffrey Rush), supports it. Later, Soren and Gylfie are introduced to a female Spotted Owl called Otulissa (Abbie Cornish). Otulissa flirts with Soren, and he falls for her quickly while Gylfie rolls her eyes at them.
Later Ezylryb takes the owlets on a flight lesson in a torrential rainstorm. Otulissa goes with them, but only to act as support. He demonstrates how to fly in a controlled fashion, with Soren and Gylfie struggling to gain control. Soren briefly masters gizzard-flying, only to lose control and fall towards the sea. Ezylryb rescues him and orders Soren to go back to his hollow. Soren learns that Ezylryb is in fact, Lyze of Keil, the heroic leader of the Guardians. Soren is enraged when Ezylryb scoffs at his past, though Ezylryb explains the concept of battle: how it's not even heroic, merely doing what's right, even if someday one might end up looking like himself. Meanwhile, Kludd, now a Pure One Guard, continues to follow the lead of other Pure Ones & continues to become more evil by being enrolled as one by the evil Metal Beak (Joel Edgerton), the evil leader of the Pure Ones.
Allomere returns from a scouting mission from St. Aegolius with news that his wingmen had been killed in an ambush by the Pure Ones. He had brought to the tree two moon-blinked, a catatonic state of entrancement caused by sleeping under the moonlight for a prolonged period of time, owlets, one of which is Soren's sister, Eglantine. Angered, the Guardians invade St. Aegolius. Soren manages to break her trance and Eglantine reveals that Kludd had kidnapped her and given her to Allomere. Shocked by this deception, the original band quickly flies to the Guardians' aid. Allomere's treason had led them into a trap. The Guardians have been physically and mentally paralyzed by mind and gizzard-paralyzing "flecks," operated by bats and made of metal bits gleaned by the enslaved "Pickers" in the months before. Soren and Gylfie, plus Twilight and Digger race towards the Guardians' aid.
Soren manages to disable the flecks, by flying into the forest fire and setting a lamp into flames, risking his own life. With just enough energy left to save the Guardians, he plunges into the fleck field and the blue magnet is ebbed away. Ezylryb quickly helps Soren up and all the Guardians fly off, ready for battle. Soren fights a few Pure Ones and is confronted by Kludd, who leads the battle into a forest fire. Kludd is angry at Soren and throws him into a tree multiple times, before Soren catches him off guard. The two brothers fight a little, before Kludd rams into Soren. The fall down a burning tree and, which breaks Kludd's wing and he is rendered unable to fly. Soren grabs Kludd's foot and Kludd tricks him into pulling him up, only to attack Soren. Soren dodges Kludd's attack and tries to save his brother before Kludd accidentally falls into the forest fire, as the branch he was clinging to had snapped.
Furious at Kludd's "death" and at hearing Metal Beak and Nyra fighting Ezylryb, Soren returns to the Guardian's aid, and attacks Metal Beak just in time before the latter could finally murder Soren's hero. However, Metal Beak descends and is about to kill Soren when the younger owl manages to impale the enemy leader on a burning stick from the fire, killing him. Meanwhile, Digger, Gylfie and Twilight fend off the impending bats. Nyra calls the attack to a retreat and The Band return to the tree. Soren, Gylfie, Twilight and Digger are honored as Guardians of Ga'Hoole. While Soren says that Kludd's body was never found, he is shown to be alive, but scarred from the fire. Now with the glowing red eyes of the other Pure Ones, he stares at Metal Beak's mask.
