What Do The Critics Say?

"Condensing three books into one movie, the script packs in gobs of mythology and action. Visually thrilling Legend, soars on the strength of its gorgeous 3-D animation and stellar voice cast. Parents, be advised: The dynamic rendering of clashing titans, brainwashed drones, and shrieking, red-eyed bats (eek!) might send your little owlets scrambling into their holes." Matt Stevens E! ONLINE "Very entertaining, with some of the most majestic CGI visuals ever put on film." Mike McGranaghan AISLE SEAT "The filmmakers have taken prose and turned it into a sweeping visual experience that stirs the very soul." Andrea Chase KILLER MOVIE REVIEWS "This is an awe-inspiring adventure that will open your eyes to a fantastic new world." JimmyO iamROGUE "Will be warmly well-received by young adventure fans. I think it will win him some new young fans, and more than that, I hope it has inspired the director to now consider animation as a viable way to tell certain stories, no matter what the rating, because he's certainly got a knack for using animation the right way." Drew McWeeny HITFIX

"The visuals are absolutely stunning and there's something inherently awesome about owls fighting in Snyder's slow-motion. The film is not for kids considering the violent and evil nature of these owls. There is death, evil and violence throughout which shocked me." Kevin McCarthy BIG DADDY KEV'S REVIEWS "Sweeping owl fantasy adventure is impressive but intense." Sandie Angulo Chen COMMON SENSE MEDIA "The 3D visuals are breathtaking as are the details imbued in this robust fantasy adventure." Louise Keller URBAN CINEFILE "A splendid adventure sure to thrill children and fantasy buffs." Stephen Cole GLOBE & MAIL "On a visual level, there’s nothing else in theatres like this." Joshua Tyler CINEMABLEND "The animation itself is startlingly beautiful, as is the ancient owl world it imagines. The battles are complex and, in true Snyder tradition, heavy on the action. Adapted by John Orloff and Emil Stern from the first three in the children's fifteen book series "Guardians of Ga'Hoole" by Kathryn Lasky." Betsy Sharkey LOS ANGELES TIMES

The Inside Story Young owlet Soren embarks on a quest to follow his dreams…only to discover they’re real. Stepping into the legend that he’s faithfully followed through his father’s nest-time stories, he becomes a crucial part of the next chapter in the epic tales. Now on a true hero’s journey of self-discovery, young Soren and his friends join their mentors in an action-packed battle against the evil Pure Ones to protect not only their freedom, but the very existence of the Guardians of Ga’Hoole, who have sworn an oath to mend the broken, make strong the weak, and vanquish evil. "Isn’t it every kid’s fantasy to become a character in his or her favorite story?" director Zack Snyder ("300") asks. "In our film, it’s a young owl who wants to find these legendary warrior owls that have been part of his personal mythology since he was born. And when the stories actually turn out to be true, it’s very powerful." In "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole", Snyder and the highly gifted creative team at Animal Logic sought to open a window into a world that hasn’t been seen before, with mythic environments and expansive terrains like nothing they’d ever imagined, and owls so wonderfully realized that you almost forget they're not real. "Zack brings a visual language to his movies that is distinctive, and so do we at Animal Logic, so the marriage between Zack’s vision and our vision was easy right from the get-go," says producer and Animal Logic CEO Zareh Nalbandian ("Knowing"). Drawing from his experience on the Oscar ® winning "Happy Feet", Nalbandian assembled a crew of more than five hundred digital professionals, including a team of computer animation specialists, to bring "Legend of the Guardians" from the page to the screen, with the added dimension of a 3D film. "We don’t think about our movies as animated, we think of them as movies; Zack didn’t come on board to make an animated movie, he came to make a great action fantasy adventure, tracking a hero’s journey, which happened to be in an animated world. It was about creating a visual feast for audiences that would be unique." In addition to the challenge of taking on his first entirely computer-generated project, Snyder, whose previous work includes the epic action film "Watchmen", found that his motivation for making this particular story hit close to home. "I know it sounds cliché, but my kids are always saying to me, 'Dad, when are you gonna make a movie we can see?' And the chance to work with the animators at Animal Logic really appealed to me; there were moments in "Happy Feet" that I found artistically breathtaking. So when I saw their initial 'Guardians' artwork, and then read the stories of Soren and his friends on this incredible quest, I looked at it as a perfect opportunity to bring my own sensibilities to a family film." "Both Zack and I loved the notion of this young boy: who just happens to be an owl in an owl world; learning to believe in himself and in something bigger than himself," executive producer Deborah Snyder ("Watchmen") said. "He has to battle the odds, and in doing so, becomes the owl kingdom’s only hope for survival. We felt it was a story we would love to bring to the screen." The filmmakers first came upon the tale when executive producer Lionel Wigram ("Sherlock Holmes") discovered the popular 'Guardians of Ga’Hoole' series of fifteen books by American author Kathryn Lasky. Recognizing their cinematic potential, Wigram urged executive producer Donald De Line to read them who says he "found the books completely enchanting. They tackle traditional themes: good versus evil, believing in your dreams and becoming anything you want to be; all while telling a great adventure story." Oscar ® winning actress Helen Mirren ("The Queen"), who takes a rare turn as a villain, says she "loved the classic, archetypal personalities of the characters and the fact that the story is set in the animal kingdom. While it is highly entertaining, it isn’t sentimentalized, and still conveys a deep sense of morality." "We wanted to capture the feeling of the books and give the movie the same sense and tone of a grand adventure, something that would take on a life of its own. That is what Zack does in his work and what made him such an exciting choice for this picture," Wigram maked clear. 2010 Fantasporto International Fantasy Film Award winner Jim Sturgess ("Heartless") states, "Zack loves classic storytelling and is famous for putting together amazing visual sequences, so I knew from the start that this had the potential to be really stunning." "While some of his films may deal with dark material Zack, has a very child-like sense of wonder," De Line ("I Love You, Man") observed. "He is also a real artist, and a whole different side of his talent comes through in this movie. Big action, creatures that fly through the air, huge battle scenes: combine all of those things with 3D animation in 3D and he’s a kid in a candy store." "In taking this adventure from the ground to the air and across the sea, there was no better way to capture the scope of this expedition than to make it in 3D, and no medium lends itself better to 3D than computer animation," Snyder affirmed. Author and executive producer Kathryn Lasky put her stamp of approval on the filmmakers’ efforts. "When I saw the film, it was a dream come true. I couldn’t believe how brilliantly Zack Snyder had realized the Ga’Hoole world on screen, yet remained so true to the spirit of the universe I created. I was totally swept up in Legend of the Guardians." Lasky’s first three books in the series were adapted into screenplay form by writers John Orloff and Emil Stern. Orloff remebers his reaction when he finished reading the first book. "Oh, my God, it’s a fantastic book and I have to do this. Then, as soon as I knew Zack Snyder was directing, I knew the movie was really going to be mind-blowing and that it would look like nothing we’ve ever seen before." "It was a great deal of fun working with a director as visual and action-oriented as Zack, as well as getting to know Animal Logic's extremely gifted and dedicated team of animation wizards," Stern reflects. "We wanted to capture the spirit of the author's world in making the script both cinematic and adventure-packed." "The books are rich in imagery and the world of owls is fascinating," Nalbandian ("Australia") notes, "Add to that the idea of flying above the clouds in a 3D movie in a very naturalistic environment; at every phase it became more and more compelling to develop the world of this movie." Geoffrey Rush, whose awards include: 1996 Australian Film Institute ("Shine"), 1997 Oscar ® ("Shine"), 1999 BAFTA Film ("Elizabeth"), 1999 Screen Actors Guild (" Shakespeare in Love"), 2001 Golden Satellite ("Quills"), 2005 EMMY ("The Life and Death of Peter Sellers") and 2009 Tony Award ("Exit the King") notes, "There’s real vigor in the story and a full spectrum of characters, from cute and cuddly to downright evil. Adding to that, the sophistication, the brilliance really, of the technique has truly been elevated in animated movies. I believed this could be a film that would be appreciated by both kids and their parents on many different levels." Stepping into the animation realm for the first time, Snyder enthuses, "When I saw the potential of what the movie could be, and thought about the chance as a filmmaker to actually be able to create any shot I wanted. I couldn’t wait to see what we could do." In animation, nothing physically exists before the filmmakers begin to make the movie. Therefore, it’s the responsibility of the director and the art department to imagine what the world and its creatures are going to look like. Simple pencil drawings turn into simple animation and the character rigs follow, then musculature, and eventually all the body parts are moving and every feather is in place; but it’s a long, layered and sometimes daunting process. That didn’t deter Snyder in the least. "From the very first meetings that we had, I was very enthusiastic about the way the characters and locations were coming together and continued to feel that every step along the way." Creating from scratch, the artists tried to look at the world in the way that an owl would see it. For example, as nocturnal creatures, much of the story takes place at night, so the moon is their sun. Production designer Simon Whiteley ("Danny Deckchair" title designer) and 2007 Satellite Award winning art director Grant Freckelton (visual effects art director "300") carefully researched the various owl species, as well as the locations that would go into establishing the look and feel and inhabitants of the film. "I like to use design to back up the story and create an emotional response to the image on screen," Freckelton says. "Simon influenced the shapes of things: what each owl or a tree might look like, the structures and so on; whereas I focused more on how the scenes would be lit, the overall mood and tone of the imagery. We literally sat next to each other daily and theorized about how this world was going to come together." Simon Whiteley ("Swimming Upstream"), who spent time at an owl sanctuary in England and became something of an owl expert during production, states, "When working with owls in the sanctuaries, you immediately see that they’ve got personalities just like humans. There are happy owls, grumpy owls, angry owls, friendly owls. One particular British barn owl named Fluffy (at the Screech Owl Sanctuary in the UK), was really like a pet; you could scratch him and stroke him, and he really liked being around people. We filmed all the different species flying, running, eating, bathing and even casting: regurgitating the bits of rodent bone and hair they can’t digest; so we could replicate those behaviors in the film." The production designers set up an 'owl school' for their animation team, immersing them in everything owl, including field trips to Sydney’s natural history museum and the local Sydney zoos. Even the rig designed to build the owls’ bodies was based on an actual owl skeleton that they were able to closely observe. The animators and technicians were taught to think and act and move like an owl. "You have to really study them to understand the nuances of what makes up your characters," Nalbandian relates. "As part of the crew, you’ve got to become the characters to be able to make them truly come alive on screen. The team became engrossed in the owl world, and I think the richness of that experience comes across in the movie." According to animation supervisor Alex Weight, the in-depth study enabled the animators to "respect the owl’s anatomy and only let the owls do as characters what they could do if they could really walk and talk. It made the performances a lot more genuine, because you could suspend your disbelief and accept the experiences they were going through and from that, the emotions they were feeling." To score the epic adventure, director Zack Snyder turned to ARIA Music and BAFTA Film Award winning Australian composer, Ballarat born David Hirschfelder. He leapt at the chance. "I got the opportunity to tell the story of a hero’s journey through music." What's It All About?

Soren, is a young owl enthralled by his father’s epic stories of the Guardians of Ga’Hoole, a mythic band of winged warriors who had fought a great battle to save all of owlkind from the evil Pure Ones. While Soren dreams of someday joining his heroes, his older brother, Kludd, scoffs at the notion, and yearns to hunt, fly and steal his father’s favor from his younger sibling. But Kludd’s jealousy has terrible consequences,causing both owlets to fall from their treetop home and right into the talons of the Pure Ones. Ideologically the brothers are miles apart and when Kludd chooses evil over good, their lives will be re-shaped. With the help of other brave young owls, Soren makes a daring escape. Together they'll soar across the sea and through the mist hoping to find the Great Tree, home of the legendary Guardians; Soren’s only hope of defeating the Pure Ones and saving the owl kingdoms.

The Verdict "What a wonderful production this is. Who would have ever thought, "300" and "Watchmen" director Zack Snyder, could pull something as gorgeous and exciting as this off. A film about Owls? It certainly is! And it is storytelling at its very best. Gee, even author Kathryn Lasky (there are fifteen books in the series) was excited by the finished product. And I'll let you into a little secret: the 3D (which wasn't an add-on or after thought) is exceptionally good. Animal Logic, the company who brought us the Oscar ® winning "Happy Feet", will certainly be in the running for another Oscar ® nod in 2011. The animation is as crisp as a snap frozen Sugar Pea. While the story centres around young Owl, Soren, there is a plethera of other Owls to capture your attention. The voice cast includes some big names indeed. Headed by Oscar ® winners Geoffrey Rush and Helen Mirren, the talented cast includes: Emily Barclay, Joel Edgerton, Bill Hunter, Barry Otto, Anthony LaPaglia, Abbie Cornish, Richard Roxburgh, "SAW" screenwriter Leigh Whannell and that's just scratching the surface. Those who are used to big US productions may find the Australian accents a little off-putting, but I can assure you, after a settling-in period you won't be distracted. For those who are yet to read the books or are already Lasky fans, Scholastic Australia have released special Film Tie-In editions. Look for these in-store now. Parents considering taking reaaly young children should heed a warning: there are some scenes that will upset the ankle biters and early schoolers. A smashing film that tweeners, teens, young adults and adults will find exciting and adorable. Highly recommended. Definately one 'not to be missed', especially if you can afford the 3D experience. 4 1/2 STARS." The Production Team

Director Screenplay Adapted from Producer Original Music Casting Production Design Art Direction

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Zack Snyder John Orloff and Emil Stern the Kathryn Lasky books "Guardians of Ga'Hoole" Zareh Nalbandian David Hirschfelder Nikki Barrett/Kristy Carlson/Danny Long Simon Whiteley Grant Freckelton

Who's Voice Is That?

Emily Barclay Abbie Cornish Essie Davis Adrienne DeFaria Joel Edgerton Deborra-Lee Furness Sacha Horler Bill Hunter Ryan Kwanten Anthony LaPaglia Miriam Margolyes Helen Mirren Sam Neill Barry Otto Richard Roxburgh Geoffrey Rush Angus Sampson Jim Sturgess Hugo Weaving David Wenham Leigh Whannell Gareth Young

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Gylfie Otulissa Marella Eglantine Metalbeak Barran Strix Struma Bubo Kludd Twilight Mrs Plithiver Nyra Allomere Echidna Boron Ezylryb Jutt Soren Noctus/Grimble Digger Jatt Pete

Run Time 98 minutes Rated PG [AUST] Copyright ©2010 - Warner Bros Pictures - All Rights Reserved ©1999-2010 The Movie Pages & impact Internet Services. All Rights Reserved. Protected by Australian and International Copyright. Trademark Laws and Intellectual Property Rights apply.