Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls Of Ga’hoole trailer

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Here’s the latest trailer for Zack Snyder’s adaptation Kathryn Lasky’s Guardians of Ga’hoole. Warner Bros. will release the film as Legend of the Guardians on September 24th. Animal Logic (Happy Feet) in Australia produced the animation.

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  • http://saturdaymorningcentral.com Tommy

    Hmm, that’s a lot of owls.

  • Jesse

    I’m interested to see how Zack Snyder’s visual aesthetic translates to animation. It looks interesting, however the only thing I would liked to have seen was a less realistically designed cast.

  • NC

    Now that they’ve shown how the owls make their armor I can skip it. It reminds me of a cross between Secret of NIMH (epic animals) and Titan AE (90+ min. of running away).

  • Brad Constantine

    looks beautiful. Animal logic does great work. I’m really glad they are not singing in this one…

  • tom Stazer

    Having seen the trailer in theater more than once, I am really shaking my head. (hated happy feet). The rendering, lighting, texturing, scenic design, atmospheres – everything is stunning and stirring and thrilling, a brilliant use of CGI, and.. and then – they talk. And it becomes happy beaks. It just looks unendurable, yet strangely beautiful. Which kind of describes everything Snyder’s done since DotD

  • Erin

    It’s like “300″ by way of “Hoot”! Though I have to say it LOOKS amazing (less sure about the animation…the main barn owl character doesn’t seem to have much range of expression). But the birds look and move like birds and the colors look amazing. And no tacky-3D stuck on either, I can dig it.
    I’m thinking Snyder’s style is definitely more suited to animation. You can push it further than you can if you’re trying to meld it with actual actors. And I’ll say he took a very silly idea (owls fighting each other with metal talons and fire) and made it into something epic, at least if you forgive the weirdness of animals forging weapons.
    At the very least, it’ll be better than the books. Those were like LotR meets Watership Down…with owls. Or Redwall with owls.
    Actually, Redwall is something that could probably use the Animal Logic/Snyder treatment.

  • John Field

    If I had any Warner Bros. stock, I would be in a mad rush to sell it all right before they released this.

  • Gobo

    For an anthropomorphic-owl movie, this looks really epic and rich with detail. Pity it’s got one of the worst titles in movie history.

  • troy j. reyes

    saw this trailer several times, everything seemed fine until the dialogue, dead give away, same old-YEAH, LETS DO THIS!-drivel that screen writers swear kids love. so much money and effort went into a visually stunning looking movie mixed with a dime store script that talks down to kids.shame.

  • Dan

    Pixar who? Wow this look breathtaking, I wish Pixar films had these production values!

  • http://www.stopmotionworld.com SMW

    Love to see this move, looks epic and wow those feathers look amazing. Animalogic did well on this one I believe, but that’s my humble opinion. I know one of the lighters on this film and at least on lighting and shading side its really impressive what they accomplished here!

  • TheGunheart

    Oh, god, Erin, did you have to say that? Now I desperately want him to direct a Redwall movie. Given the emphasis on epic battle scenes, Synder would be just too perfect for the job.

  • http://www.elliotelliotelliot.com Elliot Cowan

    I respond favorably to the music track.

  • Oliver

    Are the enemy animals in this colored dark and specially designed to whip up gay panic? Do the owls equate pacifism with effeminacy and dissent with treason?

  • http://www.pitchbibles.blogspot.com Steve Schnier

    I dunno. I want to like it, but… I dunno…
    Looks like a renter. Not that the visuals aren’t great, but the core idea leaves me cold.

  • erlab

    Here I am watching, waiting for the human live-action characters to appear.

    …and then the OWLS are the ones who start talking.

    I see. It is THIS kind of film.

  • http://zeteos.blogspot.com/ Mick

    oh my
    40 seconds in and i lost it… crap, although whoever trained those
    birds is a genius

    ‘the owls of gahool’ ????

    Is it just me or does that just sound very weak?

    ‘the bullfinches of russel street’
    ‘the sparrows of magic land’

    bollocks

  • http://ramapithblog.blogspot.com David Gerstein

    No matter how hard the crew might try, it’s still a sword-and-sorcery pic about talking owls—with an embarrassing title that’s likely to turn away anyone who’s not already a fan of the book series.

    Before the preview is over, it’s drifted into corny puns.

    I’d say I didn’t care—except one of the new Wile E Coyote shorts is supposed to be shackled to this, isn’t it?

  • Erin

    @Oliver
    Actually, I recollect the point of Gahoole (from the books) was there’d be a large variety of owls that banded together in a kind of King Arthur’s Court…of owls. The “enemy” suffered a kind of fantastic racism against any owls who were Barn Owls. Anyone who wasn’t a Barn Owl or closely related to one was considered expendable, or a slave.

    So really, the lighter less physically threatening owls are the bad guys. At least when compared to Eagle Owls and Great Horned Owls, they are. If the book had one good point, it got me more interested in different kinds of owls. The authors liked to mix it up and include bits of actual animal behavior and write the characters’ psyche to reflect their species a bit (like the Burrowing Owls not being very good fliers, but loved dark spaces far more than their comrades). I was very into that kind of thing as a kid and could forgive otherwise weak writing if it had something to do with biology.

    @The Gunheart
    Redwall I can’t see being done and being done RIGHT by anyone other than Animal Logic, and it would probably be done best by Snyder. That level of graphics porn and epic aesthetic would meld so well with Redwall’s writing and plot style.

  • Erin

    Hey, “fantastic racism against any owls who WEREN’T Barn Owls”
    curse my typos. Basically it was also Owl Holocaust.

  • Gerard de Souza

    “Legend tells…” Ha.

  • Doug Drown

    Visually impressive, but it didn’t grab me.

  • E. L. Kelly II

    This ain’t flyin.

    It’s physically gorgeous!
    but this is the industry that can throw XXX millions of dollars at anything and make it look fantastic. The problem is:
    How are WB and Animal Logic going to sell a picture about owls – not particularly familiar nor “sexy” animals. These owls look great to this fellow, but not ‘rush to my local theater!’ good. I wonder if that bestselling children’s novel series WARRIORS (with cats) or even Tad Williams’ TAILCHASER’S SONG or Gabriel King’s WILD ROAD would have been safer as far as animal books go (then again, they’re probably already optioned.)
    Erin said REDWALL. I’ll third that. Do these things right, with their more iconic animals, and you’ve got a moderate success, at least.

    Then again, with intelligence, savvy, and especially a knowledge of what instinctively arouses human beings you can sell anything, even a fantasy owl movie. WB failed in this respect by emphasizing a same-ol’ Good-vs-Evil Quest story that people think they know well enough already from that Tolkien/Jackson hammering we got in the aughts; they still consider it nerd fodder. Every time the trailer mentions “legend,” “Guardians,” “Kingdom,” or uses Celtic-knockoff oooo-music, it kills interest from many possible audiences.

    September 24th is stillborn movie release time. Animal Logic gave it an honest try; is it possible Warner/Roadshow knows what’s going on?

    About the movie: I don’t hate what I haven’t seen. It looks nice to me. Just nice. But I’ve seen this trailer let me down, and now I’m not interested, which I find a MAJOR shame, since I care that this sort of thing gets a chance.

  • E. L. Kelly II

    Wow, thanks Erin! You just posted the HOOK.
    That “Owl holocaust” plot from the book presented us with what should have been the point of the movie and the trailer – that would pique more interests that the thing we got here!

    And what you said about REDWALL was spot-on! Heck, the best part of THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE was that spectacular animal battle at the end; can you imagine a movie with more lovable heroes, more loathable enemies, and ten times more crazy animal battles?!

  • http://kazrocks.blogspot.com kazzer

    you had me “owl holocaust”.

  • http://ramapithblog.blogspot.com David Gerstein

    I’m going to trademark the contraction “Owlocaust” before anyone beats me to it.

  • http://www.thehungryreader.com Krepta

    I kept waiting for the owls to start rapping and yelling CHI-HUA-HUA!

  • Gobo

    After the comments here, I have to say I agree, I’m shocked that this got made before a big-screen REDWALL movie. Heck, a lot of people’s favorite thing about PRINCE CASPIAN was Reepicheep.

  • Daniel J. Drazen

    The repeated references to “Happy Feet” remind me that penguins, even when they can’t dance, have a far broader repertoire of movement than owls, including swimming. Here, despite the gorgeous production values and the armor (not bad for a species that lacks opposable thumbs), visually you’ve got owls flying and owls … not flying. If the story isn’t there to catch them, they are going to crash big time.

  • big bad balloon

    wow. looks sooooooooo horribly boring. and that overplayed song can be found all over tv commercials. how many millions were wasted on this? i wouldn’t even watch a beautifully handdrawn rendered version. the student work posted on CB has been infinitely better that this crap.

  • Delia

    I’d rather suffer through the Smurf’s movie than Legend of the Guardians. And the connection to ‘Happy Feet’ is more warning than recommendation.

  • Jorge Garrido

    This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen.

  • Damon

    It looks all right to me.

  • http://tillmyhands.blogspot.com Anoniguy

    The idea of doing Redwall is the best thing to come of this.

    It looks like it’ll be visually stunning, mentally numbing.

  • Dan

    I love the production values!

  • Patrice

    too many complaining.

    i guess no one liked Watership Down?

    Now be happy that there are animated movies like this one or change industry for your own sanity (and he one of your family, friends and coworkers!).

  • samster

    the trailer was awesome!

  • Scott Ecker

    Who is this movie for? It looks to have all of the heart and dialogue of an early nineties attempt at stealing Disney’s thunder mixed with the early 2000s attempts at sci-fi and epics for older audiences.

  • Chuz

    A lot of negative comments here but I’m interested for sure, definitely one I’d see before I made a final judgement.