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Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole


The critical consensus

The result is technically dazzling but much less of a hoot than it should have been.

***(*)(*)Alison Rowat, The Herald, 21/10/2010

Legend is cute and beautifully voiced (Sam Neill, Helen Mirren, Hugo Weaving) but ruinously overlong and only shines during the closing credits which are Struwwelpeterishy sinister.

**(*)(*)(*)Antonia Quirke, Financial Times, 20/10/2010

Dark but visually ravishing animated adventure.

Paul Greenwood, Evening Times, 21/10/2010

It's all very weird sometimes, but engaging: a nice half-term treat for younger children.

***(*)(*)Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian, 21/10/2010

We’re left with something gorgeous, turgid, and emotionally impenetrable – less a movie, more an Imax screensaver.

**(*)(*)(*)Tim Robey, The Telegraph, 21/10/2010

The stars of this computerised epic are the Design and Art departments, who provide stunning landscapes, caves and kingdoms, and whose 3D magic is genuinely thrilling. The trouble is the bloody owls: their features are insufficiently differentiated, the baddies and super-goodies confusingly wear masks and bow before supreme beings in white feathers.

***(*)(*)John Walsh, The Independent, 22/10/2010

This isn't a particularly compelling or involving story, though the animation will perhaps prove striking enough to mesmerise younger audiences not yet bored by overexposure to the standard good versus evil fantasy tropes.

**(*)(*)(*)Alistair Harkness, The Scotsman, 23/10/2010

Recommended to anyone keen to see a bunch of cartoon owls knocking lumps out of each other.

**(*)(*)(*)Eddie Harrison, The List, 22/10/2010

A dull, morally uplifting tale.

Philip French, The Observer, 24/10/2010

A mish-mash of technical over-indulgence, needlessly complicated storytelling and heaps of too-intense-for-children owl-on-owl savagery, Legend will appeal mostly to ornithologists. Or very weird kids.

**(*)(*)(*)Ken McIntyre, Total Film, 22/10/2010

This is unlikely to win Kathryn Lansky’s antipodean owl fantasy any new fans, but even the bemused (and confused) can luxuriate in some grand-scale visual storytelling.

***(*)(*)Dan Jolin, Empire Online


Features about Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole

Zack Snyder: talking owls and Superman

Marc Lee, The Telegraph, 21/10/2010

Where and when?

General release. Check local listings for show times.

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