Legend of the guardians

Legend of the Guardians probably broke even within a couple of months of its 2010 opening, reportedly grossing close to US$140 million worldwide (against a budget of US$80 million). It's a pleasant surprise that the computer-animated feature made US$55 million in North America, where enough movie-going families were not put off by its plot's many dark moments, the lack of human characters in an owl saga, its Australian voices, and an Irish-sounding subtitle, The Owls of Ga'Hoole.

The saga is derived from a set of popular children's books written by Kathryn Lasky, under the subtitle brand name. That may have brought in much custom, as did the 3D/IMAX formats and the track record of Australia's Animal Logic animators (Babe, Happy Feet). Word of mouth among parents would have been the best advertising, for this must have an enchanting 3D movie experience.

Bursting with true flights of avian fancy and glorious colour composition, the movie is a marvelous collage of animation skills. Owls have the biggest eyes of all birds (the equivalent to humans having eyes the size of large oranges, a DVD extra notes) and they are used to good effect to convey the various characters' emotions. As saga go, however, and as Ms Lasky's books presumably did, the characters and their action adventures are standard fare.

Two young Barn Owlets, Kludd and Soren, are abducted by evil owls, the Pure Ones, led by masked Metal Beak (Joel Edgerton) and his white-feathered queen (Helen Mirren). Soren escapes, together with a small female Elf Owlet. They meet a Burrowing Owl (David Wenham) who's called Digger, naturally, and his pal, a Great Grey (Anthony LaPaglia). Soren's family nursemaid snake, Mrs P (Miriam Margolyes), goes along for the ride, and they all reach the secret home of the good Guardians, where an old Whiskered Screech (Geoffrey Rush) and a treacherous Great Grey (Sam Neill) debate the best way to meet the external threat.

Lord of the Rings performed by a typical Hollywood band of oddball creatures? It could have been, but first-time animation director Jack Snyder was wisely asked to give the saga his distinctive action-packed big-screen-filling surround-sound style (as in 300, Watchmen and the next Superman). The net result is a movie whose looks and sounds, special effects and pace deserve a storyline that's stronger. Most comic moments seem contrived, with stereotypical characters such as a pair of bumbling baddies and a poet-warrior with a lute and off-key songs.

More credibly, the wayward brother is allowed to die (after trying to trick his sibling once more) and the moral lessons can be easily explained to their youngsters by human parents. They won't need to explain why the evil queen is allowed to flee with some survivors, and the newly qualified Guardian Owl utters warnings. A sequel was hoped for, but I suspect we'll see Happy Feet 2 first.