When you mention Zack Snyder, a few movies immediately come to mind: 300, Watchmen, his work with DC. If you keep thinking about him, then movies like Sucker Punch, Rebel Moon, and Army of the Dead will start to bubble up to the surface of your brain. But you have to dig even further, deep into the darkest depths of Snyder’s IMDB profile, to recall his strange animated family movie that was meant to anchor a new franchise for Warner Bros., only to become an awkwardly-titled punchline instead. Now, 15 years later, the movie may be just as strange and badly named, but it’s managed to do what animated films rarely do: still look cutting-edge.
The Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole is an overstuffed title for an overstuffed movie. The book series it was based on, the more straightforwardly named Guardians of Ga’Hoole, was written by prolific children’s author Kathryn Lasky and added owls to the Warrior Cats and Redwall genre of “fantasy world where animals exist in a complex society full of conflict and drama.” Zack Snyder brought this owl society and all its intricacies to the big screen, and the result was a high-wire act of worldbuilding and goofiness, complete with an original song by Owl City.
In the world of Ga’Hoole, barn owls are referred to as Tyto, their genus. Young Tyto Soren (Jim Sturgess) and his rebellious brother Kludd (Ryan Kwanten) are abducted after falling from a tree, and are taken to the hideout of the Pure Ones, a Tyto-supremacist cult. That’s already a lot for a young audience to handle, but the Pure Ones are kidnapping young owls (owlets, to use the technical term) and brainwashing them into mindless zombie slaves (moonblinking, to use the made-up technical term).
It’s an audacious plot, but that’s part of what makes the movie so unique. In an era where Warner Bros.’ previous forays into fantasy filmmaking were the spoonfed stories of Harry Potter, coming in swinging with owl racism and child labor was refreshing. There are still some familiar tropes, like an all-seeing echidna that may as well be named Rafiki, but many of the plot twists are something more befitting an adult Zack Snyder movie.
In fact, a lot of this story echoes Snyder’s larger filmography. There’s brainwashing like in Sucker Punch, xenophobia like in Dawn of the Dead, and the same “hate is bad” message of basically all his movies. Of course, there are limits to how much these themes can be explored within the context of a PG rating, but it’s still a great Baby’s First Snyder.
Owls of Ga’Hoole’s greatest strength, however, is how gorgeous it looks. As animation continues to grow and develop, movies can look dated after just a few years, but Owls remains almost painterly in how it depicts all its different species and gives them expressive faces. Compare this character design with other animated movies from 2010 like How to Train Your Dragon, Megamind, and Tangled. In a world of Dreamworks face, this is basically Avatar.
Fifteen years later, Ga’Hoole clearly isn’t the Harry Potter follow-up Warner Bros. hoped it would become: its enduring legacy is its goofy title and a running joke on 30 Rock. But even if it didn’t pay off, the breathtaking visuals and no-holds-barred plot will go down as one of the most audacious animated movies ever, and we have Zack Snyder to thank for it.
