Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole is a 2010 3D computer-animated fantasy adventure film directed by Zack Snyder. Based on the Guardians of Ga'Hoole book series by Kathryn Lasky, the film was written by John Orloff and Emil Stern and features the voices of Helen Mirren, Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess, Hugo Weaving, Emily Barclay, Abbie Cornish, Ryan Kwanten, Anthony LaPaglia, Miriam Margolyes, Sam Neill, Richard Roxburgh, and David Wenham. An international co-production between the United States and Australia, the film was produced by Village Roadshow Pictures and Animal Logic, following their success with the 2006 film Happy Feet. In the film, Soren (Sturgess), a barn owl, is kidnapped and taken to St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls led by Metal Beak (Joel Edgerton) and Nyra (Mirren), where owlets are brainwashed into becoming soldiers. He befriends a fellow owl named Gylfie (Barclay), and they later escape the facility to find the Island of Ga'Hoole with new-found friends and together fight against the evil army.
Legend of the Guardians was theatrically released in RealD 3D and IMAX 3D in North America on September 24, 2010, and in Australia on September 30, 2010, by Warner Bros. Pictures; it was accompanied by a new 3D Looney Tunes cartoon entitled Fur of Flying. The film grossed over $140 million worldwide against a budget of $80 million. It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised its dark tone, animation, and voice performances, but criticized its screenplay and felt it did not live up to its full potential.
Plot
Soren, a young barn owl, lives in the kingdom of Tyto Forest with his family. Soren enjoys listening to his father's stories of the "Guardians of Ga'Hoole," valiant warrior owls who fought the evil Pure Ones. Kludd, Soren's older brother, becomes jealous of Soren after they are taught how to fly and pushes him off a branch, causing them both to fall to the ground. The brothers are kidnapped by Jatt and Jutt, two owls who work for the Pure Ones, and taken to the St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls.
The Pure Ones' queen, Nyra, announces that the owls will either become soldiers or pickers (owls who find " flecks," bits of magnetic metal that are used to build a superweapon). While Kludd becomes a soldier, Soren and another owl named Gylfie become pickers and are put through a brainwashing process called "moon-blinking," but they resist. A boreal owl named Grimble teaches them to fly and tells them to find the Great Tree of Ga'Hoole, but Nyra finds out and kills him. Soren and Gylfie escape and soon meet two more owls named Digger and Twilight. In their hollow, Soren reunites with Mrs. P, a western blind snake who is his family's nest maid. She agrees to go with them and find the Guardians.
The owls fly towards the sea of Hoolemere and reach the legendary shrine of the Guardians, guarded by an oracular echidna who helps the owls find the Island of Ga'Hoole. While flying, the band encounters a fierce snowstorm and Digger's wings freeze, causing him to fall into the sea, but they are saved by two owls Boron and Barran, the king and queen of the Guardians. They lead the party to the Great Tree of Ga'Hoole, where Soren tells the Guardians about the Pure Ones' plans. Boron sends a great grey owl called Allomere out with two scouts to investigate St. Aegolius.
The owls stay in the Tree of Ga'Hoole for a long time and are looked after by a young short-eared owl named Otulissa. One day, Soren learns that Ezylryb, his teacher, is really Lyze of Kiel, who fought and defeated Metal Beak, Nyra's mate. Allomere returns from his scouting mission with news that his two wingmen were killed in an ambush. He brings back two moon-blinked owlets, one of which is Soren's younger sister Eglantine. The Guardians prepare for battle and fly out towards St. Aegolius. When she finally snaps out of her trance, Eglantine tells Soren that it was Kludd who moon-blinked her and gave her to Allomere, confirming that Allomere is a traitor and that the Guardians are actually flying into a trap. The owls fly back to St. Aegolius where they find Metal Beak holding the Guardians captive in a machine powered by flecks and guarded by bats.