An animated 'Legend of the Guardians'

It's Friday, and you know what that means: another pilot for a fantasy-film franchise based on a series of popular young-adult novels. In 3-D.

Today's entry, the animated "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole," based on Kathryn Lasky's books, isn't half-bad as these things go. And you know how they go: A young owl, Soren (voiced by Jim Sturgess), loves his father's fairy tales about the brave warriors called the Guardians, while his brother Kludd (Ryan Kwanten) turns a deaf ear. After they're kidnapped by the deceptively named Pure Ones, the siblings realize the stories were true. Soren wants to escape, but Kludd rather likes his new family.

The story features not one special school but two. At the evil St. Aegolius Academy, headmistress Nyra (Helen Mirren) trains some owls to be warriors and forces others into slave labor. After Soren flees with his new friend Gylfie (Emily Barclay), he ends up at the Guardians' school, where he, too, trains for combat.

The overly familiar material benefits from gorgeous computer animation and energetic direction by Zack Snyder, best known for family-unfriendly films like the super-violent "300." Snyder heightens the action, albeit carefully: When an owl takes a blow he sprays feathers, not blood. (The effect, rather cleverly, is the same.) The battle scenes are terrific, though very young children might find them overwhelming.

"Legend of the Guardians" doesn't pack any real surprises, and its thin characters could use some fleshing out. But these days, that's what sequels are for.