Kidsday reviews ‘The Owls of Ga’Hoole’

We saw an advance screening of new movie “Legend of the Guardians:  The Owls of Ga’Hoole" in Manhattan earlier this week.

The movie is based on books by Kathryn Lasky. It was an extremely exciting adventure about good owls and bad owls. It is in 3-D animation, which really adds to the story.

The story is about a young owl, Soren (he’s so cute!) and his brother, Kludd (he’s not cute!). Their father had told them many stories about the Guardians of Ga’Hoole, who give owls protection and are legends. Soren loves these stories, and dreams of becoming a Guardian. But Kludd thinks the stories are lame, and that his brother believes in them because Soren is weak. When Soren and Kludd get captured by the Pure Ones (the bad guys) the adventure begins.

Along the way we meet a number of other characters, both good and bad.  All of these characters are very believable. Good characters seem to light up the screen, while there is darkness when the evil ones are around. Some of our favorite characters are Gylfie, an elf owl who becomes Soren’s first friend, Digger and Twilight who are a humorous pair, and Ezylryb, an old owl who was once a powerful leader. It is Ezylryb’s advice to “trust in your gizzard” (believe in yourself) that leads Soren to become a hero.

The best part of this movie was the action. There was always something exciting happening, and it held our attention the whole time. The 3-D effects were especially amazing and sometimes quite surprising!  The flying of the owls looked so real, you thought they were in the theater with you. The sound of the owls flying was very life-like and sounded like real birds flying. The voices of each owl suited their personality.  And the personality of each owl sometimes made you think they could really be people.  Even the music seemed to fit the scene.

We all thought the movie was awesome and would recommend it to our friends and families. Some of the scenes, especially the battle scenes, are intense and could be scary for kids under 7. 

But if you love adventure, special effects, cool characters, and some surprises in the plot, this movie is for you! The movie told a good story, but it also has a moral — believe in yourself and always fight for what is right.  So you leave the theater stunned, but also touched.
We rated this movie 4 (out of 5) smiley faces.