The Legend of the Guardians (3D)

Having already sent zombies ("Dawn of the Dead"), Spartans ("300") and self-proclaimed superheroes ("Watchmen - The Watchmen") into mostly bloody combat, Zack Snyder tries his hand at more family-friendly material with the animated film "The Legend of the Watchmen". At least, that's what you'd think, since brave owls are at the center of the action here. But even though the film, based on Kathryn Lasky's books, which are very popular in the US, is supposed to be aimed at children, the rather dark, often frightening production, especially in 3D, is actually hard to recommend to small viewers.

The film tells of the owl boy Soren, who night after night listens with fascination to the stories his father tells him and his two siblings about the fabled warriors of Ga`Hoole, the troupe of brave owls who stood against the evil Pure Ones. Soren's brother Kludd puts little stock in these pipe dreams, preferring to finally learn how to hunt and fly properly. When the two brothers fall out of the nest one night while testing each other's strength, they are unceremoniously kidnapped by the Pure Ones. They are to be trained as will-less warriors to help the Pure Ones take over the entire realm. Soren manages to escape, but Kludd remains with his captors, feeling acknowledged here for the first time.

With a small group of brave companions, Soren finally finds his way to the Guardians of Ga`Hoole, but this is only one small step towards defeating the Pure Ones for good...

No question, "The Legend of the Guardians"is visually a masterpiece. The animations are gorgeous, the design is mesmerizing, and the attention to detail is nothing short of breathtaking. Based on the first three volumes of Kathryn Lasky's 15-book series, it embeds a fairly simple adventure story into the visually more than engaging setting. The problem with this is that many elements of the story are very dark, too dark to really be suitable for children aged 6 and up. In plastic 3D, these scenes seem even more real, even more frightening and menacing - which, while on the one hand can be taken as praise for the good 3D effects, is also meant as a warning to parents, who should think very carefully about sending their little ones to see the film.

Older children, on the other hand, will have a hard time identifying with the owl heroes. Sure, some of the fight scenes are extremely exciting and rousingly staged, but owls, I'm sorry to say, just aren't cool enough for teenagers to stand up as heroes. So the question becomes: if the film is too scary for little kids and too uncool for teens, who does the work actually appeal to? In general, I would say that the film could appeal to fantasy fans of any age group (as before: the very young excluded), assuming a certain fondness for owls. For as a fantasy film, "The Legend of the Guardians"is quite convincing and better than many a work this genre has produced in recent years.

In some ways, credit must go to the makers for making the characters less cartoonishly overdrawn. The owls in the film look and act like real owls - except for the small fact that they talk, wear armor, and go into epic battles against each other. But in the essentials, the heroes are well modeled on their real-life counterparts, giving the film a certain "seriousness" that older fantasy fans might well enjoy.

So the bottom line is really just to say that the only real problem "The Legend of the Guardians has to contend with is the exact target audience definition. Visually gorgeous, with a thrilling story and an atmospheric soundtrack, Snyder's foray into the world of 3D animation as a fantasy film is absolutely successful - but a lighthearted children's film, this dark owl adventure really isn't.

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp