The Legend of the Guardians - Blu-Ray

Movie: 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 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 have 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 accepted 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. For this reason, the film was also cut by several minutes for the theatrical release in Germany. On DVD, only the cut version is available. Buyers of the Blu-Ray, on the other hand, can enjoy the uncut FSK 12 version.

Older children, however, will hardly be able to identify 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 Watchers"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 after their real-life counterparts, giving the film a certain "seriousness" that older fantasy fans might enjoy.

So all that really remains to be said is that the only real problem "The Legend of the Guardians"has to contend with is the exact target audience definition. Visually magnificent, with an exciting story and an atmospheric soundtrack, Snyder's foray into the world of (3D) animation as a fantasy film is absolutely successful - but a cheerful children's film is the gloomy owl adventure really not.

Picture + Sound: Technically, the Blu-Ray can fully convince. The picture is mostly crisp and shows even small details very clearly. The contrasts are right and also the mixing of colors and black levels is right. The sound comes especially during the final fight to bear, but can score overall by dynamically mixed sound effects. Very good!

Extras: The bonus material is clearly tailored to a younger audience. For example, the film can be viewed in the so-called Maximum Kids Mode, whereby in the usual picture-in-picture manner parallel to the film various storyboard drawings, animatics, interviews and more can be seen. Every now and then the film is then interrupted for more in-depth information, which extends the runtime by about ten minutes in total from 96 (not 93 as stated on the cover) to just under 107 min.

The insight into the real world of owls (approx. 10 min.), presented by Digger and the young actor Rico Rodriguez from the US hit comedy series "Modern Family" is prepared in a child-friendly way and also at the Looney Tunes cartoon "The Rabid Rotor" small viewers will have their bright joy. In addition, the Blu-Ray still has the owl story to offer, which Soren heard so gladly (approx. 2 min.), the music video to the title song of Owl City, as well as four picture galleries to offer. Average, unfortunately nothing more!

Conclusion: "The Legend of the Guardians" is a decent fantasy film, which can inspire especially on a visual level. It's certainly too gritty for younger viewers, but older fantasy, animation, and owl fans should give it a look. Especially since the Blu-Ray presents the film uncut and in very good technical implementation. That the bonus material is only average, can be forgiven there

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp