Did Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole have much in common with the books it's based on by Kathryn Lasky or did Zack Snyder mess things up again?
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0:00 Intro
1:39 The Book
2:47 The Film
6:27 What They Didn't Change
10:35 What They Changed
20:18 What They Left Out Altogether
22:38 Final Thoughts
i gotta say, as someone who read a handful of the guardians of ga'hoole books as a kid, animal books marketed towards children are really funny because theyre marketed as "Let's go on a grand adventure with Mr Bunny C:" and then the actual plot is "Mr Bunny must fight against the rise of fascism and xenophobia in a time of great political turmoil for his warren. Will Mr Bunny be the one to help make a change in the right direction? With the sacrifices given to the wolves every winter, will he even survive?"
That was... basically my favourite genre as a child, now that I think about it. That and the Animorphs, which is... not that different conceptually now that I think about it.
@@05Matz Unless you read the Dick King Smith novels. Those were excellent. Humorous and not at all depressing. Robint Jarvis on the other hand, was straight up fantasy horror. I think I got a good nightmare or two from his books. Still loved the Deptford Mice.
That's Xenofiction for you, a lot of the "cute animal books" marketed for preteens and teens end up being way more serious if analyzed.
That is like 90% of the plot of Watership Down if I remember correctly
Any Redwall fans in the comments tonight?
I swear if Snyder had committed to making sequels to this movie instead of going to DC, we would be living on a brighter timeline
Fucking *PREACH*
I mean we got one of the best DC movies made when he did the JL Snyder cut so I don’t think it was a bad trade off
@@KurenaiNanashiit only took 2 tries, an extra 80 million, and 2 extra hours of time! But he got there! A competent comic movie!
@@thats4thebirds cmon mate don’t be mean. Zack had to stop filming cause of a family emergency which resulted in the death of a loved one (I think it was his daughter) which caused Weadon to take over. The final version was what he was originally going to do so he really only did a single movie. I ain’t a fan of the way he did the previous movies (dunno if I’ll ever forgive him casting that pipsqueak as Luther) but he did Justice to the League with his cut.
@@KurenaiNanashi Considering how his fanbase poisoned the already rotten DC fandom, no I definitely don't consider it a good trade off in the slightest
Fun fact: The series is referenced in The Owl House, when Hooty at one point calls himself a "Guardian of Ga'Hoot".
Another TOH Fan - Let’s Go!
ONE OF US! ONE OF US!
I caught that too 🙂
I went INSANE over that! I loved Guardians and TOH!! Yayyyy
😊
I just want people to know that the later books have, blue owls from another continent, giant flying glowing snakes, and evil demon owls with laser eyes.
Thank you! I had never heard of this series, but that sounds awesome.
Holy shit 😮 now I want all her books to be adapted
There was also these black birds that couldn’t reproduce so they made abominations I think, memory is foggy
God damn, I was a big fan as a kid but I kind of fell of at some point, but now I have to check it out again I didn’t realize it got so crazy
@@TalpaTulpa You are correct (God those things were freaky especially with how they relate to the blue owls).
Rise of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole Where jack frost becomes a snowy owl
And then the sequel, Rise of the Guardians of the Ga'Hoole-axy, where they team up with a talking raccoon and a tree.
There’s this Mad skit where Santa from that movie tries to unite “The Guardians” but keeps getting the owls and the Guardians of the Galaxy “Because when people hear guardians, their first thought is owls in helmets.”
With cameos of the guardians from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and the guardians from W.i.t.c.h.
Rise of the Owls: Legend of the Guardians of the Owls of Santa Claus
Don't forget Jason Stackhouse from True Blood
Little funfact: Guardians of Ga'hoole is connected to another one of Lasky's series: Wolves of the Beyond. There it is established that a guard of wolves protects the vulcanos that the owls get their embers from to use for smithing, as well as a deep bond between wolves and owls
There's another series for polar bears, and another for horses.
@@ggrarl wouldn't be that all of those series are on the same world? I mean, that sounds like it
@@carloshenriquezimmer7543 they are all in the same universe, yes
Wolves of the Beyond was my favorite series as a kid
@@ggrarl Fun Fact: The _Horse of the Dawn_ series (at least the first couple books; I admit I never finished the one) takes place during the period when Spaniards were coming into the Americas.
Despite all the film's problems, the animation is incredible. Even after over a decade, this is still one of the best looking 3D animated movies I've ever seen. There's even an AMV featuring the song "Flight of the Silver bird" by Two Step from Hell, and it's fantastic.
110% back that It still probably is my second favourite cartoon after the first httyd just because of flight scenes.
It is sooooo pretty
Animal logic are just fantastic. They should be doing more movies than they do!
I think a lot of it is in the stylization of the designs. Yes, they're owls, yes, it's CGI, but there is still absolutely a kind of illustrative quality in the looks of the characters.
No lie detected
As someone who saw the movie first and got into the books because of it, I still love both despite the differences. I also think that this is the PERFECT level of photorealism for CGI animals, they're extremely realistic looking but just anthropomorphic enough to be visually distinct and have recognisable facial expressions and body language
I agree with the visuals. ALso, they way they used the "cameras" and even the enviroments, realistic, but not "real". That is what the """"live action"'""" The Lion King wished to look like...
I totally agree re: the level of photorealism. Like, they have hit an amazing balance here.
I agree! They really did the characters justice in how they are anthropomorphised; not too much to be cartoonish, but not so little that they're just animals. Everything in the world here looks like it belongs in the world.
I think it's an amazing balance of realism & stylization! Very expressive & amazing detail on the texture
from what I understand, the art direction is the same people whom later on made, " Happy Feet" the movie about a penguin whom cannot sing but "sings" with his feet instead.
A quick correction: The owl that Kludd pulled a coup on was not 'The Original Metalbeak'. Kludd himself is the original Metalbeak due to a battle injury and a helmet he uses to protect himself from the flecks. The owl he replaced was the High Tyto, the leader of the Pure Ones before Kludd.
Didn't see this before I made my comment mentioning the same thing. 😅
@@TytoT-pj9lz Yours was more detailed, so I think it evens out :)
Wait but that makes no sense! Didn't Ezekiel have a whole history with him? Kludd literally cannot be that old. Pretty sure Metal Beak was a feared name among the elder Ga'Hoolians? I thought that was confusing when I re-read it!
He also snagged the former High Tytos wife!
@@ivyinkwell1754 I feel as though by the time Soren and The Band arrive at the Great Tree, Kludd would have become Metal Beak. Still plenty of time for his reputation to spread as a rumor that could at least reach Bubo, since he has always seemed to have connections.
I absolutely love the design of Nyra in this film. The books always described her as having a face like the moon, and the movie did that description justice.
Similarly, I like how that one owl looks like a knight in chainmail.
Plus, I like what they did with her eyes, eluding to the fact that she's not what she appears.
How long I have waited for this day. 1. The Echidna's book equivalent is probably a rabbit that doesn’t show up until book 7, I believe. The filmmakers really wanted to include Australian animals, so they also had a Tasmanian devil. 2. Twilight is, like Digger, more goofy than his book counterpart. The movie gave Soren an obvious crush on Otulissa, when in the books he couldn’t stand her arrogant personality, although they did become friends later. Gylfie in turn seems to have a crush on Soren, but they always remained only friends. In fact, Soren and Otulissa are the only ones we see to eventually have their own families, and with owls of their respective species. 3. The movie uses material from about 6 of the books. The Battle of the Ice Claws is from the prequel book "Rise of a Legend" and it doesn't involve the Guardians of Ga'Hoole or the Pure Ones. The final battle in the movie is basically from book 6 "The Burning". 4. Movie Metal Beak is a greater sooty owl, but in the Pure Ones hierarchy of Tytos, sooty owls are at the bottom, so they can't achieve high ranks. 5. The role of Allomere is more or less filled by an old female burrowing owl named Dewlap who thinks if she helps the Pure Ones, they'll spare her so she can continue caring for the Great Tree. 6. Several characters had their species changed for some reason, like every spotted owl being changed into a short-eared owl. Also, the filmmakers apparently didn’t know that female owls are larger and/or heavier than males. 7. The movie Pure Ones have their feathers artificially colored, but the owls that did that were kraals (pirates) from the Northern Kingdoms. 8. When they found Eglantine, she was old enough to fly. She was given a different type of brainwashing called stone stunned, where theyre forced to sleep in a crypt. They snapped her out of it with some shiny glass. 9. Ezylryb is the only guardian who gets captured at the end of book 2. One reason he's seen as odd is because he jokes around with seagulls. He also vowed to never fight again, and he holds to that, only providing strategy. 10. The final book "The War of the Ember" has the protagonists use the quote, "Then we shall fight you in the shade!" which makes it closer to 300 than the film. That and the fact that an owl combatant was usually killed by either severing a wing or striking them in the heart. 11. The tiny pieces of magnetic metal are called flecks. Too many can mess with birds' heads (like their sense of direction), and even cause birth defects. 12. There are 18 books total, and you can find them online to read on the Guardians of Ga'Hoole wikia, but I can provide the link. drive.google.com/drive/folders/1XtNKAUYFj_peHCCZjBeyRBHNrC30aB08
Actually, thank you. Wanted to give books a go after the movie but wasn't certain I could find them for free. You're like a sign from above 😅
you're so cool for that last point... i hate buying physical copies of massive series so this is going right to my bookmarks!!
never realized the fuckin echidna wasn't completely movie original
@@bt-eg8xuthe public library probably has them too if you prefer reading physical :) (i love the convenience of e-books but physical is nice too)
@@wolfyboy97 OMG i actually didn't think about that. i'll have to check asap :)) physical over e-book any day
Honestly, the Owl City was at least 60% of what got me to see the movie when I was a kid
Oh big same. Owl city was such a big part of my tween self. And seeing the music video for the song got me to watch the movie.
SAME!
That but ALSO Zambezia. I have never grown out of my "giant fucking tree big enough for an entire capital city in fantasy settings" phase and I see no reason to! Every time I see even an inkling of arboreal settlements I get my fix. Owl City absolutely added to the effect. Didn't really fit the fantasy, but genuinely who cares? Considering Wreck-It-Ralph and Me and My Shadow, Owl City seems to have been signing up with a lot of movies around that time lol. If anyone cares, I know it's irrelevant, but Owl City was going to compose, legit, the entire soundtrack of the movie you probably don't recognize? So that's another reason I wish the timeline was different. Also a character in that movie was going to be the pre-curser to the generally fandom-accepted Human Wheatley design, but like, if you hate that part of the fandom it actually makes sense here. I know this isn't the place to be hyping up such a tiny fandom but I'm just on a hyperfixation right now and I wish to spread the knowledge of it's existence. TLDR; Owl City was in a few movies. And I like that.
Same but not when I was a kid, lmao.
He's seriously not kidding about how rich and immersive the owl culture is in these books. It's almost overwhelming how thorough it is. Twenty years down the road from reading these books, the goofy sounding sentence of "sprink on your spronk" still makes me gasp lol
I’m kind of disappointed that you didn’t talk about the religion of Ga’Hoole. The Rescue also touched on the fact that the Pure Ones were teaching owlets that Glaux/God was the first Barn Owl, opposed how everyone else sees Glaux/God. There are also Hagsfiends, demons that effectively escaped from Hell and just come to Earth in bird form, one of which is Nyra (evil female Barn Owl).
Are you talking about the Hagsfiends that appeared in books 9, 10, and 11?
@@josephpeck8723 YES, thank you. Sorry I got the terminology mixed up. I just feel like that the exclusion of the religion and the exclamation “Great Glaux” was such a missed opportunity.
I actually say Great Glaux, like irl as an exclamation. I keep waiting for someone to notice-
Kinda weird how they were incorporated in the game that released alongside it.
Kathryn Lasky herself said she had mixed emotions on the movie, but when she saw the “fly inside” scene where Soren flies in the hurricane, she said she started crying because she was so happy her writing could inspire such a beautiful scene. Also fun facts about Guardians’ later books: -Nyra is a groomer. She groomed Kludd not only into the Pure Ones and into becoming her mate, but also convinced him to murder the previous leader and take it over. They have one son, Coryn, and he becomes the protagonist in later books. -The Metalbeak of the movie is a Sooty Owl, a type of Tyto, which ironically in the Pure Ones’ hierarchy is considered the lowest on their “purity” scale -The traitor plot line in the movie is taken from a later book where one of rybs (owl teachers) of the Great Tree, Dewlap, was leaking information to the Pure Ones because she felt like no one took her subject seriously. -The echidna is not a thing at all, I have no idea why the movie did that. The closest thing that comes to it is a talking rabbit later but he barely matters. -Otulissa has the best character growth ever and I’m sad the movie not only snubbed her but also made her a Short-Eared owl when she’s a Spotted owl, a fact she takes great pride in -Guardians of Ga’Hoole is a part of a shared universe with Lasky’s other books, Wolves of the Beyond, Horses of the Dawn and more recently Bears of the Ice.
As an adaptation it's mid, but you can definitely tell people who worked on it wanted to make something people would remember.
Cool thing about Coryn, his name is the inverted version of his original birthname, Nyroc
@@afellowhuman8944 I wrote a D&D character named Coryn as a reference to see if anyone got it! Never got to actually play him, which is honestly for the best since he was an edgy fucking OC. Tiefling but in a Jekyll & Hyde way, couldn't decide if he was a sorcerer cuz he was born with it or a warlock since his Hyde form kiiiinda functioned as a patron, etc. Most unique thing I added to him was that he was raised by a cleric group that was explicitly written to be cult-like, killed one of his loved ones and is on a quest to redeem himself the whole time, demon side being circus coded, and had a whole ass storyboard written out for an animatic with a musical number from an actual musical. I'll let you guess which one. No, it's not the obvious one. I remember I pulled all-nighters researching dimension lore on the wiki, going through lists of subclasses... it was a time. To rightfully cringe or to lovingly embrace? That is the question.
Im so upset about Otulissa's character in the movie
What's the chronological order for those other book series? Is Guardians first and every series takes place after the last or is it a lot more jumbled?
As someone who grew up with Redwall, I'm all for more blood-soaked talking animal media for children. Also, I think I'll have to get this book series, because I saw the film years ago on TV, but didn't realize it was from a series of novels.
If you like Redwall, you’ll love this. I grew up reading both with a fever I miss now that I’m an adult 😅
I have the full series and I can definitely recommend. Though not officially, the books are pretty much broken into arcs, so I recommend just starting with the first 3 mentioned to dip your toe in. That's essentially the first arc with the next arc in the series being the next 3 books after the main cast grows up a bit more. Funny enough Dom made a small mistake in saying that the movie adapts the first 3 books. A large reason why a sequel movie was never made is actually due to the fact the first movie actually took random moments from the first SIX books, with that fight in a forest fire taking place in the 6th book appropimately named The Burning. The movies plot is actually a Frankenstein abomination, making a sequel basically impossible without having to just ditch the source material entirely.
I'd love Animal Logic to animate a Redwall film. That would just be magic ❤ (they animated this film btw)
I too will encourage you to read the books. They are short enough to be a nice easy read but the story itself is amazing. So much to take in that when you end one book you immediately want to jump into the next one. I bought the first half and read them quickly then getting the next half.
Other recs if you love those: The Sight (about wolves), The Firebringer (about deer), and The Fire Bringer series (about unicorns but briefly also has normal horses). Then there's the popular Warriors series all about cats!
One of Snyder's better films in my opinion. Despite the story being kinda underwhelming, the animation is just gorgeous, and the cast for this film is incredible. Talk about a hoo's hoo of talented actors...sorry, couldn't resist.
Keep in mind the poor story is the part Snyder did. The animation was an animation studio.
It's better than any other adaptation he's done. Edit: Except maybe 300, but that wasn't a good story or character to begin with.
yeah it's my favorite Snyder film....I've only seen it once in the theater....so that tells you how much I like Snyder
Honestly kinda wish that Snyder made more animated movies really. Another commenter posted something else like this already, but just imagine the alternate universe where instead of getting wrapped up in DC for a decade Snyder instead made more sequels to Legends of the Guardians and made more animated movies in general.
@@michaelvessel4604 Even if they bombed, at least he'd be kept away from DC.
Honestly the tie-in video game is probably the best fantasy bird arial combat simulator in video games... I realise that sounds sacrastic in its specifisity but I'm being sincire in my praise I promise. its a legit good game.
RIGHT like the video game helped to feel totally immersed in the world. It was so satisfying to sneak up above a high level enemy and then DIVEBOMB THEM into combat!
That opening too, such a cool sequence
ikr such a good game, its a great flight sim which is always fun, plus it incorporates elements of the book series the movie left out
SO TRUE!! I love coming back to it every few years because the flight system is just so fun!
Yes! I loved this game when I was a kid! I'm much more of a gamer now than I was then, but it's still one of my favorite games. It also included more of the characters and worldbuilding from the book that didn't make it into the film.
Due to an undiagnosed learning disability. I was pretty much illiterate up until 4th grade. It was the librarian giving me this series to read that got me into reading and helped me put in the effort to learn. This book series is the reason why I can read now. The movie is the reason why I don't go and watch book movies anymore. 🤷♀️
Eragon is my reason. They screwed up so bad they couldn't even continue. They didn't have the werecat in the movie, and they changed the ending. There should be a law that any studio adapting a book should have to read it first or at very least the director and the screen writer.
So Snyder's acknowledgement of not understanding the source material of Dune, 40k and Starwars, A.k.a. Rebel Moon, is releasing a sequel. Snyder also announced that he has enough story for "Six more Rebel Moon Movies". The quote I read in response: "Hey as long as he's working on this, he isn't destroying any franchises we care about. Let him."
Didn't he once say he didn't care if he got the characters right or not in regards to DC?
Assuming this comment line goes on/gets attention, I feel it's important to remember that Snyder didn't write Legend Of The Guardians, (the screenplay was by John Orloff & Emil Stern), he was primarily the director of the film. This is likely why this is one of his better movies as, rather than poorly attempting to turn his own half baked ideas into a over long movie, he just had to make somebody else's fully baked ideas look good. Truth be told, dude probably just needs to find a good writer he can work well with and he'd be much better at film making.
If he cut out slow motion scenes he would only have enough material for 2 movies total
@@anthonyramirez9925 Eh, I agree with the sentiment, but that's still very generous of you. I'd say it's about one movie at most.
"Squirtle isn't in this movie" 😂 That cracked me up!
My partner and I watched this movie after being allowed to bring our kid into the room with us after being born. We were told to watch a bunch of depressing safety stuff about SIDS and how to prevent it, so afterwards we watched this movie to cheer us up. It was the first movie we ever watched together as a family, and it still feels special to us. I've really been meaning to read the books, but haven't had the chance even twelve years later. 😅
You could read them with your 12 year old! I was 12 first time I read the series
This is such a cute story.
Now is the perfect time! Your kid will love them!
Please do read the books! They're amazing. If you liked the movie, you'll like the books. If you're short on time to sit down and read, you can listen to them as audio books, they're each about 5-6 hours. Or just commit to reading the first six (The Capture to The Burning) as that is the Soren centric arc (not that he's not vitally important in the other books).
The Warriors books are the same way, gaining an entire fan base making animations to this very day!
YES
Such an underrated movie. I kinda hope Zack Snyder does more animation in the future because this movie is beautiful
Considering some of his... mocking comments on animation, I have doubts
He didn't animate it. Don't give him credit for the only people that put in real effort. Snyder sucks
@@chrismanuel9768I'm not the biggest fan of Snyder, but I don't think he sucks. He seems like a really nice guy with a unique creative style. I think the negative perception of him stems from the movies people let him direct, and the abhorrent incel fanbase those properties attract. I don't think he's responsible for a lot of his negative image.
An Army of The Dead animated prequel is on hold because the assigned studio failed to deliver the animation but mo-cap, voice acting and so on are done. Twilight of The Gods finished animation a week or tow age and is scheduled for the end of 2024. Snyder also has a 30-minute animated prequel to Rebel Moon in the can. Your wish is long granted.
@@garrettjvb to call Snyder bros abhorrent is a massive understatement
Really really great analysis! As a longtime Ga'Hoole fan who has read the series several times through and has seen the movie multiple times, I really appreciate this. I pretty much agree with all of your points here - but there are a few little things about the movie that they either dropped or changed that bugged me personally that I wanted to share. 1. The. Spotted. OWLS!!! For some reason they decided to make all of the spotted owls short eared owls, which is a completely different species from a different environment and skillset - probably just because they're "prettier" owls with spots. It really ticked me off, because I really like spotted owls and my favorite character was Otulissa in the books! 2. Speaking of Otulissa, man. MAN. They entirely defanged her for the sake of being a palatable love interest type character for Soren. And they reduce her to only showing up a couple of times. In her early appearances, shes absolutely the worst - stuck up, full of herself, and condescending to Soren & friends. But as the series goes on she really learns so many lessons about herself and the world and grows as a character, and had one of the most compelling character arcs imo. And on top of that, being specifically a spotted owl was important to her too so. WHATEVER!!! 3. I'm not sure if this is expanded on in the first three books, but at least once we get Nyroc's (Nyra and Kludd's son) perspective, there is a very distinct racial hierarchy in the Pure Ones - where lighter coloured members of the genus Tyto (barn owls & relatives) are ranked higher and darker colored ones are seen as lowly. This really hammered home the white supremacy allegory in the books, and it was kind of sidelined in the movie. The thing that stuck out most to me is they made Metal Beak a sooty owl because they look "scarier," but in actuality there wouldn't be any way for a sooty owl to be high ranked in the Pure Ones because they were seen as the lowest tier. That's also why Nyra was second in command, because she was so pale. This also makes Allomere being a spy a little strange, since they don't respect owls that are not in the family of Tyto, but who knows. 4. Also, the previous leader of the Pure Ones wasn't Metal Beak, it was a previous unnamed High Tyto who was Nyra's previous mate. Metal Beak didn't exist in the books until Kludd had half his face mutilated in a ritualized duel with the previous leader. The reveal of Kludd being Metal Beak was also really intense - Soren throwing coals in his face, melting the mask to show his missing brother underneath. It was harrowing. Also there was no interaction between Ezylryb/Lyze of Kiel and Metal Beak before the rise of Kludd to power because......yeah. The Pure Ones weren't really a well known faction til the events of the books. However, Soren and Gylfie learned of Ezylryb's previous exploits in the millitary through hidden scrolls in his personal library iirc. Also, I don't remember that Echidna shaman in the books, but, it's been a minute. Shame the puffin family didn't make it in. Anyways, hope this was interesting. Wonderful video - fantastic job, Dominic! Always a pleasure to watch your videos. (edited some phrasing and formatting and added a few more facts)
In some of the later books, one of the higher ranking Pure Ones ends up being a burrowing owl named Tarn, but it's likely because Nyra was desperate.
@@ggrarl oh, huh!! that does sound familiar, but i completely forgot that! thanks for the refresher ^_^
The echidna wasn't in the books
The unique owl-centric vocabulary kind of reminds me of Watership Down wirh how it helps formulate an animal culture in the narrative. Also, 9 years, bloody hell, has it really been that long?
Ryb = teacher Spronk = forbidden Frink = a rude word Chaw = team Churr = owl laugh Gollymopes = depressed Racdrops =raccoon droppings (a curse word) Scroom = ghost Slipgizzle = spy Wilf = when an owl flattens their body due to fear Yarp = throw up Yeep = when an owl seizes up in mid-flight and plummets due to fear Sprink = the worst owl curse word
Glad I’m not the only one who thought the title was complicated. The first times I’ve watched it was by accident, when I was trying to borrow a friend’s copy of “Rise of the Guardians” and later “Guardians of the Galaxy”.
21:25 Probably my favorite of the human deep lore shit in later books is "The Brad" a location where owls commit books to memory to preserving their contents. The owls say they got the idea from an "Other" they call "Ray Brad". An obvious reference, maybe, but a damn cool one.
It's here folks! The LiA episode I requested when I first became a member of the Big Three. This was one of my absolute favorite book series ever, and the movie left me feeling very mixed. It looked great, and the book accurate stuff in it was also great, but the changes they made confused me.
Congratulations! 🎊
Thank you for your service, loved this series.
Hell yeah
The Big Three?
@@reginwill Patrons of Honor. The Patreon tier is called "The Big Three"
Some other things that were cut out that weren't mentioned in this video: - Otulissa's entire character arc (which absolutely sucks since she's a great character) - The whole plotline where the band all got distracted from their quest to get to ga'hoole by some lakes known as the mirror lakes which basically hypnotised them into staying there until Mrs. Plithiver snapped them out of it. - The whole Madame Plonk+Rogue smith of Silverveil plotline, for context the Great tree has a singer (Madame Plonk) who sings the tree to sleep every day. She has a sister who is a blacksmith and the band sneak away from the tree to go and meet said sister to get more information. - SO SO SO many characters, are either reduced to cameos (Primrose, Bubo, Dewlap, Madame Plonk, Strix Struma) or don't appear at all (Trader Mags, Ruby, Martin, Poot, Elvan). - Also the battle of the ice talons did not involve the pure ones at all in the books. Also on a little note about the whole white supremacy/wwii/fascism allegory thing: It is *not* subtle at all. Even if you don't a lot still sticks out as obvious allegory (the whole purity thing) but a lot more becomes noticeable if you've ever researched wwii. - they hold the northern kingdoms (who in this allegory could be interpreted as a stand-in for scandinavia) in a high regard. - they have a racial/ethnic hierarchy within tytonidae- going from barn owls, masked owls, grass owls, greater sooty owls and then finally lesser sooty owls. - Nyra's obsession with hagsfiends/mysticism in the later books. - honestly a lot more that I'm forgetting because it's late lmao Imo it's actually a decently well done wwii allegory. Kathryn Lasky knew what she was doing with it.
Really the only mistakes are a few minor characters changing owl species. One member of parliament went from a northern saw-whet owl to a long-eared owl. One villain went from a spotted owl to a snowy owl or vice-versa.
The tie-in video game was actually really decent! Kinda like an aerial hack and slash with quite some mission variety
It also works in some more elements of the books, specifically the second one, and I'm pretty sure it's considered canon to the movie.
I was so hyped when I saw this pop up on my feed!!! Guardians of Ga'Hoole was my favorite book series as a kid. Very underrated.
I'm surprised it wasn't more popular with the Warrior Cats crowd! They seemed to scratch similar itches.
I reread it as an adult and I was unprepared for how dark it was I'd completely forgotten about Digger witnessing his brother getting eaten. I'll be honest I really liked that metal beak was an unsympathetic villain with delusions of grandeur I _love_ redeemable villains but I appreciate that sometimes people are evil for evil's sake Although I always thought he was evil because Nyra was hot
@@OneVioletRoseI was very into both as a kid, and yeah, they scratched the same itch. Surprisingly dark and complex dramas told through intelligent animals.
@@desireeloveros1055 Kludd was already a jerk before Nyra recruited him into the Pure Ones. But yes, seeing a beautiful female barn owl, as well as other owls that wore battle claws, got him excited. Nyra could see Kludd was already evil, so she encouraged him.
The echidna was such a missed opportunity to add in the lore with the wolves. Like, instead imagine they had flown by some wolves and asked them where to go. It would've made more sense and been pretty cool.
The movie is set in Australia, instead of North America, though. We don't have wolves here. That's why a Raccoon was changed to the (far more aggressive) Tasmanian Devil. I still get your point, but ... there just wouldn't be wolves if it was still set in Aus. Maybe Dingos? Or the Echidna and the Wolves are in seperate branches of the same organisation? That seems a bit extreme though.
@@pineapplefrostyfruits9225 yeah, but it's not supposed to be in North America or Australia. It's supposed to be a fantasy world: Southern Kingdoms, Northern Kingdoms, Middle Kingdoms, Beyond the Beyond. If this was supposed to be Oceania, all the characters would be Tyto owls. The only reason they had Australian animals is because the effects/animation were done by Animal Logic, an Australia based company. The books had puffins, polar bears, dire wolves, snow leopards, flying snakes, magpies, and more. One thing the film could've done is add owl species not seen in the books.
@@ggrarl no, it's set in post apocalyptic earth. There would still be environmental and geographical changes, but not necessarily to the point of introducing wolves to Australia.
@@Religion0From the wolf series we know the wolves live in The Beyond, which is a fairly northern part of either Eurasia or North America. Granted Australia would have dingos and those are technically wolves, but I doubt they'd count as such for Lasky Lore Purposes
I've been hoping for this video for literal years, and it did NOT disappoint! However, I do want to point out that the previous leader of The Pure Ones that Kludd killed wasn't called Metal Beak. He was just the old High Tyto that Nyra was sick of being "married" to. It was in the act of killing him that Kludd's beak was torn off, forcing him to get a metal beak and a mask to conceal his facial scars. He became the new High Tyto, but Metal Beak was his alias and his alone. If it isn't clear, I love these books. :)
This movie has no business looking as good as it does STILL. This movie doesn't just look incredible for its age, its just incredible full stop. Very very few cg animated movies have aged as well as this movie has. It could come out today and still be considered an animation feat
"The books author working on the film can be a two-edged sword[, JOANNE]." The last bit was implied.
Don't mention that awful person.
Stephen King....
I thought he meant 50 Shades
@@anitanielsen1061I was actually thinking of Ready Player One
This is at once the last film you'd expect Zack Snyder to make and EXACTLY the kind of legendary heroes story with extensive slow-mo you'd expect Zack Snyder to tell. Also I'm realizing how long it's been since Dom covered Snyder's Watchmen film - that feels like a lifetime ago.
Okay, real talk I would LOSE MY MIND in the absolute best way if you reviewed the Ga'hoole series.
I remember seeing this movie in the theater. I had read through all of the books and was wondering just how they were going to adapt something that was so surprisingly violent and dark into a movie for kids. And while I was disappointed at what they changed, I thought they at least did not shy away from the combat scenes. Yes, there is no blood like in the books, but I still think they captured the spirit of those fights pretty well. Overall, while I do like the books more than the film, I still find the film entertaining and a pretty decent adaptation, despite the changes.
A fortune-telling echidna? Oh no, Ken Penders is gonna sue them!
Wow, owning rights to something I made... Imagine. (Sorry, I'd like to take part in the in joke too, just not doing well.)
*shakes fist* PENDEEEEEEEEEERS
Let. Them. Fight.
Then there’s a dragon named moonwatcher Ken is gonna sue because they share a name with moon watcher the echidna who’s a repurposed Geordi La Forge from Star Trek and named after leader of the man-ape tribe in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
I know it's not perfect, but I still believe this movie deserves way more recognition than it gets. The animation is incrdible, the soundtrack slaps and I'd say the writing could be way worse.
This movie is also used as a proof that just because it's realistic, doesn't mean you shouldn't give the animals expressions *ahem Lion King 2019*
YES! This was my favorite book series growing up! The owl nazies and blue owl religious book burning zealots that turn out to be the descendants of owl demons were a big part of my childhood.
I remember going to watch the movie adaptation of the book with my twin brother and father. The animation and visuals were amazing especially the slow motion flying scenes with Soren
I really wanted to love this film when it came out. I was the exact age for this kind of movie and I remember seeing it in theaters. I had read all the ga'hoole books up to that point and I, too, would have loved to see the section of "The Journey" where Soren and crew overshot the tree and ended up mingling with puffins to make it into the movie. I think the film would have done better if they'd just not brought the parents back. That was the moment that killed it for me. It really hurt that film Soren got his parents back when book Soren was absolutely an orphan and, as a kid who had a parent die, it felt like it cheapened the movie over all. But I also recognize that that is a very personal perspective and I don't expect everyone to share it.
I honestly think the opposite. I think this constant build up of trauma and no relief from it feels edgy. Cheap sympathy stuffed into a story as a replacement for good character writing and characters that are interesting in their own right. Of course, movie Soren still isn't very interesting, but... needlessly edgy isn't any better. Also, if you want stories where the parents die(d), just watch Disney movies instead.
@@js66613 Same reason I criticize Helluva Boss, despite finding it aesthetically pleasing. Vivziepop show rant below, if you don't care. ... Loona and Blitz especially, to an extent with Moxxie's backstory episode... we're not really given a reason to sympathize with characters, or with much characterization at all, and then a bunch of angst episodes in a row... that don't actually change the way the characters interact yahoo! It's 100% a replacement for good character writing, and obviously there wasn't much improvement over the years. The characters ARE interesting! (I'm especially disappointed by how little Loona and Millie's potential is utilized, esp with how they continue to make the wolfgirl unlikeable for "comedy" and just, show that scene confirming her backstory (that I called and was so proud I was right about) and expect it to EXCUSE her behavior, not give us any reason to root for her to get over it.) At this point I'd be surprised if Blitz even got over himself, since he's clearly the only character that matters (and Stolas as a character just bothers me so much, for several reasons. Stolitz is half of it).
@@js66613 Yeah and then in Wolves of the Beyond Thunderheart gets brought up ALL THE DAMN TIME and I'd be fine with that if it fit the character but it comes with an entire fucking monologue and callback every time it happens which is sometimes two chapters in a row and it's just excessive. At least with Faolan he catches some Ws and in general has way more of a character, so rooting for him feels less like getting kicked in the chest over a doll you don't really care that much about. And yeah, honestly. Death of a parent is one of the most common things to happen to a main character, to the point where it's not really considered sad anymore, which I understand can hurt on a level (I have a lot of feelings that work like that). But even then it's still taken pretty seriously in movies themselves, Moana comes to mind first? So yeah... I'm sure there's movies out there that you can find your relativity. I'm still missing any.
I can't speak on owl physiology, but apparently pigeons are somewhat sensitive to magnetic fields and use them to navigate long distance. And magnetic materials can have diminished effects when subjected to extreme heat. Mind you, that fire doesn't look hot enough from what I understand, and I'm pretty sure that the magnetically induced disorientation is strongly exaggerated beyond presumably just getting lost, and forced to rely on optical, auditory, and scent navigation.
Since reading this book as a kid, the scenes of circling in that sandy room, sleep deprived in the moonlight while chanting your name until you lose all sense of self or sanity is absolutely one of my ingrained ideas of torture. It seriously haunts me. I didn't watch the movie because of it.
Oh yeah, absolutely. The movies DID hold back on it, but the scenes were still terrifying and fucked with me for years. I had nightmares just remembering how Gylfie explained it! The way they animated the moon-blinked owlets was also nightmare fuel. Like ghost children horror, but you're actually encouraged to save them, not run away, which imo makes it worse. In an emotional imact way, in a positive sense. Wonder what real-life torture methods inspired this whole thing...
It's been only 9 years? Feels longer than that. Feels like I've been watching these my whole life ...in a good way!
Yeah, I kinda thought it was like 15 years old or something
I was both super into these books as a child (I was very into dark, blood-soaked children's books)and a huge biology and zoology nerd as a kid... so at the time I remember being very put off by how the near-photorealistic owls looked almost spot-on to the actual owl species... EXCEPT for the very distinctive and somewhat disturbing-looking black eyes of barn owls (to be entirely fair their irises are dark brown but the eyes look pure black). To my faded recollection the books even called this feature out specifically!
Well, I have senn my quota of Tytos IRL, theyr pretty common nearby... they have dark broun eyes, if the ligth is just right. In person you can see they're eyes as eyther pitch-black ou demonic-shyning-green...
@@carloshenriquezimmer7543 Yeah, but the golden, large irises in this movie just aren't accurate.
It's likely an animation accommodation more than anything. It's VERY common to give nonhuman animated characters more human eyes, to make them more audience approachable. Barn owl eyes are cool but two hours of them on a talking owl would be a little too uncanny for the film's purposes imo, much like how a lot of people felt the hyper realism of the Lion King remake was detrimental because the characters lost a lot of their ability to emote.
@@macaronsncheese9835 Understood, I just found it frustrating because it was explicitly mentioned in the books (I believe it was also brought up with regards to the Tytonidae supremicist villains in later books) I should mention that as I am both older and more learned on the nuances of animation, I get the reasons behind it better now. I am personally able to read animal body language better than average, but I know it's not common.
I remember the name chanting so clearly. It's one of the only things of the books that stuck with me forever. Some of the plot came back to me as you mentioned it but that singular moment ankered itself in my child brain and I honestly think the depiction in the books probably shaped the way i interact with the world. It's so fun how many "children's" books involving animals are deconstructions of fascism/war and depictions of the violence of nature. Deeply fascinating, one could probably write an essay about that.
I loved these books as a kid! I totally forgot the owls tearing each other up with metal claws haha in hindsight they were kind of brutal
They got ice swords in the books
Fun fact: when I was in elementary school I was obsessed with time capsules (this was the early 00s so). I buried a shoe box in the backyard and included the first book of this series inside. Only to come back a year later and be unable to refind my burial spot. So anyway I own books 2-8
These were one of my favorite book series as a kid, and I look back now and can appreciate them even more. The world just feels so lived in, the characters (even the side ones) are so memorable, and the themes seem to get more relevant the older I get. Super super underrated books
"(Snyder) somehow manages to always miss a fundamental... message or theme of the original story." Yeah, that's because he never grew out of his emo phase and thinks that Watchmen was supposed to be like that unironically and without satire. Which is to say he's an idiot.
Well that's unnecessary. He's no fool
"except... water pokemon... but squirtle is not in this movie". OMG i laughed so hard
Yeah, and all the owl Pokémon are Normal/Flying, Grass/Flying, Grass/Ghost, and Grass/Fighting.
I feel that Patrick H Willems explained it best when he called Zack Snyder our himbo auteur.
Except himbos are happy vibes and often supportive. Zack's filmography says emo jock
God i didnt know i needed this until it popped up in my feed. i was a HUGE fan of the movie and the books. it was a hyperfixation and still a special interest of mine. im 24 now, i turn 25 this year, so it has been over 10 years since i read the books for the first time, and god this video made me want to reread the books again. Klud ends up having a kid with Nyra, who they name Nyroc, and he ends up escaping the pure ones and finding himself with the guardians and he changes his name to Coryn. Twilight, Digger, Gylfie and Soren called themselves "the band" and were super upset when they were told by the guardians that they would be going into different jobs in the tree.(i dont remember what they were called specifically, like i said its been over a decade since i read these books) they were told that they each had different talents that can be used in different jobs. Otulissa was one of my favourite characters, she was always bragging about being the descendent of a famous spotted owl, whos name i dont remember. this series ends with Soren becoming king of the owls, he has 3 daughters and a wife at the end!! ALSO THE WOLVES OF THE BEYOND ARE TIED TO THE GUARDIANS OF GA'HOOLE!! i think all of Kathryn Lasky's talking animal books are tied together? I know that at least guardians of gahoole and the wolves of the beyond are tied together, because the wolves that live in the beyond, the beyond being a kinda desolate place, theres lots of volcanoes, and the wolves guard the volcanoes since they are very important to the owls! the uhhhh it was an ember with a specific name that was super important to the owls, only the chosen one could weild it and stuff i dont remember. and the wolves that were chosen for this were disabled, they had a name, dont remember what it was, but basically the wolves who were found to be disabled at birth were left for dead, and if they were to find their way back to their pack, they could join BUT still were the lowest ranking wolves and if they were good enough, they were chosen to be guardians of the volcanoe yes im autistic, why do you ask?
I have to say, it is kind of refreshing to see an animated film with a cute friendly snek. They're almost universally bad guys in cartoons, so nice "casting against type" there.
Yeah! I've seen good guy owls (obviously), good guy bats, good guy wolves, but not good guy snakes! Honestly makes the character dynamics in that one Dreamworks movie make a bit more sense... Also, was gonna say I haven't seen a good guy spider yet, but then I remembered Charlotte's Web, in which the titular Charlotte is one of my favourite fictional characters, and the animation in one movie was a lot like this one in being mostly realistic but with a lot more expressionism... while still being not too cute, iirc. And then A Bug's Life ig, but not to the extent. And then there was an ugly as hell children's book series about a mother spider with a bunch of adopted children, the dragonfly son being my favourite for some reason I don't remember, got Austin the Kangaroo vibes from him. There was also her spider husband who was definitely not the dominant one in their relationship, and the quite frankly horrifying white boy ex who tried to eat the husband at one point. Straight up nightmare fuel, that character. Aaaaanyway! Snakes as villains are overdone. The internet is spreading the narrative that they can be cute, and I'm seeing it working? I mean, Sahara was a whole movie about them, as wild as that story got. Kinda upsetting that the nanny snakes were a bit... ergh, slave-coded? From what I remember? But honestly everything about the owls in the books screamed supremacy, not just the Pure Ones. Soren's Mom lulled him to sleep in a flashback with a story of how Owls are the superior species and that nothing they do could ever be wrong because Glaux made them in his image. No, that is not an egsageration. Also Wolves and Bears had the same thing going on with Lupus and Ursa and that never went anywhere, despite the obvious direction they could've taken it!
Yeah I'm so there for little snecko
Regarding de-owl-ization, the Latin word for "owl" is strix, so the word you're looking for would be "destrigization."
Ah yes this. A movie I’ve only seen once when it came out and I’ll never forget that name because it eternally confused me with the Rise of The Guardians movie which I think came out the same year?
Rise was a couple years later
The "Tries so hard to be Lord of the Rings that [Ow-elrond] does an epic battle narration" reveal made me burst out laughing (as well as the purposeful title confusions. Ga'Hoolville was especially enjoyed). Probably doesn't helped that the main character's name is Soren either. 😅🦉 Oh, how I love to be reminded just how many movies leaned so hard into the success of the big 2000's franchises I grew up on. 😌😉
Man I wish someone would make an animated TV show of this, which I feel would be able to work and improve the pacing issues the film had MUCH better
Honestly I was going to say the same thing. There's too much content within the books to fit into one film.
So many characters just had their depth stripped away. Otulissa for one was barely featured and book Soren NEVER would have fancied her. Everyone was annoyed by her. She was very proud and uptight, but develops over the course books to become wiser and more humble. Digger was a philosopher in the books. He was quirky, but not anywhere like in the movie. Nyra was also a complete psychopath. Jutt and Jatt, the two owls who snatched Soren and Kludd in the movies, were MUCH scarier in the book and were the ones who cannibalized Digger's brother in the books, so have fun watching them be comic relief. Ezylryb was done a bit better, but they severely downplayed his wisdom and the fact that he was a scholar. About half the cast were all but cut out with Ruby, Martin, Primrose, and Octavia being some of the most notable. I used to love this movie, but watching it now, so much I loved about the books is gone and it's hard to enjoy.
Take to the Sky by owl city is a certified hood classic
This opening made me realize how much I want you to do a Pitch Meeting episode.
Same haha!
Even just on your own time, the Wolves of the Beyond series from this world is an absolutely mesmerizing read. It’s six or seven relatively small books and is way better than at least the original Gahoole books.
the Wolves of Beyond completely captured my wolf kid self back in the day, they're SO amazing they have this mysterious/primal atmosphere that just... really transports you into this world
I have what i think is the first book in that series and it was always super interesting to me like yeah sure wolf pack sees pup with a weird paw with a swirl on it, leaves the pup to die and shuns the mother, pup gets found by grieving mamma bear grows up, he has a special interest in making carvings on bones, mamma bear dies, He meets AN OWL who owns a forge and is trying to make willow leaves, he sees owls pulling burning coals out of fires, then he joins up with a pack and everyone is freaking out about his bone carvings and hes just like idk i find it relaxing. Im forgetting a lot im sure but man It was a very interesting read and I always wanted to read more but i had no idea where to find more
I know these are definitely kids books. But I read these alongside Harry Potter growing up, and I honestly think the Ga'Hoole world is better built. If you have a day off, I recommend powering through the series. They're all short books and honestly so much fun to read - with the caviot that they are for kids
This movie hold a special place in my heart. It’s the first adaptation I saw where I was a fan of the source material having found the first book in my school library, about a year or two before it came out. I knew going into it that they would have to make a lot of changes as the first arc was six books long and would need to be cut down for a movie. I was also aware that there’s a lot of disturbing things you can get away with in a kid’s book that won’t fly in theatres. All I really expected from this movie was some good character designs to help me visualize the characters and amazing animation. The fact that it had great music, a fun if a little basic story and built up Kludd becoming metal beak had me so excited for a sequel. Unfortunately I don’t think we’re ever getting that.
I loved these books when I was younger and remember being so upset at how the movies changed the WHOLE PLOT! But no one would commiserate with me as they hadn't resd the books. I've been waiting for this but didn’t think it'd happen. Looking forward to seeing whether my youthful rage was justified.
I really have the strangest fascination with violent, medieval fantasy books that are populated by animals. When I was younger, I absolutely adored Redwall and when the Trailer for Legende of the Guardians came out, I got into, well, Legende of the Guardians. So, THANK YOU, MR. SNYDER, for introducing me to one of my favorite book series. The movie looks phenomenal, absolutely gorgeous. The owls all look great. The music is wonderful. I just wish the story was better. But....I guess I could say the same thing for the books themselves. Because the story gets pretty weird later on. Magic *does* exist in this world, but it is more of a Lion King kind of Magic. It is something spiritual. Ghosts can appear and Soren has Visions of the future sometimes, but in one of the later books, I think we have an owl witch who uses a.... shapeshifting spell, if I remember correctly? And Nyra wanted to corrupt an unhatched egg with some kind of....moon ritual? The most dangerous, supernatural thing we used to have in these books were the mirror lakes.
Owls of Ga'Hoole is one of my favorite animated movies. The story may not be Super Deep or anything, but I appreciate it for its portrayal of the animals themselves. Accurate anatomy (flight especially), habits, the sounds they make were all carefully considered. Nary a stock "animal noise" to be found and I love that.
i think it was a shame that they cut the St Aggys time, they had to cut Hortense "mist" out of it entirely who was an interesting owl considering her disability. They changed a few of the owl types too which i thought was an odd choice like Otulissa being a short ear instead of a spotted also her mad personality change, they made her more "attractive" (?) and mature instead of the annoying know-it-all that Soren hates for most of the books until she gets character development. But I do think the movie actually did a few things quite interesting and even better than the books. Such as, Kludd being a groomed teen rather than being some psycho who sorta invents racism (yes they exist but he really wasnt an engaging villain in the books tbh)
"The band Owl City". Oh, Dom...
I liked your commitment to the bit of using an ever-changing but equally obtuse title
OMG, I have been waiting for this Lost in Adaptation for so long!! It just made my evening better ^^
I saw this on a plane way back when there was just a few screens hanging overhead and you had to tune in with headphones. At first I just saw it and was confused… then I put on headphones and was more confused
Kind of a funny detail that with the echidna, the "Tasmanian devil", and the eucalyptus trees in a few shots, that the movie must take place in australia. Maybe it was meant to parallel how LOTR was filmed in new zealand
This was one of my favorite book series as a kid. I didn't like the movie changes when it first came out, but I've come around to it and would have liked to see a continuation, but alas. Also, it blew my mind re-reading the series later on that is whole series is set in a human post-apocalyptic/alternate timeline world.
I love this movie and adore these books. Honestly I think the adaptation was as good as we could have really hope for, I just wish they got a sequel and could have expanded on the story
This movie traumatized me so much as a kid and I loved every moment of it. Haven't watched it in years, but genuinely, for how good I remember it being, surprised it was directed by Snider.
I'm so glad this franchise is finally getting some attention! I loved the books as a kid, and was kinda disappointed by the film rushing through so much plot and lore elements. Still, the animation was breathtaking to see in theaters and I'm glad it continues to hold up to this day!
Having watched this whole video: I think it would actually be a very good introduction to the series. If someone only gets to watch the movie, that’s okay. But if someone doesn’t know if they think the books would be worth it, I think the movie would be good to see if the setting and characters click with them at all, and if the book accurate stuff does then they should read the full series Though, I *do* wish that they kept the whole situation with Twilight and Kludd, I believe from book 3 but maybe book 4. It was honestly the single most impactful event from that part of the story for me
these books are my childhood, I have been wanting an LiA on them for years
Finally, you are touching my favorite book series!
Good lord was seeing the Dear America books a throwback to elementary school 😂 Had no idea the two series were connected!
I loved those books as a kid
I was a HUGE fan of these books as a child. I was SO EXCITED that they were making a movie!! And then I waited for years and it finally came out around my birthday in high school!!! I was so happy!!! Except. EXCEPT! Imagine my absolute HORROR when I saw trailers/posters and Soren, a BARN OWL, had **YELLOW EYES**!!!!!! I was so distraught about what they did to my favorite character before the movie even started!! And then as it kept going I saw that it got the Series of Unfortunate Events treatment, shoving three books into one movie, and again I was so upset. When I exited the theater with my friends, I couldn't help but feel sad and mournful. At my own birthday party! 😭 I will say that I absolutely love "Take to the Sky" and I listen to it frequently. The song and the sequence it played over are beautiful. I loved that. I'll probably never rewatch the movie though because WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT TO BARN OWL EYES BLACK EYES COULD TOTALLY BE WORKED WITH 😭😭😭
On the one hand I can see the animation in the movie turning to creepy... but on the other, I see a lot of animated characters (mostly OCs from small youtubers) who have like, sunglasses or black eyes, and the expressions are still handled really well! Maybe it's a thing that only works in 2d. Yeah, it sucked especially, what with the context from the books about how meaningful black eyes are to Soren... and oof, genuinely really sorry about your birthday party. I've had bittersweet/ruined birthdays before, and it hurts when you explain it to people because they assume you're being childish or spoiled or something... or maybe that's my social anxiety kicking in, since nobody ever vocalized that to me... I've never been to a movie theatre birthday, so I can't imagine the specific sadness, but I DO remember watching the third HTTYD movie and being confused when I didn't care as much about the emotional ending as I did when Stoik died in the 2nd, which should've been less sad... turns out I was going through depression, haha. Disappointment, childhood, yknow how it be.
Owls of Legend: Rise of the Guardians sounds like a crossover mashup film with Rise of the Guardians, and now I'm imagining Hugh Jackbunny and tattooed Russian Santa having holiday fun with owls.
I remember watching the film like 10 years ago (maybe) and I probably still have the dvd somewhere and 1) I swear it did not have the "Owls of Ga'hoole" subheading. 2) I remember my dad saying it was "an obvious copy of the LOTR story." 3) I guess I have to get the books now.
I’m so happy you reviewed this series/movie! I loved the books when I was a kid, and I remember being pretty disappointed by the movie when I saw it in late middle school (though it was cool looking at least). The first book’s plot is pretty dark for a kid’s book, but I think kids can handle more than we think sometimes - I remember that the name repeating torture bit really made me think about how I had said the US Pledge of Allegiance so much in school that it didn’t mean anything to me anymore…
I havent thought about these books in over a decade, but the minute you said all the main chatacters names I immediately remembered all of them and their personalities. These books hit HARD.
Neither here nor there but "Legend of Owls, Owls of Legend" reminds me of the sand guardian, guardian of the sand vine.
Dominic: summarizes the mature themes and violence in the original books. Me: Tell us it's Watership Down but owls without telling us it's Watership Down but owls.
I've loved the Guardians of Ga'Hoole's book as a child (still very much enjoy them when I find the time to read them) and had watched the movie, but it took me literal years to realize that that movie About Owls was an adaptation of Guardians of Ga'Hoole. I think my child brain found the movie so different from the books I adored (and a title so strange, I don't think I ever realized there was a following line to the title with the word Ga'Hoole in it) that it never made the connection. Very interesting video that made me think about a beloved saga of my youth (of which I still have to find the 15th book) and taught me things I did not know about that film Many thanks
I've been a huge fan of Guardians of Ga'Hoole since I was a kid, both the books and the movie. I kinda fell off the series after book 7 (wasn't a fan of Coryn as a protagonist, and I happened to read Book 6 right around the time school took my love for reading out back and shot it in the head) but they stuck with me so significantly. One of my D&D characters, Sigurd Slipwing the Owlin Bard, is even heavily inspired by Twilight. Interestingly, despite how much is left out in the film, the movie (from what I remember) is actually quite loved by the fandom. I remember looking up a bunch of reviews and basically all of them were positive, which was a breath of fresh air for a teenage me who had grown sick of people shitting on adaptations for not being 100% loyal.
Well given how owl are quiet raptors bird with the their chicks looking creepy and being a symbol of death in many cultures, I guess it fitting that an animal fiction on owl is quite quite dark
Yeah, and have you heard the shriek that barn owls make? They're associated with Hades for a reason.
That princes bride edit Broke me, thank you. I'm glad I remember the books as the dark, weird, intimidating series they really were. And now I kind of want to go back and reread them. I Adored these books, more than the warrior cats or any other series of the type. ♥Thanks for covering them!
"And a half assed video game tie-in" Hey! I quite liked the video game, I had it on the Wii. I remember being impressed they managed to make flying combat not a cluster frick.
As a kid, I loved this series and was somewhat disappointed with the film. As an adult, I realized how much darker the books were and learned to appreciate what the movie tried to do.
Whew, listening to you go over the adaptation similarities made me feel so much nostalgia. I read these books SO many times, and I really feel like I should read them again
I'm pretty sure that been waiting years for him to do this one. I have read a few of the books and seen the movie and was surprised at how different they were.
The way this series feel like it came straight out of warhammer 40k (kids version) is unsettling. I will never forget how, in the books, there was another infiltrated adult owl spy who EVERY NIGHT PLUCKED their own grown feathers to look more like a child, with an incredibly vivid description of the pain and blood that went into doing it. Absolutely loved the series as a kid, I wonder if that had any effect on my developmental years.