Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole is an animated film adaptation of Guardians of Ga'Hoole, a series of children's fantasy novels.The story follows an owl named Soren. He and his brother, Kludd, are kidnapped by evil owls and taken to a sinister realm called St. Aggie's, where Kludd is recruited into a Legion of Doom and Soren is put to work in a massive owl sweatshop putting together pieces of a superweapon. At St. Aggie's, a villain named Metal Beak is building up his forces, an army called the Pure Ones, with the intent of conquering the world of owls.Soren and a friendly elf owl he meets escape and go on a quest to find the Tree of Ga'Hoole, the legendary home of a race of warriors: the Guardians, who are sworn to fight evil.
Authority Equals Asskicking: Nyra, who flies into the final battle without a helmet or steel talons and downs more birds than any other Pure One.The Pure Ones value strength above anything else. So it stands to reason that the Queen of the Pure Ones would be strong. It might be that Asskicking Equals Authority.
Also, Grimble, if he's as old as he seems. Right up until Kludd's betrayal he was more than holding his own against two Pure Ones and Nyra, who can down several Guardians completely unequipped, as stated above.
Book Ends: The movie begins with Soren listening one story from his father, and it ends with Soren narrating his adventures to a group of young owls, one who has a helmet made of leaves, just like the one that Soren had at the beginning of the film.
Composite Character: Bizaarely enough, this movie actually inverts it. The books make it clear that, although Kludd is not the first leader of the Pure Ones, he is the first and only Metal Beak, due to certain injuries sustained in battle. In the movie, it seems as though Metal Beak is a title passed down to the Pure Ones' leader.
Nyra: Would you wound your queen, Grimble? Grimble: You're not my queen!
Disney Villain Death: Implied to be Kludd's fate after he falls into a forest fire. He gets better, but that doesn't stop his screaming while seemingly falling to his death from being any less creepy.
Evil Laugh: Metal Beak has a wonderfully disturbing chuckle in the back of his throat that is made of pure creepy.
Faceless Mooks: The Pure One owls. Not only do they wear face-concealing helmets, but while the Pure One initiates are being addressed by Metal Beak, one guard has a helmet that covers his face completely, no eyes at all.
Owls clawing and slashing each other apart, characters dying, bats tearing apart owls, some of said bats appearing to die via Neck Snap, impalements...No blood or wounds are visible though.
They actually toned down the violence significantly from the original book, which was not afraid to describe many of the Gory Discretion Shots in detail.
There is a deleted scene that has owls being enslaved, bats implied to cut a owl's wing (or at least its flight feathers, which is equally creepy) off, and a violent battle wherein a owl gets a talon sliced off in clear view of the camera.
When Soren and Gylfie are learning to fly Glyfie as trouble because of her small wings. Their teacher tells them that Lyze of Kiel had small wings. He is the smallest of the Guardians that we are introduced to.
Good Scars, Evil Scars: Kludd and Grimble both have them. Kludd has evil ones, Grimble has good ones.
Mentor Occupational Hazard: Grimble. Averted with Lyse who Metal Beak was going to kill in front of Soren, but he escaped.
Misplaced Wildlife: The mammalian life is quite obviously Australian, but the owls are from all over the world.
A Nazi by Any Other Name: The Pure Ones, and how. The villains are pretty much owl Nazis, complete with their own Hitler Youth. Nyra is a Sdrawkcab Name that really hammers the point home.
Owl Be Damned: Subverted in that owls are on all sides, but Metalbeak and Nyra play the creepy owl factor for all it's worth.
The Owl Knowing One: Similar to the above, only one owl out of the cast is wise, but we do spend the latter half of the movie hearing him wise at Soren.
Pet the Dog: Right before his Moral Event Horizon crossing, Kludd releases a small bird that he and the other Pure One initiates were trying to catch.
Pragmatic Adaptation: Although there are enormous differences between the books and the movie, most fans agree that the changes are true to the books' general spirit, and make it a very enjoyable film to watch whether you're a fan of the original or not.
Nyra's eyes are initially normal, befitting her projected appearance of a beautiful, reasonable and trustworthy authority figure, but the more furious she becomes, the redder her eyes get. At one point during battle, her eyes are as red as any other among the Pure Ones.
The bats.
When Kludd is revealed to be alive at the end, his eyes glow a sinister red as he looks upon the fallen Metalbeak's mask.
Save the Villain: Sort of. Kludd becomes a full member of the Pure Ones and turns completely against Soren in the end, attacking and attempting to kill his own brother without remorse which would classify him as a villain. After the fight that leaves Kludd with a broken wing and pleading of Soren to save him, Soren tries to, but just barely manages until Kludd tries to attack him again, accidentally sending himself plummeting into the fire.
Scenery Porn / Scenery Gorn: The Guardians' Tree? Breathtaking. The Pure Ones' base? Terrifying.
Seldom Seen Species: The Echidna and the Tasmanian Devil. Also, the movie gives screen time to some lesser-known owl species.
Soren and Otulissa who isn't even Soren's mate, according to the book canon.
Gylfie seems to have a soft spot for Soren and doesn't take too kindly to Otulissa.
Kludd and Nyra. Since, in the books, they become mates and produce two eggs, this makes sense.
Shout Out: The Pure Ones' helmeted, glowring red-eyed warriors look a lot like Cylon Centurions, especially in profile. The bats seem a lot like the Komori Ninja (bladed wings, proficient in science), but that's probably a coincedence.
Sleep Cute: Gylfie and Digger fall asleep against Soren on a tree branch.
Spared by the Adaptation: In the book, Soren's parents are most likely dead by the time the Band reaches the great tree (though it's never specified quite when, the fact is we never see them alive again). The movie has them alive and well, actually making it to the tree themselves.
Both sides are made up of owls, but only the bad guys use trained attack bats. And probably as an artifact of their need for pureness, most of the antagonists are barn owls.
Indeed the Pure Ones consist entirely of owls from the Tyto genus (aka barn owls). Lampshaded by many characters but notably Kludd in the line "Because we are Tytos!" in answer to Metal Beak's query of why the Pure Ones are superior. 'Lower species' are reserved for the grunt work alone but do 'stain' their feathers as a sort of uniform or show of loyalty.
The bats are evil.
Squick: Gylfie's reaction to having to sift through pellets in the Pelletorium is a In-Universe example.
Stealth Pun: A song by Owl City playing in the background as they explore the tree, anyone?
There's a very subtle one in the bird-chase scene early on. The bird they're chasing is an Indigo Bunting. That means that the would-be Pure Ones were...bunting baiting.
During their fight,Kludd breaks his wing and begs Soren to pull him up. He may have been trying for a Mutual Kill, but it was still a really stupid decision when there's a forest fire going on beneath them.
Arguably, Soren himself. He absolutely refused to believe Kludd could side with the Pure Ones, and as a result nearly gets killed by him.
The trailers billed the movie as an epic quest wherein Soren becomes his ideal (a Guardian) through many trials while trying to reach them. At least, to those that never read the novels.
The trailers also used a lot of lines and footage not in the actual movie, like Grimble explaining what the Pure Ones are doing, and parts of this trailer.
You Shall Not Pass: Grimble. He manages to hold off both Nyra and two other Pure Ones, and even when Kludd made his Face Heel Turn, he still had enough fight in him to ensure that Soren and Gylfie managed to escape.
Youngest Child Wins: Subverted. Soren is the middle child, but he fares far better than Kluud and Eglantine.
Weaponized Animal: Some of the owls have metal talons, and the bats have blades on their wings.
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