Zack Snyder’s direction is known for his action sequences involved with the DC Extended Universe and the comic genre. But many aren’t aware of a film he directed early in his career that is based on a popular book series.
In 2010, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole was released in theatres as something akin to other films like Happy Feet (2006). That came four years prior and was also distributed by Warner Brothers.
The summary of the Guardians of Ga’Hoole movie follows the story of Soren, a normal barn owl who has a tragedy occur to him and a few others, describing his journey to becoming a legend in the making.
Snyder’s First Animated Movie is a Hidden Gem
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Snyder directed this PG 97-minute fantasy adventure movie as his first animated and non-rated R film. Released in 2010, it still has its niche audience despite not doing so great at the box office. Fans do want a sequel. Almost a decade and a half later, there is a petition on Change.org for Warner Brothers. The petition begs Snyder to return to the IP of Guardians of Ga’Hoole.
The animation studio behind this movie, Animal Logic, has gone on to do bigger and better things. They’ve done for other popular franchises like the Avengers films and The Lego Movie (2014). Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole was the 4th movie he’s ever directed. His directorial debut, Dawn of the Dead in 2004, was his notable hit in cinematography.
Snyder has gone on to many notable DCEU movies after 2010. But before that, other successful films include 2007’s 300 and 2009’s Watchmen. There have been a few hits, but more misses overall. He is a polarizing director, especially in the superhero genre.
In a recent exclusive interview with Empire Magazine, Zack Snyder wants to have another shot at the Suckerpunch IP. He stated this about the 2011 film:
“It never really got finished correctly,” he tells Empire, in a major new career-spanning interview. “I have the footage already shot: they just have to let me put it together.”
Recently, Zack Snyder directed Netflix’s Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver, the sequel to 2023’s Rebel Moon. This came after an unrelated movie on Netflix he also directed, Army of the Dead from 2021.
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole Movie
The general public didn’t buy into it as much as fans of the book series. It met with mixed reviews and not the best ratings. It currently has an IMDb 6.9/10 and a 53% Metacritic score. The film has a 52% Tomato Meter score and a 64% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
It only generated $140 million at the global box office when it had a $80 million budget. The cast had some names, the biggest star being Sam Neill as Allomere.
At Animal Logic Studios, it was in production for more than three years in Sydney, Australia. The animators also went to an owl sanctuary, learning more about owls to animate them in fights properly. This also helped capture the feathers’ ruffling properly and display their behavior and dietary needs realistically.
The CGI is breathtaking and, for a movie that is almost 15 years old, aged like pure fine wine. I would give anything to see it in IMAX or 3D in a movie theatre.
Book Series Source Material for Snyder’s Film
The first three books of the series, “The Capture”, “The Journey”, and “The Rescue,” are the crux of Zack Snyder’s films.
Despite a few changes, I thought it didn’t deter the movie’s end goal and it covered about a fifth of the main storyline. There are still 13 books left in the series that haven’t been adapted, so if the movie had more earnings and support, it could’ve gotten more than another film if the hype was there back then.
They should’ve made this film with a sequel in mind, or at least should’ve made it longer. Due to the rushed pace, many new viewers needed clarification about the story’s direction. For fans of the books, there were some interesting character changes. I think it was necessary to pack everything in one movie if they didn’t know a sequel was possible after the fact.
I read Kathryn Lasky’s bestselling series Guardians of Ga’Hoole in middle school and had a blast reading it. Alas, I thought it was on par with other books similar, like Percy Jackson. Taking a Latin class back then certainly helped my interest in this type of genre.
Zack Snyder will be very busy for the next few years. According to Forbes, “four to six Rebel Moon Movies are already in the works” with Snyder as the director. It will be interesting if any are shown on the big screen as opposed to Netflix or other streaming platforms exclusively. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is coming out at the end of this year and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire was already a smashing success at the box office.
It is available to watch on YouTube, Apple, and Amazon Prime Video.
Although streaming only has its perks, I think it would be imperative for Snyder to get at least one or two of his next movies in theatres to potentially capture the success of an action-packed film, like Godzilla x Kong.
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