Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole – review

Director Zack Snyder, who made 300 and Watchmen, now turns his brash, t-crossing, i-dotting style to this likable family movie, an animated fantasy-adventure about a bunch of, well, owls. Perhaps this might never have been made were it not for Harry Potter reinventing the owl as a recognised youth fiction brand, and there's plenty here that owes a further debt to George Lucas and Peter Jackson. It also has what I can only describe as something of a Watership Down vibe. Sibling owlets Soren and Kludd fall out of the family nest and are kidnapped by a bunch of evil quasi-fascist owls called the Pure Ones, who enslave some of their captive owls as dead-eyed worker-drones, and train up others as warriors. Soren stays good; Kludd goes over to the dark side, and only the legendary "Owls of Ga'Hoole" – of whom Soren has heard his father speak – can vanquish the baddie owls. It's all very weird sometimes, but engaging: a nice half-term treat for younger children.