LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS: THE OWLS OF GA'HOOLE

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Incredibly lush animation can't disguise a tone-deaf narrative in director Zack Snyder's ("300") foray into animation. There's no way to overstate the film's beautifully realistic rendering of owls as drawn from the first three stories of Kathryn Lasky's children's books.

Screenwriters John Orloff and Emil Stern fumble with story construction about two young owl brothers (Soren and Kludd) who are kidnapped by a Nazi-like army of owls called the Pure Ones.

While one brother falls into the mindset of his maniacal captors, the other escapes to the fantastic land of the mythical Guardian owls, with whom he teams up to launch an attack against the Pure Ones.

Inexplicable betrayals occur in a children's film that, however unintentionally, glorifies war and cruelty. The stunning visuals are so at odds with the poorly executed tale that the film is rendered nonsensical. As for the film's timid 3D effects, once again we witness filmmakers afraid to "break the window."

Rated PG. 90 mins.