We Go Ga'Hoole at Legend of the Guardians Event

I thought for sure Tron Legacy would have a lock on the title of most visually arresting film of 2010.  We're not changing our bet yet, but after last night's special Legend of the Guardians event, I'd say there's definitely a dark horse contender in Zack Snyder's Owls of Ga'Hoole.

Snyder showed 18 minutes of footage to a small group of New York journalists (and, oddly, some not-so-well behaved kids) and I can tell you that the look of this animated feature projected in Dolby 3D is awesome.  The design, special effects and overall visual wow is in league with only one other film I've seen:  Avatar. 

While the Na'vi were created from whole cloth, the anthropomorphized creatures in Guardians need to also be believable as existant owls. Debate amongst yourselves if this makes it even more impressive

Snyder introduced each clip with an attempt to explain the mythos of, in his words, "this crazy owl movie."  I love the guy to death (and I love the way he uses the word "awesome" - I counted seven times) but I doubt if anyone in the crowd who hadn't read Kathryn Lasky's books on which this franchise was following this description.  All I could glean is that this is an epic quest about good and evil, with all the requisite Luke, Han and Obi-Wan stand-ins.  I'm sure there'll be a nice opening voice over narration to get us into the story, not Zack excitedly saying "and then there's ANOTHER character and he joins up!"

We saw five scenes plus a montage.  Most impressive was a training sequence, which takes full advantage of 3D, a fight scene (angry Helen Mirren owl battling with fire) and a fly-through-a-storm moment that is truly gorgeous.  The effects company Animal Logic has really raised the bar for making creatures look realistic yet still adorable.  (The li'l R2-D2-ish owl named Digger will be a big hit.)

Jordan Hoffman learns the secret of the Guardians from a Eurasian Eagle Owl named Boo

The scenes we saw dipped its toe in some of the mid-shot slow motion Zack Snyder is known for and is definitely on the far edge of intensity for a kids' film.  There are claws, beaks and rocks coming right atcha, proving once again that if you want to use 3D (and make us suffer through its dimmed luminescence) you better shoot for 3D.

I couldn't tell from these isolated, action-driven scenes if the whole movie will wind up being any good, but I can say that Legend of the Guardians, from a visual perspective alone, achieves something very difficult:  it is both cute and badass.  Your nephew and your niece will be into it.

After the footage screened, I was also able to land this exclusive interview with one of the film's stars.