Today we took the kids (5 and 7 year old boys) to see the movie Guardians of Ga'Hoole. It was really good! We saw it in 3-D.
We've been reading the first book out loud at bedtime for the past few weeks. There is a series of books (15 plus) by Kathryn Lansky. In the first book (The Capture) a young owl by the name of Soren lives with his family in the peacful forest of Tyto. He is a Tyto Albus, a barn owl. When he falls from the nest (in the book it is intimated that his brother Kludd pushes him) he is captured and kidnapped by other owls and taken to St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls. Once there Soren meets an elf own named Gylfie and they soon learn that St. Aegolius is no place they want to be.
The movie makes significant changes in order to compress a few of the books into one movie. For one Kludd and Soren are captured at the same time. But those changes are fine - it allows them to keep the story moving and make for an exciting action packed movie.
While I am not normally a fan of 3-D I think the did an excellent job of subtly using the 3-D t0 make some really beautiful flying scenes. When the owls are flying we see snowflakes coming at us, water droplets going away from us, and at one point a huge wing is reaching out to the audience. My 7 year old was engrossed through the entire move and yelled out "His wing is almost touching me!" at that scene.
The story is suitable for kids maybe 5 and up, has a great lesson, and some fighting and action. My 5 year old was actually bored through it, I think mostly because his 3-D glasses kept falling off his head. (dual diagnosis of small head and antsy kid) I think he would have liked it better in the 2-D version. But for a kid who can handle the glasses the 3-D is cool.
