Zack Snyder, best known for such hyper-violent fare as “300” and “The Watchmen” may be the last person you’d expect to helm an adaptation of a popular series of kid’s books (“Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole” by Kathryn Lasky), especially for his first animated outing. But the truth is Snyder’s flamboyant style—extreme slow motion and sped up action sequences—works particularly well for this fantasy adventure that feels sort of like a hybridization of the beloved novel “Watership Down” (with owls in the place of rabbits) mixed with “Lord of the Rings” and “Star Wars.”

The film follows the adventures of Soren (Jim Sturgess), a young owling who dreams of one day becoming a member of the Guardians of Ga’Hoole, a mythical band of winged warriors who once saved the world from evil but now live on only in legend. When Soren and his older brother Kludd are owlnapped by the very forces of evil that the stories recount, Soren and a handful of other brave owls make a daring escape, hoping against hope that the mythical Guardians are real and can come to the aid of their imprisoned brethren.

“Legend of the Guardians” is about the collision of mythology and reality, though the film does itself no favors when, at the end, Soren says, “I told you the Guardians were real” and his father replies, “Yes, your belief made them real.” Clearly the film is not a dream, so the former character’s belief or lack thereof has no bearing whatsoever on reality. Yes, Soren is a tale spinning dreamer, which the film goes to great lengths to show (“Just because you can’t see dreams doesn’t mean they are not real. Our dreams are who we are”), but a subtext implying the head must always cede ground to the heart is, while terrific film fodder, more than a little suspect in the real world.

But this isn’t the real world. It’s a world of talking owls (voiced by some of the UK and Australia’s finest talent including Helen Mirren, Geoffrey Rush, Sam Neill and Hugo Weaving) and as fantasy, it is quite engaging. Much of this is due to the fact that Snyder and his team do very little anthropomorphizing of their subjects. The owls never cease looking like real owls, rather than Disneyified versions with humanized faces plastered overtop animal bodies. As such, there is a heightened reality rarely found in animated film, further enhanced by stunningly realistic landscapes and sumptuous cinematography.

Thanks to James Cameron’s “Avatar,” 2010 has been the year of 3D films, some taking advantage of the technology in pre-production and others converted messily in post-, an ugly imitation of their far superior siblings. But one thing is clear—those films that soared in the medium were, without exception, animated films. Live action films from “The Clash of the Titans” to “Alice in Wonderland” wilted under the technology, while animated films like “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Toy Story 3D” used it to achieve something transcendent. Until the technology improves, 3D should remain the sole domain of animation.

Snyder’s animation is luxuriant—the manner in which the owl feathers ripple in the wind of flight is breathtaking—but even Snyder is incapable of using the technology to its full potential. In fact, his aforementioned stylizing, while beautiful, actually detracts from the purpose of 3D viewing. At no time in a film about soaring birds did I ever like I was flying. Contrast this with “How to Train Your Dragon” which captured that same idea so well, it outshined even “Avatar.”

“Legend of the Guardians” is not for small children. There are mature themes, the characters can be hard to differentiate, and there is a healthy amount of PG violence. While no blood is ever shed and only a few owls meet incontrovertible deaths, “Guardians” feels very much like an edited version of Snyder’s “300,” in which the intense battles remain but the camera cuts away just before the kill stroke is delivered. The film also doesn’t care to explain some of its more supernatural elements. The evil owls possess a substance they refer to as flecks, which give them untold power over their enemies. What this substance is or how it works is never explained.

Whatever its shortcomings, “Legend of the Guardians” is sweeping entertainment and a diverting, exhilarating entry in the often lethargically tame genre of children’s filmmaking.

Directed by: Zack Snyder

Starring: Jim Sturgess, Helen Mirren, Geoffrey Rush, Sam Neill, Hugo Weaving

Rated PG for some sequences of scary action.

Running Time: 90 minutes

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