Warner Brothers

PG 90 min

Well if nothing else is said let me make it clear that THE OWLS OF GA’HOOLE has set the standard for all and future bird based epics.

As you know I’m not easily impressed by hot shot graphics of 3D FX but this one friends is as good as it gets visually. I sprang for the extra few bucks for the magic specs and it was well worth the investment. You could see every little feather and the flight and fight scenes were just amazing. Still, a great cover doesn’t necessarily make a great book.

Don’t get me wrong, I liked this one a lot. It had every element one would ask for in an epic fantasy. There’s treason, treachery, brother VS brother, humor, heroism, self-sacrifice, coming of age, honor, all of it. So why would I gripe?

This film is based on the first three books of a popular young persons series by Kathryn Lasky. Yes, I said three books and therein lies the rub.

In order to pack three books worth of action into a 90 minute kid friendly film they had to discard what must have been hundreds of pages of character development and plot setup.

What we have here, unfortunately, is the Cliff Notes version and that’s too bad.

I realize the target audience is younger that that of the Tolkein stories but it just may be that they’ve been underestimated.

It’s a good movie that in my never to be humble opinion could have been great.

B

WSS

Email westsidesteve@aol.com