MOVIES: Legend of the Guardians, and why it's better than most people say

I'm not swayed by media often. To me, much of the media is in a downward death-spiral, dragged down by excessive amounts of filth, lack of soul and heart, and--likely most of the source--cashing in. Doesn't matter if it's books, music, video games, or movies, I always find myself in a bit of a niche in many of these media forms... and often find niches that remain woefully under-tapped.

Recently, I discovered one such rare niche with the movie Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole. For all intents and purposes, it looks like a simple by-the-numbers childrens/family movie with the odd distinction of being a tad more violent than most films of its class.

And yet, this kind of film has been done before a long time ago...

In the 1980s, there was something of a burst of family films that didn't "sugar-coat" the story. Neverending Story was brutal and downright scary at times, even with some levity to counteract it. Land Before Time remains one of the most gritty, yet still accessible, animated films in history (and ironically spawns one of the worst chain of terrible sequels in the history of the medium). And, of course, a special mention goes to The Secret of NiMH.

Yet between that decade and the current time, I can think of nothing that holds the rare distinction of being a gritty, dark, yet poignant family film. Yes, I've witnessed much of the Disney, Pixar, and Dreamworks films, but lets face it: Lion King only dark moments occur when Scar was in close enough proximity (something which hasn't been pulled off so well since Sleeping Beauty), The Incredibles embodies too much inspiration from cartoons and comics to be taken too seriously (that's superheroes for you), and Dreamworks... well, I'll concede that How to Train Your Dragon has its moments, but isn't even close.

Where Legend of the Guardians makes its mark is that it's tied closely to character development. Its strengths lie in keeping characters true to their personalities, and their development a function of that. The situations presented feel powerful enough to strike home the idea that the characters choices amplify who they are. This sounds simple on the surface, but rarely do you see such character development occur for both a protagonist ("good guy") and an antagonist ("bad guy") that are thrust in the same situation, until one choice splits them apart, sending them down different paths which they each chose to remain on.

For all the simplicity of the story flow, and how poorly the rare few scenes of levity seemed to have been crafted (ergo, I didn't laugh much), the character development and themes in the movie became a shining example of what's missing in most modern family movies: thematic elements that are deeply rooted in the characters themselves, not just the plot.

While my favorite movie this year may still be How to Train Your Dragon, for its wonderful balance of plot, action, and humor, Legend of the Guardians will take a place as one of the rare, few movies where I was moved to tears by a deep, thematic truth. This is the mark of a movie where the heart and soul put into it make it better than the sum of its parts.