"Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole" - Parliament is in session.
- Savannah Edwards
- Oct 26, 2018
- 7 min read
It is a frequent and habitual case that adults consider children’s films as “just children’s films”, they teach lessons about life, simplifying things so that young ones may understand, though it is rarely thought that these films are in fact reflections of the complex world in which we live. Not physically, but through common, and often dominant ideologies that we are exposed to that help movies make sense, or not, depending on the ideology that we follow. Ian Wojcik-Andrews, a professor specialising in children’s literature, film and film theory, states
“Mainstream films reflect the status quo, even when they least appear to support it. Produced by the dominant institutions of capitalism, they recapitulate capitalism’s dominant ideologies.”
(Wojcik-Andrews, 2000, p. 7). One film that is brushed off for the fact that it is a story about talking owls is Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (2010). Directed by Zack Snyder and animated by Animal Logic studios (Animal Logic, n. d.), the film follows the epic quest of a young barn owl to save the world he has come to know from the tyranny of the Pure Ones. After Soren and his elder brother, Kludd, suddenly find themselves as captives of the Pure Ones, Soren makes a bold escape and embarks on an adventure with the help of his newfound companions, to seek the ancient Guardians from his father’s stories to defend the owl kingdom once again. The purpose of the following essay is to bring to light that this is not simply “just a children’s film”, it is a movie that follows an ideology, regardless if it was directly intended or not. This will be demonstrated by carrying out semiotic analysis on a selection of crucial and contrasting scenes in the movie.
We can also a look at Prof. Jonathan Haidt's five foundations of morality to help us pick apart these scenes. In his research he and other research team members found five morals to have consistently appeared across all cultures, across time and sometimes in animals that can be used to help determine the ideals an individual follow, depending on how the individual interprets these following moral values:
Harm/care
Fairness/reciprocity
In-group/loyalty
Authority/respect
Purity/sanctity
It was discovered in a survey across various countries that people who identified as left in politics believed that harm/care and fairness/reciprocity were key fundamental morals in a society (two-foundation morality), whilst it was found that those who identified as right tended to have a five-foundation morality (Haidt, 2008). As Richard Campbell suggests, "...though each side espouses the core values listed, they interpret them differently and give them different priorities in cases of moral conflict". (Campbell, 2015).
Notes
Soren: The main protagonist in the film, a tyto alba (barn owl).
Kludd: Soren's elder brother, a tyto alba.
Nyra: Secondary anatagonist, general of St. Aegolius, mate to Sutr.
Metalbeak/Sutr: Primary antagonist of the film, leader of the Pure Ones.
Tyto: A genus of owls known for their intelligence.
St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls: The orphanage that has been long corrupted being used as a cover for the operations of the Pure Ones.
Pelletorium: A labouring area for owls of other species than the tyto genus, or owls who have spoken out at the orphanage. The Pelletorium is for sorting faecal matter for resources.
Pure Ones: A group of tyto owls dedicated to annihilating all other species of owl to "purify" the owl kingdom and glorify the "perfection" of the tyto.
Guardians: A group of varied species owls who had previously defeated the Pure Ones. They are dedicated to the protection of the owl kingdom.
The Great Ga'Hoole Tree: Home base for the Guardians and a number of other resident civilians.
Moonblinking: A brainwashing technique that the Pure Ones use on owl labourers.
Training With the Pure Ones
At this point in the film, the brothers have been kidnapped and taken to St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls. Our protagonist Soren has been placed in the Pelletorium for standing up for another species of owl. Kludd ignores Soren's cries for him and Nyra (the General) takes notice of Kludd. In this scene we see Nyra training a group of juvenile tyto owls, including Kludd, they fly and fight to get a hold of a blue bird which they have been instructed to capture.
A particular line that Nyra state's in the very beginning is a sign wholly characteristic of the Pure Ones ideology: "The best of you, the fittest and the most brilliant; I will present to the lord high tyto." . What is signified here is social darwinism, "...the theory that human groups and races are subject to the same laws of natural selection as Charles Darwin had perceived in plants and animals in nature." (Brittanica, 2018), i.e. survival of the fittest. Hold on, aren't these owls animals in nature, they're not humans so how does this apply? The owls presented in Legend of the Guardians (2010) are personified animals in film. They have been placed in a human construct, we don't really stop to question the fact that there is an orphanage for owls as we have been introduced to the characters in a human-like way. Jane Adcroft - from the University of Otago, New Zealand - explains that
"When we place animals on film we remove them from their natural context and place them within a human construct. Characterisation and personification, emotive music and the imposition of a narrative structure all place human-like motivations and emotions on animals"
(Adcroft, 2010, p. 2). Bringing this back to Legend of the Guardians (2010), the Pure Ones are taking social darwinism one step further by not only filtering Tytos from the "lower species" of owls, but putting them up against each other to discover the best of the best, the most "pure" of the Pure Ones .
"The bad guys are all about conformity, about the same species again and again..."
(Roberston, 2010, p. 12). We may also note the setting that this scene takes place, a stone cave with cold natural light flowing through. The echoes are an indexical sign that enforces the loneliness of these grand caves. Moreover the we are treated to the unpleasant screeches of the owls as they fly to catch the bluebird. This environment with its tall ceilings and ripped red banners are reflective of the personality that the Pure One's uphold, intimidating and powerful.
Training With the Guardians
In this scene we are flown through to a lively, warmly lit and chaotic scene where a mix match of owls crowd the dining area. This provides much contrast to the cold lighting and harshness of the stone fortress of St. Aegolius. The tree is grand like the huge rock structures St. Aegolius, though the warm colours that the wood, greenery and lighting bring the friendly atmosphere. In each shot we are presented with an environment teeming with life and cosy structures. The Ga'hoole Tree is just about the antithesis of St. Aegolius in atmosphere. Instead of separating the species from eachother everyone is Damien Gray, the character supervisor at Animal Logic, in an interview with a writer from Computer Graphics World: Barbara Roberston, explained that
"The good guys are about diversity, about individuals celebrating what each individual brings. The Great Ga'Hoole Tree is a large community of owls, and we wanted to have enough distinctive looks to support that story. So, we have just about every species of owl represented."
(Roberston, 2010, p. 12) As the scene progresses, a montage is set in motion, and we witness of the band of owls training and learning various skills to an upbeat song by Owl City. In this montage, though it is not made obvious at a first glance, each of the group are drawn to a particular chaw. It may be suggested that these characters hold a natural affinity for these chaws because of their natural instinct as various species. It is quite clear that individuality is celebrated at the tree. These kind of values displayed in the tree are akin to democratic liberals. Liberal
Absent from these scenes are two quotes that are stated explicitly in other parts of the movie but not in these two scenes. However, they are implicitly conveyed through every action and decision that the characters make. Throughout the film these two contrasting mottos are repeated constantly between the Pure Ones and Guardians, enforcing the moral values and ideology each group has:
Pure Ones: "...Metal Beak says the strong will triumph, the broken are put out of their misery. And honor? Honor is just another word for weakness!”
Guardians: “…mend those who are broken, to make strong the weak, and without hesitation, vanquish the evil…"
To Conclude...
Although we see two ideologies clearly represented, the film itself follows only one of them. The Pure Ones are depicted as antagonists and The Guardians as the protagonists. The film is supportive of the benevolent Guardians as their ideological stances on the fundamental morals are in line with that of dominant ideology's, or as Wojcik-Andrews puts it, the "...status quo..." ideology of mainstream society (Wojcik-Andrews, 2000, p. 7). Personally I believe that this is a story that holds a lot of of good teaching for the youth and people in general, it is a film that reminds us the importance of family, the consequences of betrayal and the power of stories.
Cheers,
Grassland
26/08/2018
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Words: 1564
Bibliography
Images & Videos:
Animal Logic. Soren With the Moon Rising Behind [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.animallogic.com/portfolio/projects/lotg/
Movieclips. (2017). Legend of the Guardians (2010) - Chasing the Bluebird Scene (2/10) | Movieclips [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD4Gq5GPcN8&t=38s
SpiritedLittleTyto. (2011). Training With The Guardians [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4peB6Nk2bc
References:
Adcroft, J. (2010). Reframing perceptions of anthropomorphism in wildlife film and documentary (pp. 1-3). Dunedin, New Zealand: University of Otago. Retrieved from https://ourarchive.otago.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10523/1615/AdcroftJE2011MSciComm.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Animal Logic. Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole. Retrieved from https://www.animallogic.com/portfolio/projects/lotg/
Campbell, R. (2015). Moral Epistemology. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-epistemology/
Robertson, B. (2010). In Fine Feather. Computer Graphics World, 33(10), 12-13.
Ross, S. (2012). Invitation to the Voyage: The Flight Sequence in Contemporary 3D Cinema. Film History, 24(2), 210-211. doi: 10.2979/filmhistory.24.2.210
Singer, P. (2009). ‘The Life You Can Save’. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/books/chapters/chapter-life-you-could-save.html
Snyder, Z. (2010). Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls of Ga’hoole [Video]. Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures, Animal Logic.
Social Darwinism | Definition & Facts. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/social-Darwinism
TED. (2008). Jonathan Haidt: The moral roots of liberals and conservatives [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs41JrnGaxc
Wojcik-Andrews, I. (2000). Children's films (pp. 7 - 21). New York: Garland Pub.
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