MEGAMIND / LEGEND Of The GUARDIANS

“MEGAMIND” / “LEGEND OF THE GUARDIAN (The Owls That Give A Hoot)”

Two cartoon movies that I went to see but didn’t have much to say about;
‘Megamind’ is okay – I gave it a C. It isn’t all that funny, but it isn’t exceptionally dumb – or terribly unfunny like ‘Shrek 4ever After’ or the ‘Madagascar’ films.
Younger children should enjoy it – it’s aimed at them. Although it followed the same path as ‘Despicable Me’ it doesn’t come close to being as entertaining because it has no adult lines.
Will Ferrell’s bad guy, the alien known as Megamind decides to change his stripes when Brad Pitt’s MetroMan (think ‘Superman’ clone) is accidentally incapacitated
by one of Megamind’s villainous plots. Realizing it’s no fun being evil when there’s no good guy to counteract his schemes, Megamind secretly turns into a hero only to find he’s somewhat of a failure at that as well. Like I said, it’s OK, but if you’re 12 or older, don’t expect to laugh that much.

I gave ‘The Cartoon Owls That Give A Hoot’ a higher grade of C+, probably because it was a more serious cartoon than ‘Megamind’. Slights can be made since it follows the same premise as ‘Avatar’ (which was a rip-off of ‘Ferngully’) in that a ‘tree’ represents a heavenly safe haven and evil owls are plotting to over take it.
I liked the storyline better here, possibly because it was filled with talking owls, which I felt was a bit of a novelty; but also it was ‘classy’ – the animation was excellent – I didn’t think a cartoon about owls would work since they don’t have a lot of movement in the facial area. They made each owl different somehow so you could tell them apart – sort of like the minions in ‘Despicable Me’ except the birds weren’t the least bit funny (But they were fluffy!)
So ‘The Legend Of The Guardians’ is worth seeing if you’re a fan of good animation – about halfway thru the film I had to remind myself that these weren’t real owls! The story is an uplifting one – yes, it’s your usual good-vrs-evil fare - but hey, they’re owls and they’re talking with English accents! That’s the best way to describe it, really – it’s a quality animated film that you really can’t say anything bad about.
Though I wouldn’t call it exceptional, it was a pleasurable enough experience viewing the cartoon owls that gave a hoot. By the way, I call it that because I don’t know how to spell or pronounce Ga’hoole...