Legend Of The Guardians preview

by Andy Gibbons

I was invited by Warner Bros. to take a sneak peak today at some footage from their upcoming family animation Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole – and I have to say I was mightily impressed. For those who don’t know anything about the film, here’s the official blurb from WB:

‘Acclaimed filmmaker Zack Snyder makes his animation debut with the fantasy family adventure “Legend of The Guardians” based on the beloved books by Kathryn Lasky. The film follows Soren, a young owl enthralled by his father’s epic stories of the Guardians of Ga’Hoole, a mythic band of winged warriors who had fought a great battle to save all of owlkind from the evil Pure Ones.

While Soren dreams of someday joining his heroes, his older brother, Kludd, scoffs at the notion, and yearns to hunt, fly and steal his father’s favour from his younger sibling. But Kludd’s jealousy has terrible consequences—causing both owlets to fall from their treetop home and right into the talons of the Pure Ones. Now it is up to Soren to make a daring escape with the help of other brave young owls. Together they soar across the sea and through the mist to find the Great Tree, home of the legendary Guardians of Ga’Hoole—Soren’s only hope of defeating the Pure Ones and saving the owl kingdoms.’

We were treated to 21 mins of 3D footage, all of which was introduced on screen by Snyder, and while I’m still a little unconvinced about certain aspects of the plot, the design and overall look of the film is stunning. One scene we saw that really stands out sees Soren being taught how to fly in a storm by wise old owl Ezylryb; the pelting rain, soaked feathers and raging sea looked fantastic as Snyder allows the camera to swoop around the characters and really get involved while the 3D gives everything on-screen palpable depth. Australian animation house Animal Logic, the guys behind the visuals, have done themselves proud.

As a filmmaker, I have to admit that I’m not the world’s biggest Zack Snyder fan – I loved 300 yet hated Watchmen – but from what I saw today he may well have made one of the best looking films of the year and I can’t wait to see Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole when it hits UK cinemas on October 15th.

Battle of the X’s

Guest Blogger: Tina Hart

*Cue dramatic music*

That show will be on our TV screens again in about a month’s time and it seems, possibly to purposely coincide with this, many a former contestant is ramping up their promotional activity. At T4 on the beach we were treated to a quadruple X factor whammy of Alexandra Burke, Diana Vickers, Jedward and JLS. And now there’s some Olly Murs action on the horizon. So, new series aside, who do you think is going to win the unofficial battle of these former X Factor contestants in 2010?

JEDWARD

These twins are a machine. Possibly one of the most loved/hated X factor acts ever, they accidently created a buzz of publicity around Edward’s recent fall at T4 on the Beach which has provided even more spotlight on the pesky pair. Having reportedly signed a *gasp* 3 album deal with their new record label, we’ll next be seeing the boys cover Blink 182’s All the Small Things of which the spoof video, created by their fine selves, was debuted yesterday. For some reason I felt unnerved at the sight of them without the big hair… Devout fans need not worry about their commitment to the promotional cause as Edward has stated that ‘he will make it to the Irish Tour in August even if he has to bring crutches on stage’. The single will be out 19 July, album Planet Jedward on the 26 July, their Irish tour goes ahead in August 2010 and a rumoured UK tour after that, yikes…

OLLY MURS

Everyone’s favourite Essex boy is finally making a solo outing since his second placing on series 6 last year. After sparking a friendship with none other than Robbie Williams, playing in Soccer Aid 2010 alongside him and finding a fan in Amy Winehouse, one of X factor’s seemingly friendliest fellas is releasing his debut single Please Don’t Let Me Go. It has rather strangely been described as ‘like a mixture of Lily Allen, Paolo Nutini and UB40’ but I’ll let you make your mind up on that one… It’s due for release August 28 and his album, featuring an array of well-known pop writers on the credits, will drop in September.

DIANA VICKERS

She holds the odd but good accolades of becoming ‘the first X Factor Finalist to gain a Number 1 album after coming less than third’ for her debut LP Songs From the Tainted Cherry Tree and the ‘first female X Factor contestant to obtain a number 1 single without reaching the final’. Not bad at all. Long gone is the barefoot, pale-lipped ‘little hippy’ we were introduced to in series 5 and now we have a more polished, glamorous yet unassuming Popette. Cathy-Dennis penned Once took Diana to number one in April this year and the follow-up single, catchy The Boy Who Murdered Love which has a funky half-animated video to go with, will hit download stores on 18 July. You can also see Ms Vickers supporting X factor buddies JLS on their series of live dates this month.

ALEXANDRA BURKE

The former show reject in 2005 who bounced back to triumph on series 5 in 2008 has had a phenomenal couple of years with her debut album Overcome going platinum and still going strong since its release in October last year. After three successful top ten releases off the back of this, Alexandra’s next single is brand new Summery song Start Without You. The video for the single was filmed in LA and she should be ‘bringing out the Beast’ (her self-dubbed alter ego) and the song, in late August. Alexandra recently won the Best Newcomer award at Glamour Women of the Year Awards and has earned a trio of Urban Music Award nominations including best album, which sees her pitched against friends and former rival contestants, JLS. It has been rumoured that she will be launching Ovecome in the US at the end of the year too.

OTHERS

From ‘Alexandra’s year’ – The girl who caused mass public uproar, petitions against the show and a mention in Parliament as a result of her somewhat premature elimination during week 5, was soulful Northern lass, Laura White who is set to release an album at the end of this year. The lady who went head-to-head with her on this controversial week of departure, Spanish senorita Ruth Lorenzo, is rumoured to be bringing out an album in September.

They’ve not long returned from the US but it seems possible cross-Atlantic domination might be on the cards for JLS as Jay-Z wants to launch them Stateside after admitting that they remind him of Boyz II Men (the biggest selling R&B group of all time) and Jodeci. Now that is one hefty compliment regardless of who it’s come from. As mentioned earlier they are performing at a handful of live events this month, the second album is due in November 2010 and a nationwide UK arena tour is in the diary for December.