The new movie Legend of the Guardians presentsowls as epic warrior fight down rival bird of Minerva eugenicists . ( Really . ) But the owls of Ga’Hoole are just the latest in a proud tradition of fantastic owls that are alternately wise , creepy , mysterious … and awesome .
https://gizmodo.com/zack-snyders-owl-movie-is-a-hoot-oh-i-went-there-5647816
Maybe it ’s because my first major knowledge of owls came from Winnie the Pooh ’s ( allegedly ) noetic booster of the same name , but I never realized owls were supposed to be creepy . And yet owls have duplicate reputations for being knowing and scary , and both of those go back at least to the clock time of Greek and R.C. mythology . Athena , the goddess of soundness , kept an owl as her symbolic bird , and owls were the inspiration for thestrix , a blood - boozing bird of ill omen in Roman folklore that may have been the original vampire .
But that ’s just the crest of a very prominent , owl - shaped crisphead lettuce , and we ’ve baffle passel of fictional owls to hash out . And yes , we ’re cuckold a little bit by include illusion because , well , it ’s owls . There ’s only so many hard science fabrication stories that prominently feature the matter . So , without further ado …
1 . Bubo , Clash of the Titans
Of all Ray Harryhausen ’s embellishments to the Perseus caption , the mechanical owl Bubo is definitely the most lovingly commend . Technically speak , there are two Bubos in the movie : Athena ’s actual pet owl , and the mechanical duplicate Hephaestus builds to wait on Perseus . Here you’re able to see the mechanically skillful Bubo ’s construction , though be trusted to discipline outthis clipwhere it really look like the picayune guy rope is going to take on the Kraken all by himself :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUHvrjAPPmY
Bubo also has a abbreviated cameo in the 2010 remake , although Sam Worthington ’s Perseus is promptly narrate to entrust him behind . That might as well be considered code for give all the whimsical appeal and handmade foxiness of the original movie behind as well , but what the hey :
2 . Archimedes , The Sword in the Stone
Merlin ’s pet hooter is one of the comparatively few sing animals in this exceptional Disney movie , but he makes up for it by spill at pretty much any chance . As Merlin himself observes , he ’s a fussy , vain trivial animal , but he ’s also brave when it counts , as when he takes on a gargantuan fish to economize the as if by magic transform young Arthur :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFQCRdlS8q8
3 . Nite Owl , Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
Speaking of Archimedes , the Watchmen superhero Nite Owl calls his immense owl - shaped aircraft Archie after Merlin ’s owl . ( I ’m live to go ahead and bear Nite Owl get that from T.H. White ’s original novel The Once and Future King and not the Disney movie . ) Of course , the deeply into second Nite Owl Dan Dreiberg ’s psyche you go , the more it seems he ’s not so much a superhero as an owl partisan who used to work out . His article “ Blood from the Shoulder of Pallas ” , all about the study of bird of Minerva , is attached to chapter seven , and it ’s so research and scholarly that it ’s probably the tough thing to show in the entire account book . Not that it is n’t fantabulous and important to the overall structure , but Moore definitely shows here his willingness to sacrifice entertainment in the name of genuineness , something he elevated into a sort of obstinate art inThe Black Dossier . But I digress – here ’s Nite bird of Minerva kicking some piece of tail in the Zack Snyder adjustment :
4 . Owlman , DC Comics
With all due regard to Daredevil villainthe Owl , the definitive owl - themed bad bozo in comics really has to be Owlman , Batman ’s evil twin in the substitute universe known as Earth-3 . A member of the Crime Syndicate – which is even more impressive than Batman ’s membership in the Justice League , considering Owlman somehow keeps the superpowered psychopath Ultraman from vaporize him armed with nothing but his humour ( and some very soft mental powers ) – Owlman is one of Earth-3 ’s predominate law-breaking lords . He ’s demonstrate up in many dissimilar personification throughout comics account ( alternate universe characters incline to get rebooted a lot in DC Comics ) and he ’s shown up on Batman : The Brave & The Bold , but his most iconic consequence really must have been in the late DC DVD movie Justice League : Crisis on Two Earths , where the great James Woods bring in him to life as the ultimate anarchist :
5 . The Owl , Cool McCool
all right , one more bird of night - themed supervillain . This one do from the largely forgotten sixty animated spy charade Cool McCool , which is mostly illustrious for being create by one Bob Kane . That would be Batman creator Bob Kane , and it has to be suppose Cool McCool ’s rogue ’s drift is almost on par with Batman ’s , at least in terms of sheer bizarreness : along with the Owl , there ’s the Rattler , Hurricane Harry , Greta Ghoul , Jack - In - The - Box , and Dr. Madcap . As you could see in the show ’s opening night credits , the Owl is actually one of the least farcical , most menacing adversaries for McCool , though that ’s not really saying much :
6 . The Grand Duke , Rock - A - scrabble
fabled animator Don Bluth is generally considered a superstar , but his 1991 film Rock - A - Doodle is n’t often advanced as evidence to support this . Part Chaucer adaptation , part Elvis Presley court , the picture is about a crowing rooster named Chanticleer who discovers his crowing does n’t actually make the Sun come up , which induce him to go forth township and seek his fortune as a vocalist in the big city . As it turns out , he really does make the Sun come up , which leaves his friends at the clemency of the Grand Duke , a malevolent owl wizard who is pretty much all - powerful as long as it ’s nighttime . After that , thing start to get a small weird , but Christopher Plummer does voice the Grand Duke , for what that ’s worth :
7 . The Great Owl , The Secrets of NIMH
OK , now this is why Don Bluth is a genius . His 1982 adaptation of Robert C. O’Brien ’s Mrs. Frisby and the crumb of NIMH take the knowing bird of night of the original Scripture and ramps his presence up to almost unbearably unsettling heights , making him more elemental force than woodland creature . As in Rock - A - Doodle , Bluth knew how to cast his owls , getting the great John Carradine to voice the part . Of course , consideringsome of the other moviesin Carradine ’s filmography , he probably was n’t specially grueling to get :
8 . Hedwig , the Harry Potter serial by J.K. Rowling
hooter are all over the wizard world of Harry Potter . They ’re the finest messengers in the world , able to deliver messages and package to anyone in the world , even if the transmitter does n’t know their placement . ( Although , if you take package delivery out of the equation , it ’s never really explained why this is really any better than just institutionalize an electronic mail . But still , I ’m probably just being terribly muggle - centric again , as is my wo nt . ) on the nose how owls pull in off this remarkable put-on is never fully explained , nor how Harry and Hedwig seem to share a Han and Chewie tier of common reason . Now permit ’s head back to the franchises adorable beginning to see how much cooler mail call is at Hogwarts :
9 . Jareth the Goblin King , Labyrinth
Jim Henson ’s 1986 classic star an impossibly untested Jennifer Connelly as Sarah Williams , a teenager who foolishly wish hobgoblin would take her annoying baby crony away from her . Although most of the hobgoblin are befittingly repulsive , their king Jareth look like David Bowie in human form and can also transform into a beautiful white-hot barn owl , which seems like a brutally unfair distribution of look . Jareth ’s owl form is the star of the possibility credit , but he makes his big reappearance when Sarah make her regrettable wish :
10 . The Fourth Kind
This recent foreign revulsion moving-picture show is fix in Nome , Alaska , where townspeople are disappearing after being haunt in the night by a strange white owl . That owl , of course , turns out to be an alien , and all the disappearance are in reality alien abduction . The film claim in the trailer to be inspired by true events and second up by archival grounds – star Milla Jovovich really seem out of fiber to warn people how trouble this all is – but that ’s mostly ( if not all)a bounteous pile of shit . Still , the movie does have something of a base in real exotic lore , although likely not in the direction the filmmakers wanted . Several speculate foreign encounters have actually been explainedas just being misguided sightings of owls :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVRHOhLP-aA
11 . Wan Shi Tong , Avatar the Last Airbender
Perhaps the most well-educated creature in all the human race , Wan Shi Tong is a spirit who has put together the fine repository of books and information in all the populace , his library . He is untrusting of mankind , who he believe only desire to use the knowledge in his depository library to defeat their enemies in struggle … which turns out to be more or less on-key . His lifelike shape is that of a gigantic owl , and his program library features many beautiful bird of Minerva carvings , but when enrage he turns into something far more frightening than a mere hooter . ( Not quite as scarey as anOwlbear , rightful , but still pretty terrifying . )
12 . Legend of the Guardians : The Owls of Ga’Hoole
Cyriaque already cover this film in admirable depthin his review , so I have very little to add , other than point you towardsthe reportthat Zack Snyder create his own special brand of owl warriorlike arts for the movie , using stuntmen garb as owls to come up with the moves . But really , the trailer address for itself . These owls have cometo lick Tootsie popsand give up ass , and they ’re all out of Tootsie pop :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_lMihSKkgA
Update : Now with three bonus entries ! Thanks to Supachupacabra , MrGOH , and lightninglouie for pointing out my crying omission !
13 . The Mechanical Owl , Blade Runner
Well , at least one employment of hard science fiction prominently have owls , and I just forgot about it . Although the movie is overmodest about this – hell , Blade Runner is coy about pretty much everything – there are almost no real brute left on Earth , and in Philip K. Dick ’s original book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep ? the owls were really the first species to break off from the mysterious plague that pass over out all animals . The bird of night ’s middle are also useful in establishing who is and is n’t a replicant , as its eyes glow carmine at one point , a sign that it ’s a replicant . Now if only we could have assure Deckard give the Voight - Kampff trial run to the owl :
14 . Futurama
As part of Lord Matt Groening and David X. Cohen ’s world - construction , they resolve there would be no more rats in the future tense . To explain this , they said that huge population of owls were imported to get free of all the rats . Of naturally , all that did was make owls the newfangled rats , which has created the lucrative profession of owl eradicator . Or , at least , evil henchmen pretending to be owl exterminators :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApFB-GylZNQ
15 . Twin Peaks
I ’ll be honest , I do n’t really have much to add on this one . I ’m not certain anyone does . Suffice it to say , owls were significant to David Lynch ’s vision … somehow :
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