From Owls to Humanities: Good Values in “Legend of the

Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole”

Iis Nur Rodliyah

Department of Languages and Literature,Faculty of Cultural Studies, Universitas Brawijaya

Jalan Veteran, Malang, Indonesia

Keywords: Humanities Values, Australian Studies, Movie Appreciation, Legend of the Guardians.

Abstract: This paper reports the activity of using a movie to provide students with artistic and emotional experiences in

recognizing good values of humanities. The activity is a part of Australian Studies course delivered at the

Study Program of English, Universitas Brawijaya, and the movie being reviewed is an Australian box office

“Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole”. During the movie appreciation, the students are instructed

to focus on (1) the indigenous value and culture found in the movie, (2) the most impressive aspects of the

movie, and (3) the character’s inspiring line(s). The result of the activity shows that most students recognized

the Australian value of “mateship” which was shown by the main characters. Australian indigenous culture

such as telling stories of legends and myths and about the Dreamtime is well addressed by most of the students.

The students are also seen to disclose their understanding of universal values of good and bad. The students’

most favourite line, which is uttered by one of the main characters, “Mend the broken, make strong the weak,

and vanquish all evil” reflects the students’ awareness on the importance of adopting good values and

suppressing the bad ones.

1 INTRODUCTION

Higher educational institutions have long been

recognized to contribute to the development of

society and human civilization. This is due to their

role in not only providing the students with series of

knowledge and skills in disciplinary fields, but also

utilizing the students with sense of awareness on how

to function well in society. Nowadays, many

emerging situations such as social ignorance and

family values deteriorating have challenged our

global society that if left unacknowledged may lead

to an egoistic, selfish, and unemphatic life. Therefore,

as an educational institution, universities may assign

themselves to encourage their students to adopt good

values that should work well in creating a harmonious

society, and one of achievable efforts is by designing

activities emphasizing on the acknowledgement of

good humanity values in regular courses. For

example, Australian Studies which is an elective

course offered by the Study Program of English,

Universitas Brawijaya provides a room for the

aforementioned activity.

Taking a movie into classrooms as a part of

learning activity is practical yet engaging. Students

can learn many aspects depending on the course

objective and the film selection. Celli (2011, p. 1)

mentions that a work of art can replicate realism and

epitomise nature and he further suggest that “When

elements that define a nation’s historical and cultural

identity appear in popular films, it is possible to see

such imitation in action.”

Thereby, as a work of art, a film like Legend of the

Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole can illustrate

storylines, conflicts, and characters that are relevant

with the given setting, which is Australia, making it

suitable as a material selection discussed in the

course.

382

Rodliyah, I.

From Owls to Humanities: Good Values in “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole”.

DOI: 10.5220/0008765203820387

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Interdisciplinary Arts and Humanities (ICONARTIES 2019), pages 382-387

ISBN: 978-989-758-450-3

2 FROM OWLS TO HUMANITIES

The activity being reported was a part of learning

activities conducted in Australian Studies course. The

movie selected is Legend of the Guardians: The Owls

of Ga'Hoole, an American-Australian 3D computer-

animated fantasy advanture film which was released

in 2010 and was directed by Zack Snyder based on

Kathryn Lask’ Guardian of Ga’Hoole series (Animal

Logic Entertainment, 2010).

This movie was selected at the first place

considering that it has several aspects relevant to the

objective of Australian studies course. The tale is

situated in Australia and shows some geographical

and cultural features that can be found down under

such as the Three Sister rock of Blue Mountain in

New South Wales, Australian gum trees, as well as

the story telling culture and the cave drawing/painting

of Australian indigenous people. Furthermore, Clarke

(2010) suggests that through many ‘breath-taking

moments’ the owls of Ga’Hoole teach more than

wisdom to its viewers. More importantly, Thomson

(2016) claim that “A good film does more than

entertain or fill seats at the cinema. It has the power

to change hearts and minds – and sometimes society

more widely.”

The film appreciation on this movie selection

proved to endorse the notion that a good film

containing good values can ‘touch’ its viewers

effortlessly. This is reflected in the students’

responses upon watching the movie of Legend of the

Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole. All students agree

on the good values depicted in the movie through its

storyline and the characters, and they recognize the

evil deeds as having bad values to avoid.

2.1 Australian Indigenous Values and

Culture

Australian indigenous values and culture are literally

and figuratively projected in the film of Legend of the

Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole. The cultural

heritage and culture are clearly presented along with

the main character, Soren. Soren and his family reside

on a tree whose situation has resemblance to a cave

that has been ancient Australian indigenous residence

for thousands of years.

Having read about Aboriginal and Torres Strait

islander people’s history, the students’ eyes are easily

caught by the paintings on the wall of Soren’s tree

home which resemble those found in ancient caves in

Australia. The cave paintings are parts of indigenous

tradition serving as resourceful media recording

information on past events or stories. The students

also noticed the story telling activity taking place in

Soren’s home and they relate this event to Australian

indigenous oral story tradition.

Besides the traditions, the students recognize the

indigenous values extracted from the storyline and the

characters’ depiction. Most students agree that,

through the owls, the film is promoting several

indigenous values of unity, trust, loyalty, peace and

harmony, and belief in history and tradition.

Among the comments delivered by the students

regarding the indigenous values and culture, seven of

them are presented as follows:

Student’s comment 1

“The indigenous value(s) that I found are

about trust, because whenever you

trust/believe in someone, those whom you

believe in will be help you whenever you

need help. Second is unity. To fight against

something evil, you need to unite with the

person you trust. From the culture aspect, I

can see that in this film they (read: the owls)

preserved the story of their ancestor with a

picture(s) in the wall and by stories they tell

to the youngster.”

Student’s comment 2

“The indigenous value that I found in this

movie is we should live in harmony. Love,

care, and respect are some of the keys to

create a harmony. Because when you bring

these keys into your life, you’ll always find

peace wherever you are. Just throw away the

arrogance, it is such a negativity that will

destroy you.”

Student’s comment 3

“The indigenous values that I find in this

story is about trust. This story has relation

with our daily life, how to realize with our

dream even it looks like impossible. The

power of trust is pictured by Soren who has

belief in the story of the Guardians. Even

though, many people ignore the story, Soren

is still curious and believe that the story does

exist. If we have a dream, we have to make it

possible and make it comes true.”

Student’s comment 4

“The indigenous values I found in Legends

of The Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole are

that they believe in their history, they cherish

and are never tired of hearing those stories of

their Guardians, the Owls of Ga’Hoole. Even

From Owls to Humanities: Good Values in “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole”

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when they’ve have never seen the Guardians

themselves, they still believe that the

Guardians are the heroes and the history was

not just a story. They cherished and apply the

good morals from the Guardians into their

lives, make them as the role of what they

should be as owls. The strong belief of

something the owls have never even seen

before in this movie is the indigenous value I

found.”

Student’s comment 5

“The indigenous values that I can found from

this film is loyalty. Loyalty from the movie

that I can take is that how loyal we are

towards a person or groups. Soren, shows us

how loyalty is supposed to look like. He

won’t ditch his own family or groups in order

to achieve power in a wrong way.”

Student’s comment 6

“The indigenous value(s) that I got from the

movie is trust. This is the most important

thing in this whole movie, in my opinion. We

can see it in the whole journey of Soren. This

movie taught us about trust which seems to

be a simple thing to say, but in fact is very

hard to do. When you got trust. You can do

anything and everything together.”

Student’s comment 7

“I think the indigenous value that this movie

wants to tell is about Collectivism. It stands

for the practice or principle of giving a group

priority over each individual in it. It is clearly

shown how Soren and his squad uphold this

idea from the journey in finding the sea of

Hoolemere until they become guardians. It's

very relatable with Australian indigenous

value which has very high sense of belonging

on each member.”

2.2 Humanity Values behind the

Impressive Aspects of the Movie

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole

motion picture is selected to review not only because

the movie setting is based in Australia but also

because it was created by an Australian animation and

visual effects digital studio, Animal Logic that is

world widely well known for producing high quality

animations.

The supreme digital production of the given

motion picture has provided its viewers ultimate

artistic experiences and the storyline has taken the

viewers into emotional involvements. In addition to

these strong points, good humanity values can always

be originated in almost all aspects of this movie.

2.2.1 Good Values behind Artistic

Experiences

All students participating in the designed activity

acknowledge the quality of the animation and

admitted to be visually and auditorily pampered. The

sophistication of the art work in this animation

making geared the students to appreciate the hard

work of the animator in creating detailed and lively

graphics. This leads to the recognition of the hard

work and giving the best efforts in our work as

exceptional values treasured to be adopted in the

students’ both present and future life.

The unusual visualization of some characters

delivers messages exceptionally. Most students

brought up the contradictory appearances of Nyra and

Ezylryb with their personality. Nyra is picturised as

very beautiful and admirable in her clean white

feathers, but she has an evil heart. On the other hand,

the details of scars and wounds on Ezylryb’s body and

face and his messy feathers is out of anyone

expectation that he actually has a noble and brave

heart. Focusing on this graphic aspect to depict the

characters, the students mention to not judge other

people merely from their physical appearance

because looks may be deceiving. More importantly,

the good value to highlight is that having good

personality should be considered more essential than

being only good looking.

The graphical work on contrasting the settings of

St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls which is a

part of the Kingdom of Tytos and the Tree of Ga’Hool

also creates an awareness for the students on the

effect of practicing or assigning different life values.

At St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls or St.

Aggie’s, among the darkness, fire, and dust, the life is

miserable for all suppressed owls of lower castes.

Contradictorily, the life in the tree of Ga’Hoole, with

green trees and bright and clear scenes, is perceived

to be harmonious and convenient because every owl

is treated fairly and they are always ready to help each

other. This graphical depiction offers the viewers to

recognize the egalitarian, fair play, and ‘mateship’

values that have been claimed to be some of good

values assigned in all aspecst of life in Australian

society.

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2.2.2 Good Values behind Emotional

Experiences

All students admitted that this motion picture offers

interesting storyline and strong characterizations. The

viewers are taken into the journeys of different

emotions of the characters such as happiness, love,

hope, courage, fear, sadness, jealousy, and anger.

The scene showing the main character’s family

engagement at the beginning of the movie bring the

viewer the sense of happiness, warmth, love and care

people can get from a family. The students can feel

the loving attitude of Soren toward her brother and

her sister. Also, Noctus and Marella, are seen being

warm and responsible parents to Kludd, Soren and

Eglantine. However, this condition might be easily

ruined when any member of the family behave

inappropriately. For example, Kludd’s behaviour

sparked an argument and was found annoying due to

his ignorance attitude and his refusal to play and have

some good times with his siblings. His envy of his

younger brother leads to a more serious trouble and

conflict.

Some emotional moments are observed when

Soren keep on showing that he cares about his very

own brother, Kludd, no matter situations they have,

but Kludd does not show the same affection to him.

From this, the students can learn a powerful lesson

that even though others do bad things to us, it does

not mean that we have to be as bad as them. Instead,

we have to keep on doing good things such as taking

care of our family and friends and getting ready to

help them whenever needed.

Determination is another good value offered by

this movie which is depicted through Soren’s

characterization. Soren is represented as being always

optimistic regardless the difficulties to face.

Confidently, he ensured Gylfie when she could not

see any way out. He is very determined to find and

get the help from the legendary Guardians of

Ga’Hoole, and do all that it takes to achieve it.

This movie also reminds the viewers that a person

must not become selfish by sacrificing his friendship

as these will harm not only those whom are betrayed

but might also harm the egoistic individual himself.

An exemplary scene for this lesson is picturised

through the character of a traitor named Allomere

who got killed instead of being given higher position

and power.

Throughout the movie, it is shown that the

protagonist owlets always get some help, advice, and

encouragement from adult owls. Similarly, all the

miseries are also caused by adult owls. Thus, some

students perceived that this movie was created for and

intended to not only children but also for parents and

other adults. The roles of adults are very important in

introducing good values and, in turn, creating better

societies who assign good humanities values.

2.3 Inspiring and Meaningful Lines

Having learned different aspects of language and

literature, the students of English Study Program,

Universitas Brawijaya must be aware of the roles and

importance of language in human life. Being used

appropriately, some language expressions can be very

powerful in delivering certain messages or even

changing people.

After watching the assigned movie, the students

discussed several lines that they consider inspiring

and meaningful. They also elaborate why they can

relate to lines. The followings are the lines prised by

most of the students.

Line 1

Soren: “To mend those who are broken, to make

strong the weak, and without hesitation,

vanquish the evil.”

(and it’s variation)

Narrator: “They strengthen the weak, repair the

broken, and undoubtedly defeat evil. And

when the sun shines again, all can see that

they win over evil.”

The utterances in Line 1 is favourited by most

students because this line delivers a strong message

to the viewers of the film. One student mentioned that

he was motivated by this line to be a better person that

is skilful and emphatic so that he can help those in

need as much as he can. Others suggested that the line

is very realistic considering that the ‘evil’ always

presents in society. Thus, everyone needs to be aware

of this situation and should not be hesitate to fight

against all kind of ‘evilness’. Also, even in the worst

and the most difficult situations, we have to keep

believing that eventually the good will always

overpower the evil.

Line 2

Ezylryb: “What did you expect? Some Tyto Alba with

gleaming armour and metal claws, the moon

rising behind him? Well, this is what it looks

like when you actually fought in battle. It’s

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not glorious, it’s not beautiful, it’s not even

heroic. It’s merely doing what’s right and

doing it again and again, even someday

you'll look like this.”

Another inspiring and touching line was uttered by

Ezylryb, the of Lyze of Kiel, as stated in Line 2. This

line is very meaningful and inspiring because it is

delivered in a very straight forward way. To some of

the students this Line 2 serves as a reminder that

heroes don not always look glorious, beautiful and

big. One student mentioned that we have always

pictured heroes in our heads to look as good as

Superman or Captain America, while actually not all

heroes look that good. Take the most classic example,

our parents, they are heroes but do they look as good

as Nyra who is white, clean, and sturdy? They look

tired and old for fighting battles to do good for their

children and doing it repeatedly that they do not care

about how they look anymore. She continues by

suggesting that Ezylryb’s statement is a reminder that

real heroes, who have fought battles for good, do not

look as good as the one you have imagined but they

are as heroic as what you have imagined.

Line 3

Soren: “Yes, the only proof that I have are my words.

But words are the only proof I ever had that

you were real. And still, I believed”

The second popular line is the utterance presented as

Line 3 because according to the students this shows

how strong Soren’s belief in the history of The

Guardians is regardless the fact that he does not have

anything to prove their existence. Also, from that line,

another student claims, “We can learn that we need to

believe what we believe. Then it would bring us to

goodness and satisfaction. It also reflects that words

are so strong that they can influence people’s mind

and feelings.”

Line 4

Soren: “We are gonna find the guardians of

Ga’Hoole”

The simple utterance of Line 4 is considered inspiring

and meaningful by some students because it contains

deep meaning to them. This line shows that Soren has

a strong belief and willingness to find the Guardians

to save them. Also, as a more superior owl, Soren uses

‘we’ instead of ‘I’ to ensure that Soren and Gylfie are

going through the struggle together, watching each

other’s back, and trusting each other.

Line 5

Gylfie: “We are each other’s family now. We’ll find

them together”

One of the students’ remark on Line 5 is “I choose

this line as my favourite from the movie because trust

is important. Supporting each other through thick and

thin is also important. I can see that even though they

are not related by blood, the bond they have is very

much like family and it is not easy finding that kind

of bond.” This line shows the spirit of ‘mateship’ that

many Australian consider important to adopt in their

society life.

Line 6

Da: “Now, Kludd, stories are part of our culture and

our history. We learn from them. Even after the

700th time.”

Line 7

Da: “Kludd, just because you can’t see something,

doesn’t mean it isn’t real.”

Line 6 and Line 7 are favourable by the students as

inspiring because they feel to relate to this line in a

way or another. One of the students stated “I like this

line because I agree with the dad said. History and

culture will remain and be remembered if we can

preserve from generation to generation and one of

them is through stories.” It is true that a history is a

past stories that are not experienced by all people

especially those who live in later period of times.

However, many aspects in a history always teach us

various good lessons.

Line 8

Grimble: “They said the wings of Lyze of Kiel are

short too, but it didn't stop him.”

This Line 8 is selected by a student because it should

have inspired everyone that no matter who you are,

how small you are, and what kind of owl you are, if

you want to be great, what you really need is

determination and a strong will. This good value is

definitely applicable for all people of any society.

3 CONCLUSIONS

A decision to expose undergraduate students to

different cultures and life experiences could be

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considered as a favourable effort to promote global

harmony. Carefully selected films or motion pictures

may serve as perfect media to introduce students to

different cultures and values considering that the

films are made to project real life situations or depict

common emotions. Many times, observing what

happens in others’ life is easier than examining what

is happening to ourselves. Thereby, assigning

students to review a film and find values and

messages in it, like the activity being reported in this

article, is proved to be effective. The students can

well identify the good values and culture while

enjoying high quality animation motion picture.

REFERENCES

Animal Logic Entertainment. 2010. Legend of the

Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole. Animal Logic

Entertainment Website. Sydney. https://www.Animal

logic.com/portfolio/projects/lotg./ Accessed on May

29, 2019.

Celli, C. 2011. National Identity in Global Cinema: How

Movies Explain the World. Palgrave Macmillan. New

York.

Clarke, M. 2010. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of

Ga'Hoole. ABC North Queensland. Queensland.

http://abc.net.au/local/reviews/2010/10/01/3027264.ht

m. Accessed on May 29, 2019.

Thomson, S. 2016. 10 movies that changed the world.

World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/

agenda/2016/08/10-movies-that-changed-the-world/.

Accessed on May 24, 2019.

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