Angst? What Angst?: When Soren and Eglantine reunite with their parents at the end, said parents don't seem to care at all that Kludd is missing, if they even notice.
Animation Age Ghetto: Some Zack Snyder fans tend to show indifference towards this movie, refusing to watch it just because it was animated.
Audience-Alienating Premise: It was an animated fantasy epic starring owls. Adults may be turned off by the fact that it's animated and the Talking Animals, as well as the occasional childish puns, whereas children (and their parents) might be deterred by the disturbing themes and the excessive violence. It never had a chance.
While it wasn't made specifically for this film, "The Host of Seraphim", played when Soren flies through the forest fire to ignite an oil lamp and destroy the fleck-based mechanism. And for the trailer, we have "Kings and Queens" by Thirty Seconds to Mars.
Complete Monster: Metal Beak, real name Surtr, is a savage owl and the leader of the Pure Ones. Embarking on a war of conquest to kill all who oppose him, Metal Beak is fond of "moonblinking" victims, turning them into mindless slaves and robbing them of their identities, with even children subjected to the process. His intention behind enslaving them is to use magical flecks to set up a trap to kill all of the Guardians and moonblinked owls by draining their blood with bats after their gizzards are severely weakened, using his traitorous spy Allomere to lead them to certain death. When Allomereis no longer needed, Metal Beak leaves him to be devoured by the bats after falsely promising to make him King of the Great Tree, and later on attempts to kill the hero Soren in front of his sworn nemesis and Soren's teacher, Lyze of Kiel, out of little more than savage spite.
Cult Classic: Despite its Audience-Alienating Premise and not doing so hot at the box office when it first released, the movie has gained a fandom over the years from animation aficionados.
Fan Nickname: Zack Snyder's Owl Movie or simply "the Owl Movie".
Genius Bonus: Digger, who speaks with an Australian accent like most of the band, becomes accepted as a guardian and therefore a soldier with the rest of the band at the end of the film. So in Aussie slang that would make him a Digger Digger. Who digs.
Kludd moonblinks his baby sister, which is essentially zombifying her. Seriously, dude, NOT Ka HOOLE!
Nyra crosses it when she manipulates the above owl into her own Tyke-Bomb.
Allomere crosses this when he leads the Guardians to their doom so he can become King of Ga'Hoole as promised by Metal Beak.
As for Metal Beak, trying to kill Ezylryb in front of Soren.
Nightmare Fuel: The movie is chock full of it, including: Allomere getting dragged off by vampire bats, the bats themselves, the Battle of the Ice Claws (Deleted Scene), Kludd falling into a raging fire while screaming in terror, the moonblinked owlets, etc.
So Okay, It's Average: Despite the drop-dead gorgeous animation of the film, it suffers from the narrative trying to tell an epic story akin to The Lord of the Rings in the span of roughly 90 minutes, which ultimately just falls flat and leaves it as more of a Cliché Storm instead, which is probably why it's not remembered much.
Sweetness Aversion: The ending borders on this as it really goes its lengths to describe how perfect everything is, and how Soren and his friends have been crowned Guardians overnight even though it was earlier narrated how such a position took years to strive for.
The death of Grimble, he's so distracted by Kludd's betrayal that he's taken down by Nyra and her Pure Ones.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The film was not well received by fans of the book for its multitude of changes, like Kludd and Metal Beak being split into 2 characters, Nyra showing up despite only appearing in book 4 onwards (due to the film taking the plot of the first 3 books), turning Digger and Twilight into comic relief, several characters from the books missing, or having their species changed, missing key locations from the books, and certain characters being saved/killed off when they weren't in the books.
Visual Effects of Awesome: Something absolutely everyone can agree on is that the animation is phenomenal. The movie came out in 2010, but the animation still looks about as photorealistic as you can get without making the characters unreadable. The rainstorm scene, the opening, the final battle in the wildfire, and the astrolabe in Ga'Hoole are especially amazing.
Vindicated by History: The movie got middling reviews and didn't do so well at the box office. However, over the years, it's gained more appreciation both for its stunning animation (which has earned praise for being radically different from the usual Pixar and Dreamworks fare) and as an interesting piece to study within Zack Snyder's overall filmography.
What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: A "PG"-rated film by Zack Snyder (the man who brought you 300 and Watchmen) with owls clawing and slashing each other apart, characters dying, bats tearing apart owls, impalements… And yet, it was aimed to kids.
Rather, it was probably just marketed as such because of Animation Age Ghetto, instead of being actually intended for little kids to watch.
Complete Monster: Allomere is a traitor to his people and the true villain of Shard's quest. Long ago having secretly aligned with the Pure Ones in the name of power, Allomere paved the way for the Pure Ones to slaughter the Glauxian monastery, which Allomere framed the innocent Grettir for. Allomere then hunted down and killed Grettir and his mate to silence all loose ends, narrowly prevented from claiming the life of Grettir's son Shard, too. Years later, Allomere continues to serve the Pure Ones' purposes and give them inside info that helps their wicked plans to enslave and moonblink all owlets. Allomere reveals himself as the traitor by trying to trap and murder a large group of heroic Guardians, and when confronted by Shard, Allomere smugly boasts of his hand in the deaths of Shard's parents.
, played when Soren flies through the forest fire to ignite an oil lamp and destroy the fleck-based mechanism. And for the trailer, we have "Kings and Queens"