take flight

If I'm recalling correctly at least for the movie Soren and Kludd are described as adolescents and I'd assume the same for Gylfie, Soren and Gylfie struck me as like around 14/15-ish and Kludd around 16/17 or something (equivalent in human years, not literally). I never really gave it a whole lot of thought outside of "they're adolescents, and Kludd's a little bit older" haha.

I'd have to pull out the book to refresh my memory but at least speaking in terms of barn owl biology, they grow in their mature feathers at around two months of age-- which is not reflected in the movie, BUT I think that was mostly just because of budget reasons (making a whole other model with its own textures is more expensive than you'd think). I think I'd put them at roughly the same age in the books too, maybe a bit younger? With Kludd still being older.

what do you think of kludd and metal beak being split into two characters in the movie?

well, in the books Kludd had already been working with the Pure Ones when we first meet Soren and his family in The Capture. The only explanation for his behaviour was that he was just kind of... "born wrong" according to Ms. P. Which there's nothing wrong with characters who are just evil for the sake of being evil! (as long as it's well written, such as Purple Man/Kilgrave) I love that stuff.

But I really like what they did with Kludd's arc in the movie. I don't think he hated Soren because he was good at branching. I think Kludd was in an awkward angsty teenager period of his life where he was desperate for approval that he wasn't getting at home... oldest child syndrome etc. so when he and Soren were taken to St. Aegolius and Nyra took an immediate liking to him because of his Tyto heritage, he immediately found himself at home.

Might get sniped for this but I honestly think movie Kludd is a better character. Legends of the Guardians can be watched partly as a cautionary tale about impressionable, insecure youth being sucked into an alt-right mindset by adults using their existing privilege as a tool for manipulation. Had Kludd and Soren not been Tytos I imagine the story would've been drastically different.

feel like I should put this URL to proper use especially now that I'm working on this. I've been wanting to recreate the Ga'hoole tree in MC ever since I first saw the movie, and now that I have the skills and means I figured I'd give it a shot. (Still very much a WIP though!)

I remember the movie (and the game) much more vividly than the books (because I've rewatched it like 20+ times, and have only reread the series maybe twice?), also the movie and game obviously have better visual references, so I'm turning to that for pointers. Image #3 is directly referenced from this scene.