By now we're probably about halfway through the story. And up on screen, Snyder is getting plenty animated as he tells us about the Council of the Guardians who rule the roost at the Great Tree.

Curiously, though, his exuberance isn't matched by the sequence that follows, a talky interlude in which Soren struggles to persuade the sceptical council that Nyra is up to no good.

It’s here we meet Metalbeak (Sam Neill) and Ezylryb (Geoffrey Rush), bigwigs in the Ga’Hoole hierarchy with different opinions on how best to proceed.

We also meet Digger (David Wenham), a dotty burrowing owl whose tentative grasp on reality offers some comic relief.

That’s a lot of characters to absorb in a short space of time, and we have to admit we had trouble keeping track of them all.

We have no doubt, though, that all will be crystal clear in the finished movie.