Rise of the Guardians

DreamWorks Animation studios have brought us modern day classics like Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, Antz, and the Shrek series; most recently, they delivered Rise of the Guardians, based on William Joyce’s children’s series “The Guardians of Childhood”.

“My name is Jack Frost.”

Rise of the Guardians is set long after the book series and introduces Jack Frost (voiced by Chris Pine) who is called upon by the Guardians to help defeat Pitch (Jude Law), purveyor of fears and nightmares. The Guardians are the embodiment of childhood wonderment: Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, Sandman, and the Tooth Fairy, voiced by Alec Baldwin, Hugh Jackman, and Isla Fisher, respectively (the Sandman is silent). The Man in the Moon, assumedly the first entity that man believed in, as belief is the central theme of the film, chooses the Guardians. The power each possesses is based solely on how many children maintain a belief in them.

Visually, Rise is probably the most impressive film DreamWorks Animation studios have produced to date. Prior to the arrival of Pitch, everything is lit like the northern lights, the attention to detail is microscopic, and the tiny variations in activity on screen, like the tiny Fairies that surround Tooth, or the sand creations Sandy uses to communicate are all done immaculately, and give the film a real life and dynamic look all its own. However, and likely because of this impressive level of art, the overly simplistic character models stand out as disappointing. It makes me wonder if human or anthropomorphic characters are really that difficult to create or if studios choose to do so to maintain a classic cartoon element to their productions. Either way, as animation continues to advance the disparity is becoming distracting, and this is one such example. Alternately, the character models of the fantasy characters in the film are super slick, and nuanced, like Santa’s ‘Nice’ and ‘Naughty’ lists tattooed on his forearms. Real time and effort was put in to make them appealing and modern, while keeping with their old world feel. Any production that can make Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny seem macho and tough is impressive to say the least. Especially endearing are the silent supporting characters in the film. Santa’s elves and snowmen, the fairies (particularly ‘Baby Tooth’) and the Egg’s in the Easter Bunnies warren got me giggling more than a few times.

“We are very busy bringing joy to children, we have no time for children!!”

The plot of the film directly deals with the struggle of power and beliefs with Pitch and the Guardians, with an interesting subplot regarding the origins of Jack Frost. At first, this origin seemed a bit dark for a children’s film with a PG rating, however in perspective it is certainly not near as jarring as the on screen death of Mufasa in Disney’s Lion King, or even the off-screen death of Bambi’s mother. The remainder of any semblance of violence is extremely cartooned to the point of barely perceptible as violent in nature, save a single short punch thrown by Sandy, any other assaults within the film are carried out using each characters thematic powers (pay close attention to the Easter Bunny’s eggs!). 

Rise of the Guardians was released in theaters on November 12th 2012 and met with generally positive reviews, currently sporting an 83% positive rating from audiences on film site Rotten Tomatoes. Rise also performed extremely well financially at the box offices, netting over $150 million in profits during its theatrical run alone, expecting to lead to a sequel in 2015. Rise of the Guardians will be available on DVD, Blu-ray on March 12th 2013, rated PG for mild animated violence.