Rise of the Guardians, with its foundations in author William James’ children’s book series The Guardians of Childhood, worked its magic on my son and nephew, ages 7 and 8, respectively. Both gave it an A and spent the rest of their evening playing a mash-up of Rise of the Guardians, The Avengers, Star Wars, Skylanders, Mario, and countless other stories. This was after a lively debate over whether Jack Frost is real. These are two highly imaginative and still-innocent boys, and it was a joy to hear them talking and playing.
For me, while charmed by its premise, that Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and the Sandman are real and protect the world’s children from darkness, it did not transcend above typical children’s fare. It came close at times to mining deeper emotion and themes, especially in regards to Jack Frost’s back story and anything to do with the Sandman. But then it would descend back into becoming enamored with frantically-paced visual effects and cutie-patootieness. Even as a kid I was not one for excess cutie-patootieness.
Thankfully every now and then the action slowed down and the details in the animation could be seen in all their intricate gorgeousness, and the characters had room to develop. These are icons of childhood and should resound deeply in the audience’s minds.
Alec Baldwin voiced North, an imposing Santa with Russian accoutrements. That’s fine but I thought Santa Claus was more Dutch/Germanic sort of Scandinavian in origin? No matter. He’s been living in the Arctic Circle so OK. I did like how he used Russian composer’s names as swears (“Rimsky-Korsokov!”) because hey I do that too. Yeti’s were his main assistants, the elves were fairly useless and both were standard-issue comic relief.
Although it seems many of our holiday and legendary mascots come from Anglo-Saxon/Northern European origin this did not deter Hugh Jackman in voicing the Easter Bunny as an Australian on steroids who says very Australian-y things. Isla Fisher voiced the hummingbird jewel of a guardian, the Tooth Fairy, as a lively sprite of a being who grew on me as a character. Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) sorta generically voiced Jack Frost, the erstwhile star of the show and supposed hottie of legend, bearing a marked resemblance to Zac Efron and random boy band dudes. Jude Law voiced the Boogeyman, called Pitch Black (put 1/3 Maleficent, 1/3 Voldemort, & 1/3 Loki in a blender), a guy with an obligatory I’m-talking-with-a-British-accent-so-I’m-the-bad-guy manner. An effective bad guy who scared the crap out my son for most of the movie.
The Sandman, a legendary figure I found a bit creepy as a child, was without voice, communicating in facial expressions and images. A softly benign entity, he embodied more ‘wonder of childhood’ than the other characters. He, along with the Boogeyman’s legion of nightmare-bringing horses, were enchantingly depicted.
The heroic figures from legend band together to prevent the Boogeyman from afflicting children with fear and nightmares, recruiting the mischievous and ambivalent Jack Frost along the way on the orders of the enigmatic Man in the Moon. Logical leaps, hyperactive cuteness, and plot lines/dialogue that seemed warmed over from other films prevented this from being as entertaining for me than for the boys. But then again, it wasn’t a poorly made film, and I’m not the target audience.
Random Thoughts:
• The movie didn’t cause the boys to doubt the existence of Santa, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy. Whew.
• It also didn’t cause them to believe the Boogeyman is real. Double whew.
• Two teen girls, one dressed head-to-toe in what appeared to be homemade Captain America-themed gear, *loudly* proclaimed their love for the movie as we exited our seats, “Jack Frost was so cute!”, “Pitch Black was awesome!” They were there with boyfriends who I didn’t hear a peep out of. In the parking lot things got louder. And there was skipping. And riding piggy-back on each other. They couldn’t have been more clear about their excitement even with a 76-trombone parade.
I would see kids in schools who *seemed* to be attention-seeking in proclaiming “I’M DIFFERENT!!” which is great, congratulations. Peers weren’t usually thrilled with these proclamations. And so the cycle of bullying went on and on. Not blaming victims here, no-one deserves cruelty, just thinking about an oft-repeated pattern. I hoped they didn’t get beat up too much.
• I being a dork immediately researched the origins of all the legendary figures after the kids went to bed and found a big mess. So much lost to the mists of time. It was amusing that academics have arguments and “controversial” theories over these origin stories, being a former academic I understand how people can get hepped up about these things.
Film Sloth 