Aaaaand cue the annual big Christmas family movie. There are only three things in life that are certainties – death, Nicolas Cage accepting a film role, and a family friendly festive film to warm the yuletide cockles. Last year we had the lovely Arthur Christmas and this year Dreamworks have taken on the mantle with Rise of the Guardians. What? Wait, that can’t be right. It’s set at EASTER?!
Plot thus: The children of the world are looked after by four Guardians – Santa (Alec Baldwin (voice only, it’s all animated)), the Easter Bunny (Hugh Jackman), the Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher), and the (voiceless) Sandman. However, an ancient evil known as Pitch Black (Jude Law) threatens to turn all of the children’s dreams into nightmares and make them stop believing in the current Guardians. To combat the threat, a petulant Jack Frost, struggling to work out the reason for his existence, is enlisted to join the legendary group.
So, yeah the film is set at Easter. A pretty bizarre move from Dreamworks considering the time of year the film has been released and that one of the main characters is Mr Claus himself. However, as the film involves kids questioning the existence of these childhood figures, basing the whole thing at Christmas might lead to a few too many awkward questions this time of the year. Much safer to bash Monsieur Lapin instead. Despite that it is still essentially a Christmas film in all but time of the year. There’s loads of snow and ice, a bloke with a big white beard riding a sleigh, and plenty of fun and frivolity. Pretty much all you need.
Rise of the Guardians presents said Guardians (some of them, at least) in a genuinely refreshing way, which helps it stand out from the usual incarnations. Santa has a Russian accent, carries a sword and has ‘naughty’ and ‘nice’ tattoos on his arms, making him seem like something from Eastern Promises, whilst the Easter Bunny is a 6’1″ boomerang-throwing Australian. However, not all the characters are quite so interesting. Emo Jack Frost is a disgruntled, angsty teenager (complete with stylish spiky hair and hood) who for the most part of the film is just a bit whiny, although he does become more of an interesting character as the film progresses. Similarly, the Tooth Fairy spends much of her time fawning over Jack or crying: hardly a strong female role. As the big bad villain, Pitch (bearing more than a little resemblance to Hades from Disney’s Hercules) is also really quite boring. Visually, he’s as interesting as an office chair, whilst his motives are more than a little wishy-washy. His scary demon horse things are pretty cool though.
It’s an interesting universe that is created here, inspired by William Joyce’s The Guardians of Childhood book series, and there are times that you wish for a little more insight into the characters’ backgrounds. If all the Guardians were once normal humans, why were they picked to become the Guardians? We learn Jack’s story but no-one else’s. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how much you liked this film), there is ample room for potential sequels which, if this does well, will surely follow.
The story isn’t really anything new at its core, however. It’s a ‘face up to your fears’/'coming of age’ story that has been told plenty of times before, although this does offer its own unique take. There are some overly corny moments fresh from the Big Book of Vomit-Inducing Cliches but as it’s essentially a children’s film, that can be overlooked. Despite that, there are a couple of darker moments (not just the visual ones caused by the 3D) that do give the film a bit more depth. Talking of depth, the aforementioned 3D works pretty well for the most part aside from a couple of blurry moments and delivers a couple of genuine ‘jump out of the screen’ moments. Whether that’s a good thing is entirely up to you. The visuals in general are very impressive whilst lacking the spit and polish that comes from some of Dreamworks’ competitors, namely the Mouse House and associated studios.
Like the journey a humble carpenter and his suspiciously pregnant wife (supposedly) made all those years ago at this time of year, many families like to make a trip to check out a good ol’ family film come the holiday season, and they could certainly do worse than Rise of the Guardians.
Chris
Good review. It’s not as memorable as I would have liked, but still a bunch of fun emotionally and visually.
Thanks! Yeah it is a lot of fun and for something throwaway over the holidays I think there’s plenty worse out there. It was 90 minutes or so or light hearted fun, which is all I wanted when I saw it.
I’ll probably check it out once it’s on DVD. Wreck it Ralph will be out over here soon and I’ll watch that with the kids instead.
Yeah I’m looking forward to Wreck it Ralph too, sounds right up my street! You won’t lose a huge amount watching this on DVD so I wouldn’t say rush out and see it but it I did think it was good fun.
“There are only three things in life that are certainties – death, Nicolas Cage accepting a film role, and a family friendly festive film to warm the yuletide cockles.” Love this opening line man. Made me chuckle.
Not a bad film but like many dreamworks movies, they just don’t live up to Pixar (yet again). Good review Chris.
Thanks Mark, I thought I’d go a little more playful with this review!
Totally agree, Dreamworks just aren’t quite there. No matter what they bring out, Pixar just manage to nail it almost every time. Crazily clever people.
I give the Dreamworks films more credit I think than you guys, and if anything… “Brave” and “Cars 2″ have been backward steps! “Kung Fu Panda” is Dreamworks, and that’s the most awesome movie of all movies ever on movie screens!
Meanwhile, I liked this one quite a bit, too. Colorful and gorgeously animated and creative characters even if we’re already familiar with their “legends”.
Don’t get me wrong, I do like a lot of Dreamworks’ stuff, although I haven’t seen Kung fu Panda (don’t shout at me!). I just think that, generally, Disney and Pixar do it better, although Cars 2 was truly awful.
I enjoyed this though. It held my attention and tried to do something a little different, which I applaud.
YOU HAVEN’T SEEN KUNG FU PANDA??
Oh. Wait. Don’t shout at you. Ok, ok. Sorry, misread that. LOL
*runs and hides in the corner*
My nephew was obsessed with it but I didn’t fancy it. I’ve clearly missed out on a masterpiece!
It’s actually an Easter movie, you know.
What?! You’re joking? No-one would make an Easter movie at Christmas, that’s madness.
I’ve read a handful of reviews for this film but none of them have sold me on seeing it in theaters. I’ll definitely wait. Very weird the movie is set at Easter too…
I wouldn’t call it a must see or anything but it’s worth a watch if you happen to catch it. It is a little odd setting it at Easter. All I can think of as to why is that the film questions whether the guardians really exist and setting it at Christmas might lead too many children to question the existence of Santa (which is daft, we all know he exists) – not something you really want in a kids’ Christmas film really.
a good review here. yeah, Rise wasn’t all that spectacular, but it wasn’t horrific either. I am glad for that considered my disappointment in Puss in Boots.
I haven’t seen Puss in Boots but I heard it was fairly terrible! RotG didn’t have anything that I hated and did some things very well, which is good enough for me with a film like this.
Great review, love Nic Cage comment
I’m not really into animated movies so I probably won’t watch it but it looks cute, especially Jackman provided the voice for Easter Bunny 
Thank you
If you don’t like animated movies then there’s not a lot here that’s going to change your mind! And yeah it’s certainly odd hearing Jackman’s voice coming out of a 6’1″ rabbit!
“There are only three things in life that are certainties – death, Nicolas Cage accepting a film role, and a family friendly festive film to warm the yuletide cockles.” LOL
Great review.
Haha cheers man