Review: Rise of the Guardians

The title characters are a band of all your childhood favourite *cough* imaginary *cough* characters; North AKA Santa (voiced by Alec Baldwin), the Easter Bunny (voiced by Hugh Jackman), the Tooth Fairy (voiced by Isla Fisher), The Sandman (who is mute), and Jack Frost (voiced by Chris Pine). Jack has a bit of a chip on his shoulder and feels like he has been overlooked in favour of the other guardians (who were all created by the Man in the Moon, by the way), because he is invisible to humans (Um, so are the others, aren’t they? No, that foul-smelling department store Santa doesn’t count). So he has shunned them for a somewhat lonely, invisible existence. Anyway, when darkness appears to be on the horizon in the form of the evil Pitch (voiced by Jude Law), the Guardians seek the counsel of Da Man in Da Moon, who insists that the key to destroying Pitch’s dark influence over the world is to bring Jack into the fold before Pitch has children the world over forgetting all about the Guardians. It’s clobberin’ time!

 

This 2012 DreamWorks fantasy from director Peter Ramsey (a debut feature director from a storyboard and 2^nd Unit directing background) and writer David Lindsay-Abaire (“Robots”, “Oz: The Great and Powerful”) isn’t bad, but given the cracker of a central idea, I was expecting a whole lot better (though on reflection, doesn’t the plotline seem to be a rip-off of “The Fellowship of the Ring”?). It’s OK kids entertainment, but not quite filling enough for the rest of the family, despite fine voice work by Jude Law as the villain. I also have to say that I found this film’s depiction of the Sandman to be extremely creepy-looking, and the idea of a weird little creature who sneaks into kids bedrooms and puts sand in their eyes to get them off to sleep is already pretty bloody dubious to me. I would’ve found a different ‘Guardian’ to be honest. From an action/adventure/fantasy spectacle standpoint, it makes for diverting entertainment up to a point, I just thought it was going to be better.

 

The film opens with a nice, festive version of the DreamWorks logo with snowflakes, but some of the animation seemed a little soulless to me. The background characters in particular looked like mere marionette puppets to me. They acted a lot like the ‘Townies’ from “The Sims”, except they didn’t unexpectedly get stuck bumping into walls. Meanwhile, Santa (or North, as he is moronically called here) having ‘naughty’ and ‘nice’ written on his forearms is a funny gag for those who get it, but awfully inappropriate for a children’s movie at the same time (After all, it comes from a movie about a sleazy, demented convict posing as a preacher who terrorises two children!). I initially wasn’t sold on the idea of the Easter Bunny being an Aussie, but a) Hugh Jackman doesn’t entirely go into Steve Irwin ‘ocker’ territory here, and b) What nationality would you prefer the Easter Bunny to me? Eventually I just went with it. The Tooth Fairy here, by the way, is certainly much cuter than The Rock. But it’s definitely the character of Pitch (AKA The Boogeyman) who steals the show here, he’s like a character out of a Tim Burton film. Law doesn’t quite have the theatrically malevolent voice of a Tim Curry, but Tim Curry would scare children witless in this role, so Law’s a good fit. His wraith-like steed is also a wonderfully creepy, Gothic creation. In fact, the only thing I didn’t like about him is that he looked a little too much like the main character in Burton’s excellent “Frankenweenie”, from the same year.

 

I also think the rather arrogant Jack Frost, is the perfect role for the always arrogant Chris Pine, who provides his voice. But the character itself I found kind of a bore, and frankly not very ingratiating. I think I have a real problem with Mr. Pine. Perhaps it’s because he shares the same name (but with a different spelling of the last name) as my least favourite Australian politician of all-time. Or perhaps simply because Pine comes across like a self-absorbed jerk, even when simply providing his voice.

 

Overall, whilst there are some fun elements here, I have a feeling the William Joyce novels this film is based on, are a whole lot more successful and a whole lot more fun. I don’t think this film is destined to become a Christmas classic. That said, it’s kinda cute having “The Shadow” play Santa Claus, Capt. Kirk play Jack Frost, Wolverine as the Easter Bunny, and Borat’s wife as The Tooth Fairy. Very Danny Elfman-esque music score by Alexandre Desplat (Polanski’s “The Ghost Writer”, also an Elfman-esque score) I must say.

 

Rating: C+