REVIEW: Rise of the Guardians

 There are no spoilers in this review.

PLOT: When the evil spirit Pitch launches an assault on Earth, the Immortal Guardians team up to protect the innocence of children all around the world.


THE GOOD: William Joyce. Rise of the Guardians is based on the series of novels and picture books, The Guardians of Childhood. You probably have never heard of William Joyce. He's an Academy Award winner, he created many of the characters we've grown to love in Toy Story, and his book The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs is being adapted by Blue Sky Studios into a 2013 computer-animated feature film called Epic. As you can see, he should be a bigger name, but few will recognize him. In 2011, Newsweek called him one of the top 100 people to watch in the new millennium. He's the man responsible for writing and illustrating the Guardians of Childhood series, which is planned to consist of 13 books. I've heard that his stories are great and he's won many awards for them.

Unfortunately, this movie is not the one about war owls.

Story. I have to be completely honest and say that I thought the previews for this movie were ridiculous. Not only is it a silly concept, but it just didn't look like it could be any kind of entertaining. After hearing some good buzz, and there not really being any other family films out, I took my daughter and dad to the film. All three of us loved the film. It was much better than anticipated. In fact, it might be safe to argue that it's my second favorite animated film of the year behind Wreck-It Ralph. It's also a very likely candidate as a film that we will watch traditional during the holiday season. Joyce took the icons of different holidays throughout the year and created a capturing story, with the help of screenwriter David Lindsay-Abaire. The deeper messages of finding your "center" and how important childhood memories are is an additional positive outcome from the film.

Animation. It's still not Pixar levels, but this is still some of the best work that Dreamworks Animation has done. We even saw the film in 3D and by golly did it look fantastic. A co-worker of mine who is very critical of 3D since he even owns a 3D television said that it's one of the best looking 3D films ever made.

Voice talent. Even though I knew who was in the film, I was surprised by some of the voices. Chris Pine doesn't really have a recognizable voice, so I liked him as Jack Frost. Alec Baldwin plays North, a.k.a. Santa, and does a super thick accent. It's brilliant. Hugh Jackman keeps his accent as the Easter Bunny. You'll be sure to recognize Jude Law as the villain Pitch. The one voice that I thought didn't sound good was Isla Fisher as Tooth. She just has no emotion behind her voice to me.

I would have enjoyed this movie a lot more if Tooth was played by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

THE BAD: Marketing. While Rise of the Guardians has grossed about $226,770,000 worldwide, it's curious to think about how much more it could have made with a better marketing scheme. This is a nitpicking error and is no fault of the director.


THE END: Rise of the Guardians is better than you think it is. It's one of the better 3D films you can see this year, including Life of Pi. If you're going to see a family film over Christmas break this year, see this one.


DISCUSS: What did you think of Rise of the Guardians? What were your initial thoughts on this film? Would you recommend it for kids? What was your favorite part? What is your favorite animated film of the year?

 In the climax of the film, the characters take dumps in bags to see whose is the biggest.