Review: Rise of the Guardians

Rating: 5/5

I wanted to see this movie since I saw early trailers for it on TV. The concept of it as I understood was basically Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy and the Sandman team up to fight evil.

With an idea that awesome how could it possibly fail? Well there are lots ways but then this would have been a different review.

I took my brother, to see it with me. Surprisingly I was not the only person there not taking a child to see the movie, by which I mean my little brother came with me but I would have gone without him.

This movie is based on William Joyce’s Guardians of Childhood series, which I have not read and a short film which Joyce directed that I haven’t seen. I can’t tell you how well adapted this was because of that.

The movie begins with Jack Frost waking up in a frozen lake. Nearby is his crooked staff. He realises that he can create ice with his staff and goes down to the nearest village, trying to talk to the people there but no one can see him and they walk right through him. Jack has no memories of his life before waking up in the lake and only knows his name because the moon told him. Now as silly as that sounds he means the spirit of the man in the moon.

We then cut to the present day where Santa (or North) is organising for Christmas. He is looking at the globe which shows a light for every child that believes in him, when a swirl of black sand moves around it. Then a creepy face appears out of the same black sand and it laughs really creepily.

Santa calls in the other guardians, the Easter Bunny, who is six foot and uses boomerangs to fight. He is voiced by Hugh Jackman who is not even trying to hide the accent. Which has some added hilarity, as rabbits are an introduced species in Australia and have gone feral. There is a actually a movement to have the Easter Bilby as the Bilby is one species whose habitat’s are destroyed by rabbits.
The Tooth Fairy and the Sandman also show up. The Easter Bunny is peeved that he’s been called away from preparing for Easter three days hence.

The man in the moon appears and selects a new guardian, Jack Frost.

Jack is playing with some kids who can’t see him when the Easter Bunny, and Sandman kidnap him and take him to the North Pole.

So as not to spoil the movie I’ll stop recapping now. I liked this movie, while it follows a formula for this type of film it doesn’t really feel constrained by it. It’s very clever and funny, and while adults can enjoy it, there’s not a lot of “adult” bonuses for humour.

It’s visually appealing and definitely has a re-watching factor. It’s very well thought out and the characters are really compelling, even “Pitch” or the Bogeyman. So yes it’s definitely worth putting money down for and I can safely say that all ages can enjoying, with both me, my brother and one of my young cousins loving it.

Currently Listening: One Step Closer – Short Stack