The Rise of the Guardians is another Dreamworks movie, 3D in some theaters, and an odd duck of a film. The story stars a strange league of super heroes, Santa Claus with a fake Russian accent, Sandman, a little bald troll, Tooth Fairy, a hummingbird like nymph, Jack Frost, a nod to toe-headed mischief makers, the Easter Bunny, with a passable Aussie accent, and the villain, Pitch or the Boogeyman.
The premise centers on a group of heroes from children’s folklore, based upon a book series of recent years, a mash up of classic fairytale figures. Ignore the fact that jolly Santa the fat man comes directly from a commercial icon of the 1930s, not from St. Nicholas, and it might be fine. Timeless almost godlike super fairies save the world? It could be Queen or Abba! No such luck. But that would make an interesting cartoon.
Not to be confused with the owl movie from a few years ago, also based on a recent book series, Rise is a unique play on the material of childhood fantasies, but somewhat it squanders this for special effects, eye candy, and a lot of things racing really fast through tight places or into the air.
The audience is actually clued into Jack’s origins from the opening scene, but he isn’t, and he spends much of his narrative trying to figure out what his beginning was. Enlisted by North or Claus to serve in the elite guardians, he becomes the keeper of frosty things and must stop the rising tide of the fear monger, Pitch, who longs to crush the happy dreams of children and destroy the world’s hope. It could be a grand premise for a GI Joe movie, but it’s about these odd fairy tale figures. The Easter Bunny is a smart Alex Wolverine type guy, as the voice actor is a familiar furry X Men actor, and he doesn’t much like Frost for some incident back in ’68. The heroes must protect the children of a strange castle where these little tooth fairy things are hold up, when Pitch captures them. Sandman is apparently killed in battle. Then Frost is later suckered by the Boogeyman when he tries to find his memories. But the avenging fairies manage to right things long enough to get things to right. The books had nothing to do with owls, or the Avengers, or the Incredibles, but it kind of seems like this has been done before. Not a bad movie, just not quite living up to its premise. Also the idea of the Sandman looking like a bald smiling troll hovering over children might actually give them nightmares faster than the villain.
Review by Adan Browne
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