“Well, this year’s animated Christmas-ish movie seems to have gone a slightly non-conventional route with Rise of the Guardians. Santa along with the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and Sandman have recruited Jack Frost to save the children of the world from the Boogeyman. How much you wanna bet the DVD release date will coincide with Easter?
On paper, it sounds incredibly cheesey and juvenile. Well, I mean, it is aimed at kids after all. But these aren’t your typical fantasy beings. Oh no. Santa is all inked up and voiced by Alec Baldwin. Bunny has some badass boomerangs and Hugh Jackman’s attitude. Jack Frost (Chris Pine) looks like the drummer from Forever the Sickest Kids. And the Boogeyman goes on and on about fear with Jude Law’s gorgeous English accent. That’s kind of the extent of the for-the-big-kids element of the movie.
The story is that the Boogeyman is trying to spread fear to all of the children of the world, making them lose faith in the other guardians and believe in him. As the children stop believing, the guardians lose their power and begin to disappear. It was cute, and as someone who loves all of those characters, I liked the feel of it and some of the ideas, but I found most of it kinda boring. Things were just a little dragged out with not a lot going on, and there wasn’t a lot of effort put into the humor.
One thing I did like was the details around the goings on at the north pole. I’ve noticed that every movie that shows Santa and his helpers has an entirely different take on the elfs. Sometimes they’re smart, sometimes not so much. Sometimes they’re tough, sometimes not so much. Sometimes they’re serious, sometimes not so much. Here, they were the equivalent of the minions in Despicable Me, but even less smart. Santa actually had a team of yettis that built all of the toys. The elfs had the most adorable outfits that were basically oversized Santa hats with strategically placed holes. But their antics were minion like, playing games and getting in the way of things. Totes adorbs. I also liked the idea of seeing the Easter Bunny’s lair, something that rarely gets seen. A movie around him might not be a bad idea, especially if he continues to be voiced by Jackman.
What should have been a fun and different film turned out to be not that special. The kids in the audience were certainly entertained. They all cheered at the end. I was just ready to head home.
Rise of the Guardians – \m/ \m/ \n