While most other marketing teams try to bombard you with advertising, the buzz about Rise of the Guardians has been pretty quiet.
One particular crowd that’s shown more excitement for this movie has been the animation buffs. In the case of this Rise of the Guardians, the lack of hype makes for a pleasant surprise which, given this film’s premise, gives it the advantage.
Rise of the Guardians stars Chris Pin as the voice of the young and mischievous Jack Frost, who is chosen to become a guardian of children’s hopes and dreams. Jack Frost is chosen for this when the embodiment of fear and darkness known as Pitch Black, voiced by Jude Law, threatens to bring the world back to the dark ages when all the children only believed in the Boogeyman.
His fellow Guardians are Santa Claus, voiced by Alec Baldwin, the Tooth Fairy, voiced by Isla Fisher, the Easter Bunny, voiced by Hugh Jackman, and the Sandman, who has no dialogue.
The story is timeless
It’s not bogged down by pop culture references, nor does it suffer from the various pitfalls of the animated family film. Rather than try to be strictly for children, it tries to keep it’s whole audience engaged without having any elements that feel shoehorned in. The biggest factor of its timelessness are the jokes and exploration of just who these Guardians are to the world, to each other and to themselves.
The animation in this movie is quite stunning. The movements are fluid and expressive and help to build the overall visual aesthetic. While most other computer animated movies try to keep a very simplistic style, Rise of the Guardians shows a great attention to detail in how the characters look and move.
Not your average Christmas show
The voice acting is also really well done, but the only mild drawback is Alec Baldwin’s performance. While it’s not a really bad performance, it comes across as a performance he had some struggles with, almost like he’s fighting against his own voice in order to stay in character. He sounds like he’s having fun with the role, but it’s a case where it could have used a little more polish.
Overall, this is an incredible movie that’s most likely to endure for while. It has a timeless, watch-anytime charm that I haven’t seen in a movie since “The Nightmare Before Christmas”.
Rather than strictly being a Christmas show, it keeps itself accessible enough so that no matter when you watch it, it’ll be enjoyable. It has a very unique aesthetic that doesn’t try to rip off any other film, so this is well worth your time as a movie-goer.
On my personal scale, I give Rise of the Guardians a 5/5.
