Rise of the Guardians is heartwarming for kids of all ages

Rise of the Guardians is a truly rare thing: A movie that is genuinely heartwarming.

Based on The Guardians of Childhood books by William Joyce, Rise of the Guardians is a movie that will entertain adults while thrilling children. An exciting adventure film, its greatest strength is actually its surprising gentleness as well as its understanding and respect for childhood wonder.

Rise of the Guardians’ protagonist is Jack Frost (voiced by Chris Pine), a mischievous soul who delights in creating blizzards, snow days and wintertime fun for children. Jack is troubled, however, because he doesn’t know why he was chosen for this existence and because the children don’t believe in him, and thus don’t see him.

In this world, children are protected by four figures known as Guardians: Santa Claus (Alec Baldwin), the Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher), the Easter Bunny (Hugh Jackman) and the silent but powerful Sandman.

When the Boogeyman (Jude Law) threatens the world’s children, however, Jack is selected as the fifth guardian and is swept up into the battle to defend them.

The character designs and concepts of Rise of the Guardians are all first rate.

Showing Santa Claus as a joyous man who has tattoos, wields swords and has a Russian accent; the Easter Bunny as 6’1″ with an Australian accent and a boomerang; the Tooth Fairy as having hummingbird elements and being obsessed with teeth; and the Sandman as being a fitting combination of sweet, strong and playful were all well thought of and well-executed choices.

It also helps that the animation for this movie is simply gorgeous. Indeed, it is by far the prettiest computer animation I have seen all year.

Additionally, the all-star voice cast does an excellent job. Baldwin in particular is electrifying as Santa Claus, and there’s a part of me that wants to be his character.

Still, while most of the marketing of Rise of the Guardians has focused on its action movie elements, that’s not what makes it such a quality movie.

Indeed, while it’s been frequently described as The Avengers with childhood icons, such a description doesn’t give enough credit to the creators behind Rise of the Guardians.

Rise of the Guardians realizes it is dealing with figures beloved to children around the world who still hold a special place in the hearts of many adults. Yet, while the movie certainly makes some changes to them, it does so with an appropriate amount of respect and understanding for why, even in a hyper-technological age, these legends inspire joy.

Like the classic Christmas movies Miracle on 34 Street and Prancer, Rise of the Guardians highlights and celebrates children’s capacity for wonder. This gives the movie a refreshingly gentle sensibility, even as it features a lot of well-crafted action scenes.

Rise of the Guardians is one of the few movies I can honestly say has its heart in the right place. Indeed, there were parts where I actually choked up, and I’m sure I’m not the only adult whom this movie has brought to the verge of happy tears.

If you want to take your children to see a movie this Christmas, I would highly recommend taking them to see Rise of the Guardians.

A beautiful, high quality, family film, it’s sure to entertain everybody, and fill your children with joy. Heck, even if you don’t have kids, I’d suggest seeing it while it’s still in theatres.

It’s a rare thing when a movie is able to innovate, while still staying true to what it’s building off of, but Rise of The Guardians is a rare film, and is not to be missed.

Posted by Bera B. Dunau on December 27, 2012. Filed under Arts and Entertainment,Columns,Movie Reviews,Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry