Dreamwork’s Rise of the Guardians follows the journey of Jack Frost, voiced by Chris Pine, as he struggles to discover his purpose. He is chosen as a new Guardian alongside Nick North, voiced by Alec Baldwin, Tooth, voiced by Isla Fisher, the very silent Sandy, and Bunny, voiced by Hugh Jackman. Together, their job is to protect the children of the world. Once Jack discovers that he has been chosen, he insists that he is much too free spirited to become a guardian and declines. Unfortunately for him, he no longer has a say in the situation as the lives of the guardians become endangered. The guardians’ long running enemy, Pitch, voiced by Jude Law, makes it his mission to make sure every child stops believing in the Guardians. In order to do this, he intends to instill fear and hopelessness into every single child. It is up to the Guardians to stop him. To help stop Pitch, Jack has to find his “center,” meaning the thing that makes him special.
This movie really makes you nostalgic about all of the holidays you spent as a child believing so passionately that Santa Claus would come through for you Christmas morning, or that you would be a couple of dollars richer after the Tooth Fairy found the tooth hidden under your pillow. Rise of the Guardians flawlessly expresses the need to be believed in, and the act of believing in something completely. The movie shows this not only through the Guardians, but also through a young boy named Jaime. As every other child in the world begins to lose faith in the Guardians, Jaime refuses to. He keeps his faith and tries to convince everyone that they are real, and shows us how hard it can be to believe in something but how faith often pays off.
I think that this movie did an awesome job depicting these characters in a nontraditional way. In every other holiday movie, Santa Claus is depicted as a big, jolly, innocent looking man, whereas in this movie he is an intimidating tattooed Russian fighter. The cute, fluffy Easter Bunny has been traded for a very tall Australian accented bunny equipped with deadly boomerangs. These unique depictions really paint these characters in a different light. I think this is for the better as it shows that who people are on the inside have nothing to do with how they look on the outside.
Rise of the Guardians has an incredibly inspirational message with sprinkles of lighthearted and goofy humor that everyone can enjoy. If you’re looking for a movie to see this holiday season I would definitely recommend it. The entire family will enjoy it, and by the end, you’ll leave the movie theater with a new perspective on your holiday heroes.
