The new DreamWorks animated film „Rise of the Guardians” feature a sort of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in which the literary characters are replaced by childhood myths: Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Sandman and Jack Frost unite forces to protect the children of the world against the nightmares inflicted by Pitch Black/the Bogeyman. Jack Frost- pictured here as an eternal teenager with silver hair and a cane that freezes everything it touches- has an additional mission of his own: to find out where he came from and how he became Jack Frost.
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The best part of the film are, no doubt, the dazzling visual effects: here and there, the movie seems more like a showcase of the extraordinary abilities of DreamWorks artists than an actual movie. Sandman and Pitch Black get the best powers in terms of visuals, especially the villain, who is always accompanied by nightmares and fears incarnated as excellently designed demonic black horses. Also, each of the five Guardians has their own universe, carefully crafted by the filmmakers from all kinds of beautiful images that leave you in wonder and awe with the latest developments of modern CGI.
The DreamWorks writers made some interesting choices in regards to the characters, choices that could have easily backfired but turned out to be pretty good: Santa Claus is here a strong, tattooed Russian man, complete with Russian accent and Siberian hat, and names of Russian composers used as swear words (I was most amused when Santa fell out of his sleigh or something like that and muttered “Shostakovich!”, although I’m sure that the joke went over the heads of the children spectators), the Easter Bunny is Australian and armed with a boomerang, the Tooth Fairy is a half-bird, half-woman creature. I would have loved to know more about each of them and find out how they became mythical heroes, since the film only gives attention to Jack Frost as far as background stories are concerned. Even so, the five Guardians are nicely penned and their interactions are funny and pleasant.
Unfortunately, I was not as impressed with the narrative of the film, maybe because I had to watch it in a theater without heating, which may have made me a bit grumpy. The initial conflict (“We love children and want to protect them, Pitch wants to frighten them”) is established fairly quickly and not much is added later on, so we are left with watching one battle scene after the other, with plenty of visual glitter but not much substance. On top of it, “Rise of the Guardians” suffers from the slightly annoying disease of American children’s films that I like to call “lessonitis”: it’s trying really hard to teach us a sugary lesson, and, in this case, the lesson (“Believe in Santa/the Easter Bunny with all your heart and that will make them real!”) sounds a bit like a cynical call to consumerism to the ears of a grown-up. I would have preferred, let’s say, “Christmas/Easter are a time of reunion with our family/friends/people we love”, which is a lesson that is just as omnipresent in family films, but slightly more authentic and easier to swallow. I would have also wanted the animators to refrain from trying to design realistic human characters: the children in this film are very far into the uncanny valley and, frankly, they look a bit scary, like plastic soulless dolls, which wouldn’t have happened if a more cartoonish design had been chosen. I think it’s time for the animation industry to make peace with the idea that realistic CGI humans are just not going to happen anytime soon.
The humor in this film is however a definite step forward for DreamWorks studios, simpler and more universal than their usual fart jokes and pop-culture references. The voice work is also very good (especially Jude Law as the villain). There is a lot to like about “Rise of the Guardians”, a pleasant, well-crafted film of many qualities, which will make a good, if forgettable, ingredient to an evening out.
