|
 The
boy wakes up in the water, or is it the sky? All he knows is that he’s
alone and only the moon seems to be speaking to him. Because it doesn’t
seem like the Man in the Moon would lead him astray, he takes on faith
that his name is Jack, but that’s not a lot of information to base an
entire existence on. No more answers are forthcoming after the boy
discovers that everywhere he goes shimmering frost trails in his wake,
even up in the air as he flies. The tradeoff of such magical powers is
that he is invisible to the human eye: He’s a ghost amongst the living,
watching as children enjoy the fruits of his labours, like snow days and
practical jokes like blizzards on Easter Sunday. With no one to see or
acknowledge his work, life is a lonely puzzle for Jack Frost, who has no
idea why he exists or any other life before the day his eyes opened
under the moon.
At the
top of the category of much more famous mythical beings is everybody’s
favourite toy delivery man, Santa Claus. At the top of the North Pole,
amidst tinyl elves and giant yetis, the exuberant Cossack not only is in
constant preparation for his big day of the year, but is also the keeper
of a huge globe full of millions of lights that represent a child’s
innocent belief in Santa and his ilk. That ilk would consist of the
beautiful, birdlike Tooth Fairy, the silent and sleepy Sandman and the
obstreperous Aussie leporidae called Bunnymund, whose pugnacious
response to any insult to his Easter Egg-painting skills (or
resemblance to a kangaroo) is usually a boomerang to the head.
Chosen by the Man in the Moon, the quartet represents the best of
children’s hopes and dreams. They are called Guardians, protectors of
the sense of wonder that makes kids able to believe that the bicuspid
placed under their pillow will surely be transformed into two bits come
morning light. This faith is precious and when lights start going out
across the globe en masse, it’s cause for substantial alarm, even more
so when they realise it’s due to an old enemy from the past. The dark
spectre, Pitch, has escaped from confinement and is determined to douse
every single light on the globe, leaving children without hope and in
fear of the dark, making the world the Boogeyman’s oyster. All four
good guys are gathered to plan their defence when they get another
surprise; the Man in the Moon has chosen a fifth member to join their
ranks. The trickster Jack Frost has been given the honour of defending
the innocence of childhood, the only problem is Jack isn’t so easy to
convince. It’s not like anyone has ever believed in him before; despite
all his wonders he’s always been second-string in the world of legends,
why should he make an effort now? An eye-opening trip to Santa’s
Workshop isn’t quite enough to make the eternal loner change his ways
and it’s only after Santa -- or North, as he’s called -- challenges him
to find what is really at the core of Jack Frost, does the snowboy
decide to come along for the ride. While Jack is being persuaded, Pitch
has wasted no time galvanising his forces and a battle between the
nightmares created by dark spirit and the good guys overwhelms and finds
the Guardians down one member. Not wasting a moment, next on Pitch’s
agenda is the invasion of Tooth Fairy Island, where his team of bad
dreams kidnaps all the little fairies who actually perform the endless
task of collecting the world’s milk teeth and leaving cash endowments in
their place. As kids around the world wake up to find only the
discarded choppers under their pillows, lights across the globe dim, and
as their belief in the Tooth Fairy evaporates, so does she; becoming
invisible to the eyes of children and therefore weak and powerless.
Attempting to rally in time for the next big holiday, the crew heads
down the rabbit hole to the Easter Bunny’s underground warren. Sure
that their hard work painting and placing the brightly coloured eggs
will shore up the globe lights until they can catch Pitch, no one is
ready for Jack’s unintended betrayal. He lets the Guardians down by
falling into a fairly obvious trap set by Pitch, who plays upon Jack’s
realisation that somewhere in the billions of teeth collected by the
Tooth Fairy is the secret to his true identity. Jack was meant to be
looking after the eggs, helping them to get to the surface in time for
Easter morning, which thanks to Pitch, never happens. Like the Tooth
Fairy, Bunnymund finds himself incorporeal and without power when kids
wake up to no Easter fun. Pitch is winning, a point he makes to the
dejected Jack, now that he’s run away from the disappointment of his
former allies to be alone again. Since Jack really isn’t in the joining
mood and the lure of his real identity doesn’t move him after the damage
he’s done, Pitch uses a hostage, the adorable Baby-Tooth, one of the
Tooth Fairy’s wee assistants to force Jack to give up his staff, his
weapon of power. Jack lays abandoned and powerless in a frozen ravine
until the sweet little fairy uses her magic to show the frosty boy who
he was and why it’s so important that he joins the fight against the
evil Pitch for the hopes of the world’s children.
Lovely
stuff. Rise of the Guardians is one of those cartoons that’s got a bit
for everybody in it; the obvious allure of cartoon hijinks for the
kiddies, an intelligent and funny script to keep the grown-ups
entertained and lots of action for everybody. It’s also a gorgeous
looking thing, with rich backgrounds and beautiful fantasy worlds like
Santa’s Workshop and Tooth Fairy Island, as well as very cool (if
occasionally familiar-looking) character designs. The great voice
acting is some of the best in a recent US production with Alec Baldwin’s
North, a full-throated, life-loving Cossack who truly views the world
with the wonder of a child, and he’s got the matryoshka doll to prove
it. Hugh Jackman is excellent as the high-strung, decidedly uncuddly,
macho Bunnymund. In homage to Jackman’s Broadway leanings, the rabbit
is even given a jazz hands moment. Good as those two are, the big
standouts are Jude Law doing his best work for ages providing the
dulcet, arch tones of the mysterious villain, Pitch, and Isla Fisher as
the flitty, funny bird of paradise that is the Tooth Fairy. There’s a
bit of edginess to the production as well; for one instance the design
of North, a.k.a. Santa Claus, who is imagined here as a Russian
gangster, with full-arm tattoos, including the words “naughty” written
down one arm and “nice” up the other. There’s the stunning, art deco
burst of colour that is Tooth; her delicate structure looks almost too
fragile to hold up all her coloured feathers and hummingbird-quick
motion. Likewise glorious is the movement of the deceptively
simply-drawn Sandman, a chubby, conversation-challenged, sleepytime
cherub with a definite tough side to him. Sandy’s sequences, where
golden sand illustrates the dreams of the children he gently lulls to
bed each night are really beautiful. The amorphous nature of the sand
also makes for some neat weapons during the exciting battles with Pitch,
some of which get pretty intense for a Dreamworks family film. Because
it seems every new, big-budget US animated film must have some version
of Despicable Me’s Minions, here we have the elves; teensy, red walking
traffic cones with silly faces somewhere in the center. They’re not
used as egregiously as the Minions, but do provide the more slapstick
end of the comedy. Much funnier are Santa’s less-troublesome helpers,
the Chewbacca-like yetis who threaten to steal the picture with their
unintelligible vocabulary and clear frustration at Santa’s workshop
whimsies. Bunnymund’s eggheaded sentries are also a laugh with their
ever- revolving faces that clearly inspired the Easter Island statues.
Rise of the Guardians steers away from author/illustrator William
Joyce’s original design for Pitch, almost carbon-copying fantasy scion
Neil Gaiman’s most famous creation,
Dream from The Sandman comic book
series (More ironic for the presence of the excellent “Sandy”).
In an undeniable similarity, Pitch is a long, lean drape of black with a
pale, high-cheekboned (slightly Voldemortish) face and a shock of
messy raven hair. The design of Jack Frost might be based on a lesser
known influence;
Toshiro Hitsugaya, a famous character
from the extremely popular Japanese manga and anime called Bleach. Like
Jack Frost, the silver-haired, blue-eyed, centuries-old man-child,
Hitsugaya, is a creature of legend that can control frost and ice. (In
another Hitsugaya similarity, Jack Frost has a following of fine
feathered fangirls fluttering in his wake.) That said, if you’re
going to choose homages, those aren’t bad ones.
Rise
of the Guardians is one of those cool cartoons that entertains on all
levels for all members of the family. It’s lovely to look at, fun to
watch and delivers a sweet message of hope and the importance of
embracing the true magic of childhood, which is too easily lost in
today’s often harsh and cynical world.
~ The
Lady Miz Diva
November 23rd, 2012
© 2006-2022 The Diva Review.com
|
