In this directing debut by
Peter Ramsay,
Rise of the Guardians is a visual feast of magic and wonder, drawing on well-used children's characters and introducing new ones into the mix, all helped by beautifully rendered CGI.
Awoken into new life by the (unseen) Man in the Moon, Jack Frost (
Chris Pine) discovers he has control over frost, snow and ice and uses his powers for mischievous fun, but very sad that nobody can see or hear him.
At the North Pole, Santa, (called North, voiced by
Alec Baldwin) gathers other magical guardians to protect the world of wonder and dreams that the guardians perpetuate in the world's children.
Enter the Sandman, who speaks only in golden visualised dreams, the Tooth Fairy (
Isla Fisher) and the Easter Bunny (
Hugh Jackman).
Pitch Black (
Jude Law) is converting children's dreams into nightmares and then sets about to cancel the magic of North, Tooth and Bunny.
Jack in brought into the guardian fold and our friends desperately try to win back the dreams and wonder of the world's children. Pitch has successfully disillusioned all of them, except for one boy, Jamie (
Dakota Goyo)
3D CGI is the norm these days and detailed renderings are taken for granted, creating no new wonder ... unless the story is solid and characters are believable and dynamic. This is where
Rise of the Guardians shines.
At last! A Santa who is not just a jolly, horizontally challenged grandfather, but a burly, loud Russian with tattooed arms, and Jackman's Bunny is a wonderfully over-the-top outback Aussie.
This is a movie of colour, from the characters to the fantastical golden dream-strands that the Sandman weaves and the thousands of vividly blue little fairies that Tooth commands.
The message is simple: Believe in dreams and some kind of magic. Here, it works.
Watch the trailer now!
