Rise of the Guardians

Each year at Christmas time, we see a plethora of films to commemorate this time of year. There is usually at least one animated film, last year being "Arthur's Christmas". Well, Hollywood certainly didn't disappoint us, because this year we have "Rise of the Guardians" to watch as we munch on our popcorn.

When evil spirit Pitch aka The Boogy Man (Jude Law) launches an assault on Earth, the Immortal Guardians including North aka Santa Claus (Alec Baldwin), Jack Frost (Chris Pine), Bunny aka Easter Bunny (Hugh Jackman), Tooth aka Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher),and Sandy aka Sand Man (voiceless), team up to protect the innocence of children all around the world. The survival of the Guardians is contingent on the belief of them, and as long as even one child believes, they will continue on. As with one child in particular, Jamie Bennett (Dakota Goyo) who refuses to stop believing, it will have to be their responsibility to protect him even more.

Others to round out the cast are Khamani Griffin as Caleb, Kamil McFadden as Claude, Georgie Grieve as Sophie Bennett, Jamie's sister, Emily Nordwind as Jamie's Mom/Jack's mother, Jacob Bertrand as Monty, Olivia Mattingly as Pippa/Jack's sister, and Dominique Grund as Cupcake.

This was effectively directed by Peter Ramsey ("Monster's vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space" (TV movie) '09, and as a storyboard artist on a ton of films). Considering his limited experience as director in feature films, he should go the distance. It was written by David Lindsay-Abaire ("Robots" '05, "Inkheart" '08, "Rabbit Hole" '10). The plot wasn't overly original--good vs. evil as we've seen in Christmas films before as with films in general, but it still had an entertaining quality to it which made it more palatable. Dreamworks Animation definitely assisted with bringing any life to this film.

As with all films of this type, and being presented in the 3D format, this certainly will look better if seen on the large screen. This wasn't a great film, but certainly an acceptable attempt that has been done so often for the silver screen.

Out of 4 stars: 3                        Rated: PG                      97mins.