Rise of the Guardians 720p - (2012 Lang: English)

'Guardians' gives kids some holiday inspiration!

Here's a fresh look at old tradition: a tatted-up Russian St. Nick and an Australian kangaroo-looking Easter Bunny. Rise of the Guardians is based on an original children's book series by William Joyce, who produced the film along with Guillermo Del Toro. The books were inspired by the author's 6-year-old daughter when she asked him if Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny knew each other.

Admittedly I was skeptical going in, but the chemistry of personalities works wonderfully. It creates an original formula that goes against certain expectations. Perhaps one improvement in potential sequels would be to focus more centrally on Santa (or "Nicholas St. North"), but Jack Frost's story is incredibly touching and I found it clever how it parallels the antagonist's motives. The film is slow to start but picks up at a fast pace with non-stop action. By the end, the entire movie theater was in applause.

Rise of the Guardians is a cute, adventurous, and heartwarming family film that focuses on hanging on to the best thing about childhood: belief.

Rise of the Guardians is a 2012 American 3D computer-animated fantasy film based on William Joyce's The Guardians of Childhood book series and The Man in the Moon short film by Joyce and Reel FX Creative Studios. Peter Ramsey directed the film, while Joyce and Guillermo del Toro were executive producers with voice acting by Chris Pine, Alec Baldwin, Hugh Jackman, Isla Fisher, and Jude Law. Produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures,1 it was released on November 21, 2012 and received positive reviews, but under-performed at the box office, contributing to a studio writedown of $83 million for the quarter and the layoffs of 350 employees.

Set about 300 years after the book series, the film tells a story about Guardians Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and the Sandman, who enlist Jack Frost to stop Pitch Black from engulfing the world in darkness. The film was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. This was the final DreamWorks Animation film to be distributed by Paramount Pictures.

Jack Frost awakens from a frozen pond with amnesia. Upon realizing no one can see or hear him, he disappears. Three hundred years later Jack, as the spirit of Winter, enjoys delivering snow days to school kids, but resents that they don't believe in him. At the North Pole, the Man in the Moon warns Nicholas St. North that Pitch Black is threatening the children of the world with his nightmares. He calls E. Aster Bunnymund, Sandy, and Tooth, to arms. They are then told that Jack Frost has been chosen to be a new Guardian. Jack is unimpressed by this position, as he still resents not being believed in, but North convinces him to aid them.

Visiting Tooth's world, Jack learns that baby teeth contain childhood memories of the children who lost them; Jack's teeth are included, but tells Tooth he doesn't remember. However, Pitch raids Tooth's home in order to kidnap all of her subordinate tooth fairies except Baby Tooth, whom Jack saved, so that the children's teeth can't be collected and steals all the teeth, thus preventing Tooth from sharing Jack's memories and causing children to not believe in Tooth. In order to thwart Pitch's plan, the group decides to collect children's teeth. During their journey, a quarrel between North and Bunnymund awakens a boy, Jamie. Since he still believes, he can see everybody except for Jack. Pitch's nightmares then attack, provoking Sandy as the Guardian of Dreams. Jack aids, but Sandy is killed by Pitch.

As Easter approaches, the dejected Guardians gather in Bunnymund's home. With the unexpected aid of Jamie's little sister, Sophie, they begin the process of painting eggs for Easter. After Jack takes Sophie home, he is lured to Pitch's lair by a voice. Pitch taunts him with his memories and fear of non-belief, distracting him long enough for Pitch to destroy the eggs, causing children to stop believing in Easter and Bunnymund. Losing his trust in the Guardians, Jack isolates himself in Antarctica, where Pitch tries to convince him to join his side. When Jack refuses, Pitch threatens to kill Baby Tooth unless Jack gives him his staff. He agrees, but Pitch breaks Jack's staff and throws him down a chasm. Unlocking his memories, he learns that he was a mortal teenager who fell into ice while saving his younger sister. Inspired, Jack fixes his staff and returns to the lair to rescue the kidnapped baby fairies.

Due to Pitch, every child in the world except Jamie disbelieves, weakening the Guardians. Finding Jamie's belief wavering, Jack makes it snow in his room, renewing belief and causing Jack to be seen and heard for the first time. Jack and Jamie gather the boy's friends, whose renewed belief bolsters their fight against Pitch. Pitch threatens them, but their dreams prove stronger than his nightmares, resulting in Sandy's resurrection. Defeated and disbelieved in, Pitch tries to retreat, but his nightmares turn on him and trap him in his lair. Afterward, Jamie and his friends bid goodbye to the Guardians as Jack accepts his place as the Guardian of Fun.

This movie is magical and utterly charming. In this film DreamWorks did it all exactly right. Every voice is precisely as it should be. Perfection! Chris Pine, Jude Law, Hugh Jackman, too many to list …if you didn't know that was Alec Baldwin doing the Russian accent for Santa, you would never guess it. The characters, all of them, are endearing, totally engaging. Sad moments, glad moments, hilarious moments. I haven't laughed this much in an animated movie since….well, never, actually. As I said, this one is destined to become a classic. A wonderful family movie and best of all it doesn't just appeal to the children, adults will love it too. Every adult in the audience,while I was there, seemed as captivated as the kids. And how many movies do you go to these days where, at the end, people applaud? They did for this one. And rightly so. I know I came out of that theater wishing I could somehow have my own Little Baby Tooth...and the friend I was with wished even more that she could have one of the Feisty Elves. You'll totally understand what I mean after you see this delightful movie. Don't miss this one!

A Movie Destined To Become A Classic!