Rise of the Guardians review

Hey everyone!  So here's that Rise of the Guardians review I keep promising xD

In the review, I'll probably shorten the name of it to its' acronym, RotG, so if you don't know what that means, you know now!  (: 
I'll try not to include many spoilers, although it may be hard!
The movie starts with the words "Darkness.  That's the first thing I remember.  It was dark, and it was cold, and I was scared."  And it shows Jack Frost coming up out of the ice in a pond. 
It moves on to show him finding out about his powers - to create gorgeous snow, ice, and frost, with simply a touch.  His emotions control the weather, so snow can start up at any time, or frost on a window can appear. 
The wind can pick him up at any time, and he can fly to any destination he pleases - but once the wind dies down, he falls, so he can't *actually* fly on his own.  Anyway, the movie shows him wandering into a colonial town (his actual hometown), and he realizes that nobody can see him. 
Then, the movie skips ahead 300 years, and shows the North Pole, at Santa's workshop.  Now, Santa isn't called Santa in the movie - he's North.  He also has a Russian accent (the actor who voices him is Alec Baldwin) and he has two tattoos - a "Naughty" on one arm and a "Nice" on the other; and he wields swords.  Not your typical, storybook Santa there!  His helpers are not only elves, but also Yetis. 
Pitch Black is the villain in this movie (the boogeyman).  He can turn into black sand (nightmare sand) or disappear suddenly.  In the movie, he makes his way into Santa's  workshop, which also holds the globe.  The globe has lights everywhere on all the countries, showing how many children believe in the Guardians.  Of course, Pitch's priority in the movie is to make all the children so fearful that they stop believing int he Guardians.  Anyway, Pitch shows up at the workshop, and so North signals all the other Guardians to come to the workshop.  He signals them using the Aurora Borealis - definitely cool.  :D 

Anyway, the other guardians....the toothfairy isn't necessarily 100% Tinkerbell-fairy.  She's actually got beautiful, colorful feathers covering her all except for her face and her hands; but she has fairy-like wings.  Her little helpers actually look like hummingbirds.  The toothfairy isn't called 'the toothfairy'; her name is Toothania, or Tooth.  Her helpers collect all the childrens' baby teeth and store them in little boxes, and then they protect and look over each box - the teeth supposedly contain each childs' childhood memories. 
The Easter bunny is definitely a huge surprise.  He's called Bunnymund, or Bunny; is 6' 1" tall, has an Australian accent, wields a boomerang, and is basically the polar opposite of what you'd expect from an Easter bunny.  Like, he's "a master of Tai Chi".  He works alone; and he and Jack have had a spiteful relationship since "Easter of '68", when Jack supposedly causes a snowstorm on Easter Sunday; causing Bunny to have a rough time of it, getting all the Easter eggs out for kids for the egg hunts.   
The sandman is actually a little guy made of 'dream sand'.  He can't talk, so he makes pictures over his head with his sand to depict what he wants to say....which usually go unnoticed. 


In the movie, Pitch Black steals all the childrens' baby teeth from Tooth's palace.  Jack finds out that his box of baby teeth is in the mix, and, since he's been having a problem finding a place in his newly-found job as a Guardian, he decides that, in order to find out why the Moon chose him to be a Guardian, he has to get the teeth back himself. 

The movie is pretty vague about the locations; but it keeps coming back to one location in particular; Jack's home - right down to the pond.  (I won't include why the pond is important). 

The movie shows Jack's growth.  He goes from an immature, fun-loving 17 or 18 year old guy, to being devoted, fun-loving, and sure of himself.  He faces manipulation, bad decisions, questioning his place in the world, and has a hard time understanding why nobody believes in him. 

You see, if someone doesn't believe in the Guardians, they're invisible.  It's the same way for Pitch. 

Jack, naturally, has a very hard time understanding why, no matter what he does for them, kids don't see him.  Bunnymund tends to give him an especially hard time about this in the beginning.  In several instances, you can see Jack's eyes tear up or he just gives a totally exasperated expression, like he's just wondering why he even tries anymore...and you can't really blame him, either - really!  Spend 300 years without anyone being able to see or hear you, but you can see and hear them?!  Poor kid. 

Anyway...the movie ends with Jack finally being believed in, and he finally understands why he was chosen to be a Guardian.  The ending says "I am Jack Frost.  How do I know that?  The Moon told me so.  If the moon tells you something, believe it." 

That's what I kinda have a problem with - the few instances where they refer to the Man in the Moon, or "Manny", as North calls him.  It might just be me, but I don't exactly like the idea that this movie instills the idea that the Man in the Moon is the reason why you have all holidays, why you're protected by something, and that it communicates with you.  Butttt that might just be me.  I won't go too far into detail about it though, so as to not cram my Christianity down anyone's throats xD

Ahhh....let's see...

As far as little kids watching the movie, it might be a little iffy.  There are several instances where it gets really scary - like when Pitch's shadows surround Jack and Jack breaks down; when Pitch disappears and reappears without a moments' notice, and also in one scene, which contains major spoilers so I won't say anything :P  I know that my toddler nephew wouldn't be able to watch it; and if I woulda watched it as a young kid, I would probably have had nightmares forever. Another thing that may creep little kids out is that Pitch never really is defeated.  He's simply dragged back into his underground lair by his Nightmares. 

So....aside from those two things - the Moon references and Pitch, I thought this movie was awesome!  I was pretty skeptical of it when I first saw trailers of it, but now it's one of my absolute favorite movies.   I'd give it a 4.5 out of 5 stars, basically shaving half a point off for those two things, but otherwise?  It's a really good movie.  It can also teach kids to, even if someone's trying to manipulate them, not break under pressure. 


So yeah...that's basically the condensed, non-spoiler version of Rise of the Guardians!!  If you want to go through my Pinterest board dedicated to Rise of the Guardians, which you can view if you click HERE.  (I actually have a ton of other boards for Disney stuff, doll stuff, drawing, etc so feel free to check my whole account out xD) 

List of the actors/actresses who voiced the characters: 

Chris Pine - Jack Frost
Alec Baldwin - North
Hugh Jackman - Bunny
Isla Fisher - Toothania
Jude Law - Pitch Black

For the Wikipedia page on RotG, click HERE.