A question of believing
Rise Of The Guardians (PG, 97 mins)
Animation/Action/Comedy. Featuring the voices of Chris Pine,
Alec Baldwin, Hugh Jackman, Isla Fisher, Jude Law, Dakota Goyo.
Director: Peter Ramsey.
Many of the benevolent icons of childhood innocence are the
universally adored faces of capitalism and greed.
Father Christmas rewards well-behaved children with expensive
gifts, the Tooth Fairy marks the loss of an incisor with money
under the pillow and the Easter Bunny reduces an important
Christian festival to a carnival of cocoa-smothered excess.
So it seems fitting that the computer-animated fantasy Rise Of
The Guardians should imagine a world in which children suddenly
stop believing in these idols simply because there are no brightly
coloured parcels under the Christmas tree or chocolate eggs hidden
in their garden.
Without proof in the form of material or financial reward,
impressionable young minds turn their backs on centuries of myth
and legend.
Based on The Guardians Of Childhood book series by William
Joyce, Peter Ramsey's entertaining family-oriented film is a timely
reminder that there are many things without rigorous scientific
proof that still touch our hearts and change our humdrum lives for
the better.
Screening in 3D in selected cinemas, Rise Of The Guardians
boasts a pleasing mix of action, adventure and comedy - the latter
courtesy of Santa's army of expressive elves - that should stoke
younger audiences' sense of wonder as they stuff their faces with
popcorn.
The film is narrated by Jack Frost (voiced by Chris Pine), who
emerges from a frozen lake without any memory of the past.
At the North Pole, Santa Claus (Alec Baldwin) and his elves are
hard at work when darkness flashes across his map of the Earth.
"The bogeyman was here," Santa tells his fellow guardians Easter
Bunny (Hugh Jackman), Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher) and Sandman, who
refuse to believe that Pitch Black (Jude Law) has risen to
challenge their supremacy with his hideous nightmares.
Once the threat posed by Pitch Black becomes terrifyingly real,
the guardians prepare to welcome a new recruit to their fold: Jack
Frost.
"All he does is freeze pipes and mess with my egg hunts!" scoffs
Easter Bunny.
Pitch Black gains in strength and the children of the world turn
their backs on Santa, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy and Sandman until
just one boy, Jamie (Dakota Goyo), believes.
Everything rests on Jack achieving his destiny but he is haunted
by the past he cannot recall.
"How can I know who I am until I know who I was?" he
laments.
Rise Of The Guardians unfolds at a brisk pace, leaving scant
time for in-depth characterisation between the eye-popping action
sequences.
Law is a slightly lacklustre villain but other vocal
performances are solid and Jackman trades dry Antipodean wit as the
macho bunny with a bonzer boomerang.
Visuals lack the meticulous detail and complexity of Pixar's
recent offerings but colour radiates from the screen and director
Ramsey combines the various elements with confidence.
:: No swearing :: No sex :: Violence :: Rating: 6/10
To find local screenings for Rise Of The Guardians, click
here
28/11/12
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