Rise of the Guardians

Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream…

(2012) Animated Feature (DreamWorks) Starring the voices of Alec Baldwin, Chris Pine, Isla Fisher, Hugh Jackman, Jude Law, Dakota Goyo, Khamani Griffin, Kamil McFadden, Dominique Grund, Georgie Grieve, Emily Nordwind, Jacob Bertrand, Olivia Mattingly, April Lawrence. Directed by Peter Ramsey

 

Certain figures hold a kind of reverence in all of our childhoods; the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and of course Santa Claus. They are symbols of various aspects of our youth and remind us that who we are now is informed by who we were then. These figures are venerated because of their association with children. They are protectors of their innocence. They are guardians.

Jack Frost (Pine) is a mischievous sort, the sort who brings snow and ice to cold climates and provides children everywhere with snow days. When you’re hit in the face with a stray snowball that nobody can remember throwing, he’s likely to be the culprit. Nobody can see him, after all because nobody really believes in him. This depresses him somewhat.

But he has been chosen to be the newest Guardian by the enigmatic Man in the Moon (who never speaks). The current Guardians – Santa Claus (Baldwin), a buff Russian accented behemoth who answers to North and carries swords as well as candy canes, The Easter Bunny (Jackman) who speaks with an Australian lilt, tosses boomerangs and exploding eggs in battle and travels by magical portals through the underground; the Sandman, a pint-sized sleepy sort who visualizes his thoughts through sand and uses sandy whips to create creams, and the Tooth Fairy (Fisher) who commands an army of little hummingbird-like fairies that collect teeth in which childhood memories are stored – are aware that one of their own, the Boogie Man who also is known as Pitch (Law) who has spent centuries preparing for his own moment – to use the Sandman’s ability to create good dreams and perverting it to cause nightmares and fear. And as the kids of the world lose faith in their Guardians, the Guardians begin to disappear and lose their powers.

The lynchpin is Jack Frost, but he may not be up to the task. How can someone nobody believes in become a hero?

I kind of like the concept here, although I do admit that it likely posed all sorts of problems not only for the filmmaker but for William Joyce, the author of the children’s books that this movie was (loosely) based on. Creating characters that not only contain the traits that kids know and love about these legends but also are believable as a superhero team is a bit of a tricky prospect.

It doesn’t always work. Think of Super Friends with better animation, a reference which probably flies over the head of most kids whom this is aimed at and that’s just as well. The target audience has barely lived long enough to be in kindergarten.

There is plenty of color here and some truly magical moments, most of which have to do with visiting the homes of these characters. Santa’s workshop, for example, is staffed by Yeti toymakers (who look like the lovechildren of Bigfoot and Wilford Brimley) and elves who might remind some of the Minions of Despicable Me. The Easter Bunny’s warren has Pacific Island-looking stone heads, trees that dispense little eggs with legs that walk through a Willy Wonka-looking contraption that paints them. The Tooth Fairy’s castle is a cross between a Disney princess abode, a dentist’s office and Hogwarts’ Castle.

I’m not sure why Baldwin picked a Russian/Slavic accent for Santa – if he wanted to be a bit more accurate he might have gone Germanic with it but I suppose it might be a bit too easy to characterize Santa as a Nazi had he done that. In fact, most of the vocal work is pretty adequate and I do like some of the characterizations (like the flirtatious Tooth Fairy who has a thing for Jack’s teeth). The Easter Bunny is a bit impatient and trades barbs with Jack who is on the Bunny’s poo list for causing a blizzard a few Easters back.

Da Queen liked this a lot better than I did. She commented afterwards on the messages of working as a team, putting the greater good ahead of your own personal needs and the need for sacrifice – and it’s rare I admit that you see that sort of pointing towards selflessness in modern animated features which more often stress being true to yourself than being true to the world.

Still, I had trouble with the rather predictable story and it’s overuse of Jack’s angst as a plot point. There were also several superhero poses that were a bit incongruous – you know, the crouch with arms outstretched, staffs and swords pointed in aggressive poses. I suppose that the message that problems need to be solved with violence is also kind of ingrained in this – no attempt is ever made to negotiate with Pitch and his own issues, which get revealed late in the film, seem to be made light of because, by nature, Pitch is Bad which means that some people are naturally Bad and should be dealt with violently which I kind of had issues with. Call me a bleeding heart liberal if you will.

Even so this is solid entertainment that small kids will adore and their parents won’t feel is a burden for them to watch with their progeny. Be advised that although Santa is being marketed as a central character (which he is), this isn’t strictly speaking a Christmas movie so if you’re expecting one, you might leave disappointed.

REASONS TO GO: Kind of fun to see all those characters together. Visually inventive.

REASONS TO STAY: Story is much too predictable.

FAMILY VALUES:  The themes and some of the action sequences might be a little scary for the wee ones, especially if they’re impressionable.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: This is the last DreamWorks Animation film to be distributed by Paramount. The company has signed a new contract with 20th Century Fox that begins in 2013.

CRITICAL MASS: As of 11/25/12: Rotten Tomatoes: 74% positive reviews. Metacritic: 57/100. The reviews are pretty decent.

COMPARISON SHOPPING: The Incredibles

EASTER LOVERS: .Part of the film takes place during the spring holiday, and we get a nice look at the Easter Bunny’s castle.

FINAL RATING: 6/10

NEXT: Jolene

Don’t Tell (La bestia nel cuore)

The three women of "Don't Tell" ponder their inner demons.

(Lionsgate) Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Luigi Lo Cascio, Alessio Boni, Stefania Rocca, Angela Finocchiaro, Giuseppe Battiston, Valerio Binasco, Lucy Akhurst. Directed by Cristina Comencini

We all bear some sort of painful secret from our past that haunts us in one way or another. Sometimes we are consciously aware of that pain, other times it hides in our inner psyche, buried deeply only to be released unexpectedly and unwanted.

Sabina (Mezzogiorno) has a pretty nice life. She works as a voice-over actress, dubbing Hollywood movies. Her boyfriend Franco (Boni) is a handsome, well-regarded stage actor who has taken a role as a doctor in a soap opera that, while beneath his talents, will settle their financial issues for many years to come. Sabina is also pregnant, which she is trying to figure out the right way to break to her boyfriend.

However, she is beset by nightmares that torture her night after night. She realizes that this has something to do with her past but she can’t figure out what for the life of her. Determined to find out why these demons are tormenting her, she is determined to visit her brother Daniele (Lo Cascio) who lives in America, a professor of Italian literature at the University of Virginia.

Before she leaves, she needs to see to her friend Emelia (Rocca), who lost her sight at 20 and has been depressed ever since. Sabina visits her regularly and Emelia has developed a romantic attachment to her. Sabina however is quite straight and arranges for Emelia to be visited and assisted by Sabina’s director, Maria (Finocchiaro) who is also going through a difficult time – her husband has just left her for her daughter’s college friend.

The movie is mostly about Sabina’s journey and the truth behind her nightmares which I won’t reveal here – the movie will present a far more powerful impact if you don’t know what it is. Comencini adapted her own novel, which was inspired by a newspaper article of an adult brother and sister coming to terms with a childhood trauma.

Mezzogiorno does a terrific job here, playing a woman alternately confused, frustrated and eventually angry at the things that she can’t figure out, until the moment she does realize what happened to her in her past. It’s a compelling screen moment, one of the best in recent years.

If there’s a quibble here, it has to do with the two subplots that occur during the movie, one involving the budding relationship between Emelia and Maria and the other involving the boyfriend being chased by a seductive ingénue on the set of his soap opera. To my mind they were distracting, unnecessary and at times confusing. I can understand why they are there, however; the main story is wrenching and requires some relieve for the audience.

This wound up losing the Oscar to Tsotsi which is justified I think; that movie is a superior movie and one of the best of the decade. However, when you consider that this had to compete with Paradise Now and The Final Days of Sophie Scholl, you realize what a remarkable crop of movies came out from places other than Hollywood that year.

This isn’t always an easy movie to watch and those who are sensitive to child endangerment and to sexual situations are advised to give it a wide berth. However, this is one of the finest examinations of the female psyche and the effects of devastating trauma upon it that I have ever seen. From that standpoint alone, this is a movie worth seeking out although methinks it will be difficult to find at the average video store; an online rental service such as Netflix (where I rented it from) and Amazon might be your best bets.

WHY RENT THIS: A very difficult subject is handled with sensitivity but without pulling any punches. Mezzogiorno, Lo Cascio and Boni all deliver outstanding performances.

WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: Some of the subplots seem to unnecessarily derail the main thrust of the film.

FAMILY VALUES: There is some very mature sexual content as well as nudity here, as well as a scene of shocking violence. There is also plenty of foul language throughout. This is most definitely for mature audiences only.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Don’t Tell won the prestigious Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was a nominee for Best Foreign Film Oscar in 2006..

NOTABLE DVD EXTRAS: None listed.

FINAL RATING: 7/10

TOMORROW: Exit Through the Gift Shop