Critique: Rise of the Guardians (1/2)

Each rewatching is as engaging as the first.

It’s about loveable childhood characters being the Guardians of children, each having their own remit: the Tooth Fairy (Memories), Sand Man (Dreams), the Easter Bunny (Hope), and Father Christmas* (Wonder). Pitch Black, a being of fear, tries to ruin everything and Jack Frost helps the Guardians combat the threat.

*(Yes, I know in the film he’s called ‘Santa’ but I can’t bring myself to call him that.)

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Thought-provoking Points

 

The nationalities of the Easter Bunny (Australian) and Father Christmas (Russian) were a little detail that amused me which in turn led me to deeper thoughts than I was expecting.

            Easter is more important to Eastern Christians (i.e. Eastern Orthodox) than Christmas, which is more important to Western Christians (i.e. Protestant and Roman Catholic). So with the Easter Bunny being from a Western Christian country and Father Christmas from an Eastern Christian country, the fact that they represented the other’s most major celebration tickled me.

            The film has no religious overtones, though: these celebrations being very much in the secular sense rather than religious sense, so this miss-match isn’t a problem. Even if they were in the religious sense, Russia does have some Protestants/Catholics and Australia does have some who follow Eastern Orthodoxy. There’s no reason why someone from a minority can’t be eligible to become a Guardian. 

 

The Guardianship of Fun was an interesting idea. Jack being the Guardian of Fun makes sense in regards to his characterisation, both personality and behaviour. So that was appropriate.

When Jack realised he was the Guardian of Fun, it’s a lovely realisation. No-one valued his contributions, making out they weren’t as important as those of the four other Guardians. Yet it turned out to be the very thing to save them all. That was nice: people should value fun more. What the point of life if it’s not enjoyed?

I was expecting Father Christmas to be the Guardian of Fun. That’s what Christmas was about for me. When he said, ‘Wonder’, I was doubtful. Wonder has never been something I felt at Christmas. Wonder’s what you feel when something’s visually or thoughtfully blows your mind. Presents don’t do this, no matter how lovely and amazing they are.

My personal perception of Jack Frost wouldn’t have led to fun. The natural phenomena Jack Frost is blamed for is pretty, and if by some miracle it resulted in a day off school (three times in my life!) it was more a feeling of sheer relief rather than an opportunity for fun. Being the Guardian of Pretty or Sheer Relief would’ve been a bit rubbish.

 

Jack looked up at the Moon and said in a morose tone, “If there’s something I’m doing wrong, please tell me.” This was absolutely heartbreaking. But then we did see him freeze someone’s laundry and make someone’s papers fly away. Perhaps don’t ask if you’ve done anything wrong after you have done something wrong? But it does make the audience to be sympathetic to his loneliness, wondering how he’s managed with being lonely precisely because he’s among people. Being unnoticed feels worse than being isolated.

 

 

Clever Details

 

First, the clever details pertaining to Jack Frost.

Jack’s staff of power was the stick he used to save his sister. That’s so wholesome. Especially when considering Jack used the stick as part of a game to save his sister: Jack used fun to save his sister, and he is the Guardian of Fun.

There are many parallels between Jack Frost and Jamie. They both had messy brown hair. They both have younger sisters. They are both full of boy, with both bouncing on the spot when excited (most characters don’t bounce when excited, meaning their shared behaviour is intentional). Seeing as Jamie’s the first human to see Jack Frost, these parallels are neat. (As a side note, could Jamie be descended from Jack’s sister?)

 

There are smart details associated with the Tooth Fairy, too.

The Tooth Fairy’s eyelashes are shaped like feathers. Considering she’s a feathery fairy, this is very appropriate.

The mice being part of the European Division was a nice detail, considering tooth fairies on mainland Europe are mostly mice.

Memories being held in teeth was ingenious. At first, it’s more than bizarre: memories are solidly within the confines of the brain. But milk teeth start to fall out as a child grows older and ages into a teenager, literally growing out of childhood. It explains why the Tooth Fairy finds them so precious and wants to protect them.

 

Pitch Black has intelligent details, also.

            Pitch Black’s weapon is a pick axe. It has the same phonemes in the same order: Pi(tch) (Bl)ack and pi(c) ac(s). If this was intentional, it was incredibly clever.

Pitch using Sandy’s sand to turn dreams into nightmares was a nice detail. Nightmares are often the worst, most powerful source of fear in a child’s life. For Pitch, the being of fear, to start with Sandy was a good start to his plan.

Pitch’s nightmares are visualised as horses and female horses are mares. The etymology of ‘nightmare’ comes from the Germanic mythical night demon called a mare, taking the form of a hag to sit on the victim’s chest, causing difficulty breathing and bad dreams. Even though nightmares and horse mares aren’t actually linked, this homophonic reference is nonetheless a nice detail.

 

Some final clever details are as follows.

When the dinosaur dreams started walking around, the music sounded just like the original Jurassic Park’s music.

Father Christmas’ portals look flat when face on but, when seen from the side, they are shaped like a funnel. This is exactly how a wormhole would appear. As wormholes are the proposed way portal-like travel is hypothesised to function in real-life, this visual symmetry matching the function symmetry was a great decision.

When Pitch’s nightmare horses touch Jamie, they have no effect: if a dream isn’t scary, it isn’t a nightmare. With all these nightmares turning into dreams, Sandy was returned and he could turn more nightmares into dreams. Clearly this would rid sleepers of bad dreams, and maybe it could rid children awake being haunted by nightmares. This mass burst of happiness and hope could be what gave all the Guardians their power back.