Jack Frost emerges from a frozen pond with amnesia and finds himself invisible to the mortal realm. Though he knows theMan in the Moon played a part in his transformation, the moon does not provide any answers as to why he has been turned into "Jack Frost". Three centuries later, the Man in the Moon alertsNicholas St. North to the return ofPitch Black, who threatens to plague children with nightmares. North rallies his fellow Guardians,E. Aster Bunnymund,Sanderson Mansnoozie, andToothiana, and they discover that Jack has been chosen to join their ranks. Jack gets kidnapped by Bunny and transported to theNorth Pole, where he learns from North that every Guardian has a "center", something they foster in children. Jack knows nothing of his center and resists the call to become a Guardian.
Meanwhile, North gets a message from Toothiana that her palace is under attack. The Guardians and Jack Frost manage to chase away Pitch, but not before Pitch kidnaps Tooth's subordinate fairies and steals all of the teeth, weakening children's belief in Tooth. Jack learns that everybaby tooth holds the childhood memories of its owner, and may help him find out more about his past, motivating him to help Toothiana. To counter Pitch's plan, the other Guardians and Jack embark on a mission to collect teeth from children themselves. In their quest, they visit Jamie Bennett, a young boy who, still clinging to his belief, sees all of them except for Jack. On their way back to the North Pole, Pitch's Nightmares attack the Guardians and Sandy is killed.
WithEaster approaching, the Guardians travel to Bunny's Warren and assist in theegg-coloring preparations. An unknown voice lures Jack to Pitch's lair, where he finds his teeth. Pitch distracts Jack long enough for the Nightmares to destroy all theEaster eggs, causing children to stop believing in Bunny. Jack flees toAntarctica, where Pitch, after attempting to persuade Jack to join him, breaks his magic staff and throws him into achasm. Unlocking the memories within his teeth, Jack learns that he was once a human who sacrificed himself to save his younger sister. Inspired, he repairs his staff and rescues the kidnapped fairies.
Thanks to Pitch, every child in the world has stopped believing except Jamie, drastically weakening the Guardians. Finding Jamie's belief wavering, Jack makes it snow in his bedroom, restoring his faith in the Guardians and making Jamie the first person to believe in him. Jack realizes that his center is fun and uses it to gather Jamie's friends, play, and diminish their fear, which bolsters the Guardians and resurrects Sandy. The children's dreams prove stronger than the Nightmares, who turn on Pitch and drag him to theunderworld. Jack finally accepts his place as the Guardian of Fun.
Chris Pine asJack Frost, the Spirit of Winter.[9] Jack is a teenage hellion who enjoys creating mischief and has no interest in being bound by rules or obligations; he just wants to use his staff to spread his winter magic for the sake of fun, but also wants to be believed in. Via his staff, he possesses potent cryokinesis. At the end of the film, Jack became the Guardian of Fun.
Jude Law asPitch Black / Boogeyman, the Nightmare King. He has dark hair and wears a black cloak. Despite being the literal embodiment of terror, ironically, at the resolution, he is scared of his own nightmares after being forgotten.[9]
Isla Fisher asToothiana / Tooth Fairy, called Tooth for short, the Guardian of Memories.[9] Tooth is parthuman and parthummingbird, loosely resembling aKinnari. Assisted by mice and mini fairies that are split-off extensions of herself, she collects the children's teeth, which hold their most precious memories. Tooth stores them in her palace and returns memories when they are needed the most.[11]
Sandman or "Sandy" is the Guardian of Dreams and the oldest of the Guardians,[12] being the first Guardian chosen by theMan in the Moon.[13] He doesn't speak, but communicates through sand images that he conjures above his head.[14]
Dakota Goyo as Jamie Bennett, a child who has not given up on believing in the Guardians.[15]
Georgie Grieve as Sophie Bennett, Jamie's little sister
In 2005,William Joyce andReel FX launched a joint venture, Aimesworth Amusements,[16] to produce CG-animated feature films,[17] one of which was set to beThe Guardians of Childhood, based on Joyce's idea.[18] The film was not realized, but they did create a short animated film,The Man in the Moon, directed by Joyce, which introduced the Guardians idea,[18] and served as an inspiration for the film.[3]
Early in 2008, Joyce sold the film rights to DreamWorks Animation,[19] after the studio assured him it would respect his vision for the characters and that he would be involved with the creative process.[20] In November 2009, it was revealed that DreamWorks had hiredPeter Ramsey to make his feature debut as director of what was then titledThe Guardians, andplaywrightDavid Lindsay-Abaire to write the script, Lindsay-Abaire previously co-wrote the screenplay forRobots, which Joyce previously produced.[21] The next month,Leonardo DiCaprio was announced to make his animated feature film debut as the lead character of the film—tentatively titledThe Guardians—Jack Frost.[22] DiCaprio would later leave the project for undisclosed reasons.[23] Joyce acted as a co-director for the first few years, but left this position after the death of his daughter Mary Katherine,[19] who died from complications relating to herbrain cancer positive diagnosis in May 2010.[20] Joyce continued to work on the film only as an executive producer, while Ramsey took the helm solo as a full-time director, making him the firstAfrican American to direct a big-budget CG animated film as well as making it one of the first DreamWorks films to have only one director instead of two and not have a co-director.[24] As with some previous DreamWorks films,Guillermo del Toro came on board to join Joyce as an executive producer. Present almost from the beginning,[25] he was able to help shape the story, character design, theme and structure of the film.[26] He said he was proud that the filmmakers were making parts of the film "dark and moody and poetic," and expressed hope this might "set a different tone for family movies, for entertainment movies."[25] The final title,Rise of the Guardians was announced in early 2011, along with the first cast.[9][23]
Roger Deakins, the cinematographer who had already worked on the previous DreamWorks' film,How to Train Your Dragon, advised on the lighting to achieve its real look. He selected photographic references for color keys, and during the production gave notes on contrast, saturation, depth of field and light intensity.[27] The film contains a lot of special effects, particularly the volumetric particles for depicting Sandman and Pitch.[28] For this, DreamWorks Animation developedOpenVDB, a more efficient tool and format for manipulating and storing volume data, like smoke and other amorphous materials. OpenVDB had been already used onPuss in Boots andMadagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, and was released in August 2012 for free as an open-source project with a hope to become an industry standard.[29]
Although the film is based on Joyce's book series, it contains differences from the books. The book series, begun in 2011, explains the origins of the characters, while the film takes place about 300 years after the books, and shows how the characters function in present time. Joyce explained, "Because I don't want people to read the book and then go see the movie and go, 'Oh, I like the book better,' and I also didn't want them to know what happens in the movie. And I also knew that during the progress of film production, a lot of things can change. So I wanted to have a sort of distance, so we were able to invoke the books and use them to help us figure out the world of the movie, but I didn't want them to be openly competitive to each other."[19] The idea for the Guardians came from Joyce's daughter, who asked him "if he thought Santa Claus had ever met the Easter Bunny." The film includes a dedication to her,[20] as well a song, "Still Dream," sung over the end credits.[30]
Originally, the film was set to be released on November 2, 2012, but DreamWorks Animation pushed the film to November 21, 2012, to avoid competition withPixar's upcoming filmMonsters University, which in turn had been pushed to November 2, 2012, to avoid competition withThe Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2.[31]Monsters University was then pushed to June 21, 2013, withDisney'sWreck-It Ralph taking its place.[32]
Rise of the Guardians was previously scheduled to be released on November 4, 2011, however,Puss in Boots took over its release date, pushing the film to November 21, 2012.[34] The film had its premiere on October 10, 2012, atThe Mill Valley Film Festival inMill Valley, California,[2] followed by the international premiere at TheInternational Rome Film Festival on November 13, 2012.[35][36] Under distribution byParamount Pictures, the film was released on November 21, 2012, inAmerican theaters.[31] Digitally re-mastered intoIMAX 3D, it was shown in limited international and domestic IMAX theaters.[37] It was the second film released in the firmBarco'sAuro 11.1 3D audio format, afterRed Tails.[38] The film was also shown inDolby Atmos, a surround sound technology introduced in 2012.[39]
Rise of the Guardians was the last DreamWorks Animation film to be distributed by Paramount Pictures through their 2006 output deal. Starting withThe Croods in 2013,20th Century Fox would distribute films from DreamWorks Animation untilCaptain Underpants: The First Epic Movie in 2017.[40]
Rise of the Guardians was released onBlu-ray (2D and 3D) andDVD on March 12, 2013.[41]
That was the last DreamWorks Animation home media release to be distributed byParamount Home Entertainment, since 20th Century Fox announced its distribution agreement with DreamWorks Animation a few months before the theatrical release.[40] The film was more successful at home media sales than at the box office, having at the end of the second quarter of 2013 "the highest box office to DVD conversion ratio among major releases."[42] In the first quarter of 2013, it sold 3.2 million home entertainment units worldwide,[43] and in the second quarter 0.9 million units, for a total of 4.1 million units.[44]
Rise of the Guardians received mixed reviews upon release.[48] On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 75% based on 160 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "A sort ofAvengers for the elementary school set,Rise of the Guardians is wonderfully animated and briskly paced, but it's only so-so in the storytelling department."[49]Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 58 based on 37 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews".[50] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an excellent grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[51]
Carrie Rickey ofThe Philadelphia Inquirer gave the film three and a half stars out of four and found that the film's characters have "a primal familiarity, as though they were developed by a tag team ofMaurice Sendak andWalt Disney."[52] Olly Richards ofEmpire wrote, "It's gorgeously designed, deftly written and frequently laugh-out-loud funny. For child or adult, this is a fantasy to get lost in."[53]The Washington Post's Michael O'Sullivan also gave the film a positive review and said, "Thoughts become things. That's the message ofRise of the Guardians, a charming if slightly dark and cobwebbed animated feature about how believing in something makes it real, or real enough."[54]Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four and wrote in his review, "There's an audience for this film. It's not me. I gather younger children will like the breakneck action, the magical ability to fly and the young hero who has tired of only being a name." Though he did say, "Their parents and older siblings may find the 89-minute running time quite long enough."[55]
Todd McCarthy ofThe Hollywood Reporter called the film "a lively but derivative 3D storybook spree for some unlikely action heroes."[3] Conversely, Justin Chang inVariety said, "Even tots may emerge feeling slightly browbeaten by this colorful, strenuous and hyperactive fantasy, which has moments of charm and beauty but often resembles an exploding toy factory rather than a work of honest enchantment."[56]Joe Morgenstern ofThe Wall Street Journal found that the film "lacks a resonant center," and that the script, "seems to have been written by committee, with members lobbying for each major character, and the action, set in vast environments all over the map, spreads itself so thin that a surfeit of motion vitiates emotion."[57]
Rise of the Guardians grossed $103.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $203.5 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $306.9 million.[5]
In North America, the film opened to $32.3 million over its extended five-day weekend, and with $23.8 million over the three-day weekend, it reached fourth place behindThe Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2,Skyfall, andLincoln. The film's opening was the lowest debut for a DreamWorks Animation film sinceFlushed Away.[51] While the film did gross more than double of its $145 million budget, it still did not turn a profit for DreamWorks Animation due to its high distribution and marketing costs, forcing the studio to take an $87 millionwrite-down.[6] This marked the first time that the studio had lost money on an animated film sinceSinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas.[6][7] As a result of this combined with other factors, in February 2013, the studio announced it was laying off 350 employees as part of a company-wide restructuring.[7]
Additionally, the studio was heavily dependent on the success ofRise of the Guardians to fund other studio projects, most notably, the ill-fatedMe and My Shadow project (based on the1927 song of the same name). But due to the failure to gain a stable box office response, it heavily affected the studio's ability to release original movies.[citation needed]
A video game based on the film was released byD3 Publisher on November 20, 2012, in North America,[95] and released on November 23, 2012, in Europe.[96] It allows gamers to lead the Guardians in their battle against Pitch. The game is a 3D beat-em-up, where the player travels through each of the worlds: Burgess, North Pole, Bunnymund Valley, Tooth Palace and Sandman's Ship, to fight Pitch's army of Nightmares. The player can switch between all five guardians at any time, and freely customize their powers, and they learn new special abilities as they level up. All the game versions support up to 4-player gameplay.[97] It is available on theWii,Wii U,Xbox 360,PlayStation 3,Nintendo DS, andNintendo 3DS.[98]
Another video game, also of the same name, was released byDreamWorks Animation foriOS on April 6, 2012, over seven months before the console versions.[99]
After the release of the film, the creators ofRise of the Guardians expressed hope that the strong average grade of "A" given to the film by audiences surveyed byCinemaScore and an enthusiastic word-of-mouth would gather support for the "chance to make a sequel or two."[100] Author and co-producer of the series, William Joyce, also mentioned in March 2013 that he was still in talks about a sequel with DreamWorks Animation: "There is something that we are proposing that we hope they will want to do."[101]
^abcShaw, Lucas (February 27, 2013)."DreamWorks Animation to Lay Off 350 Employees".The Wrap.Archived from the original on February 28, 2013. RetrievedFebruary 26, 2013.The Glendale, Calif.-based company posted a loss of $83 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2012 due to development costs and the poor performance of its latest film,Rise of the Guardians.
^"Rise of the Guardians – Yetis". DreamWorks Animation Rise of the Guardians official Facebook page. October 17, 2012.Archived from the original on February 21, 2023. RetrievedOctober 18, 2012.Natives of the North Pole, Yetis are the blue-collar workers in North's toy factory. Not only did they build the Ice Castle and workshop for North, the Yetis would also do anything for him and serve him loyally.
^Tooth (June 13, 2012)."You remembered to floss, right?". DreamWorks Animation Rise of the Guardians official Facebook page.Archived from the original on February 21, 2023. RetrievedOctober 29, 2012.
^"E3 2012 : Rise of the Guardians annoncé". JeuxVideo.com. June 6, 2012.Archived from the original on June 9, 2012. RetrievedJune 9, 2012.'Les versions PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, DS et 3DS sont attendues pour cet automne, et la déclinaison Wii U est déjà confirmée. / The PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, DS and 3DS are expected this autumn and the ... Wii U is already confirmed.
