Rise of the Guardians Is Animation's Greatest Tragedy

sometimes life just isn't fair yeah that's my grand Declaration of the day sometimes life is not fair life's not fair is it you'll see the release of a great film that tis all your boxes develops compelling characters an interesting story is well acted great animation World design good music to boot has all the tools it needs to succeed everything you could possibly want out of your animated movie DreamWorks was absolutely cooking with Rise of the Guardians if I do say so and it did do quite well with audiences has a 74% critical score in Rotten Tomatoes an 80% audience score nothing to sniff at nothing to be ashamed of but then financially it bombed in the worst ways so the budget for the film was $145 million which is pretty expected for a DreamWorks film it's in that expected range and then its box offers $36 million you know maybe Low by today's standards but for the time it was a fairly decent gross All Things Considered on the surface at least right after all it more than doubled its budget and so there surely no way it could be a failure even accounting for those hidden advertising costs except it was CU despite it seemingly bringing in a fair chunk of change the studio way overs spent on distribution and advertising you know those hidden costs they don't talk about that I just mentioned and so it failed to the point that it almost sank the studio it lost like 80 something million which is truly insane I mean imagine spending that much money that even double your budget is still almost 100 million off the pace and it contributed to over 300 people losing their jobs Jesus and on top of that I saw a few cancellations of original projects that were depending on that Surplus to act as a portion of their own budget so not quite a studio killer but it came pretty damn close it seems and so with that it pretty much killed my hopes and dreams of getting a fresh DreamWorks franchise out of this thing no sequels no nothing and I'll be honest 12 years later and I'm still damn salty about how all this ended up playing out because I honestly think this is one of the biggest travesties in animation at least in the 2010s DreamWorks as always been spotty for the most part sometimes they can churn out some true greatness and sometimes they release a stinker but in my eyes this was greatness but it was seemingly slaughtered by studio mismanagement and bad budgeting seriously I look at their catalog of films and this was not even a bad gross by their standards outside of the big names like Shrek or Kung Fu Panda you're telling me that they released flop after flop after flop all of them getting a similar gross to this and yet somehow they didn't go out of business did they reduce costs or something I mean how the hell is this studio even functional I mean maybe this is why they're no longer making films inh house ehy got to staunch the bleeding somehow cuz based on what I've seen not much has really changed they have some mild hits but more lower grosses than you'd expect although as of recently that does seem to be a trend in the animation industry at least a lot of the big companies they've got some massive hits and then some massive flops right after so yeah this film did do badly and the poor bugger didn't even get a nomination for the Academy Awards that year not saying it had to win although I think it was just as good as Brave was there seriously know other movie that deserved it that year Brave I mean usually the Oscar animation category is simply what movie the respondent's children have watched I think it's made clear by that point but still damn not even getting the recognition of a nomination so yeah whenever I talk about this movie and what it could have been I get pretty sad is it too late for them to try again with a show I mean they brought back Megamind although having seen that maybe it's for the best that they don't bring it back cuz that show speaks for itself and yeah this film is an absolute Masterpiece in my eyes we'll do a bit of a deep dive into the story just a minute but first I want to talk about a couple of things right a few things outside of the story and namely the visuals and the audio right that's the Holy Trinity of your animated movie and the best films excel in all three categories that's just how it's always been and you're for starters in terms of Animation visual design the movie is great well great for the time I think the character models are well done usually you can look at an ear of animation and immediately probably sort out what is Dream works versus what is Disney Pixar but to me this is very much the type of film that looks like any of the studios could have made it that's a good thing high quality for the time dated for the 2020s but yet the design is so Fantastical and Visually pleasing that even now it still holds up there's just so much going on it's great then the music music's really good too like I actually think the soundtrack for the film is wildly underrated there are some top tier tracks that just ooze emotion but I think the standout for me is the track that plays when Jack Frost realizes that Jamie can see him like can you see me he sees me he he sees me that perfectly encapsulates everything good in this film The Joy the heartache the sense of wonder it's all there in that track and indeed in The Wider soundtrack I feel like outside of the big song and dance numbers animation doesn't often get a lot of credit for how good the scores can be and this one it's really good maybe it's not hitting that highest of Highs but it's still really really good and enhances the emotion of the scenes immensely and then the second half of audio is the voice performances as I often say a good voice performance can enhance even the worst scripts but a bad performance can make an Oscar winning script sound like contrived dribble and so in many ways the overall success of a franchise can be largely dependent on whether the voice cast is talented and whether they even give a damn and in this film it felt like they gave a damn it's a pretty big name cast especially for the 2010s Alec Baldwin Hugh Jackman Isa fiser Chris Pine Jude Law and whilst in the early 2010s we still had those occasional times where people would see these types of movies as a cheap payday to phone in their performances that isn't actually what ended up happening here everybody shined everybody put on a good performance like really and I know he's way out of favor these days for many but man Alec Baldwin is just so good in this film I got to say and yeah that's 2/3 but there's still one final hurdle the story is the narrative any good is it thrilling gripping captivating all that good stuff and the short answer is yes yes it is but we're here for the long answer right right okay so the movie opens with an introduction to the character of Jack Frost and the Mysterious and enigmatic character of The Man in the Moon who honestly he's never really explained or explored in any real depth throughout the film he very much feels like he was being set up to feature more heavily in a sequel or something like that a sequel that was never going to come last night Jack he chose you maybe the Man in the Moon he talks to you and really much of this early chunk of the movie is simply well done Exposition takes almost 20 minutes for the actual story to begin first we do the introduction with Jack when he's revived by The Man in the Moon then we meet Santa we see the North Pole and I have to say that this take on Santa a swashbuckling Russian speaking slightly broken English with yetis that help him make the toys and idiot elves that aren't useful for anything at all this is one of my favorite interpretations of the character ever like ever ever it's so fun I'd say he's probably the standout character of the bunch the Easter Bunny being Australian was certainly a choice but hey I think it adds some variety to the voice lineup we then meet Sandman who can't talk got to free up some budget I guess and the Tooth Fairy who's also voiced by an Australian but no accent this time we see the Dynamics of the group which mostly involves bunny being a bit of a grump and Santa being a bit condescending because of how important Christmas is to Children compared to the other Guardians at least in his eyes and honestly in my eyes let's be real we then get a look at the villain who well he's pretty much a stereotyped villain in every single way dark clothes pale evil voice Mega edgy name like pitch black but it works because it it's trying to feel over the top it's trying to feel cheesy and even just a little bit cringe because it's playing into those characters being supernatural creatures that have an important role in children's lives and this is fear hence why he's so edgy we then see Jack Frost chosen by the Man in the Moon to be the next guardian and I got to ask if pitch black had never returned or took another couple hundred years to return would the moon have just kept letting Jack wand the world aimlessly not able to be seen by anybody except his fellow supernatural beings would he continue to be lonely and without purpose forever unable to remember anything about his life before and being super depressed about it nope okay this Moon guy doesn't seem like a very good person if you ask me I've talked about it before but just yikes he leaves this dude all alone until he needs something from him which is pretty ice cold in my eyes and then he summons him and says well time to fight kid good luck no no that's not for me anyway the Guardians go and collect Jack who well he's already proven to the audience at least that he is the right choice to a guardian no matter what the Easter Bunny says because he spends a good 5 to 10 minutes of the movie creating a fun snow day for a bunch of kids including Jamie a child who seemingly believes in everything and anything and yeah this whole scene really welld designed and there's this sequence where Jack creates an ice path for Jamie and his sled that leads through a construction site in busy roads and streets and that was really cool really exciting great [Music] action but of course none of these children can see him or acknowledge Him and thus when Jamie loses a tooth from all the Ruckus suddenly all anybody cares about the tooth fairy and this just furthers that story of Jack being desperate to find out who he is to find his purpose which plays into his big mistakes later in the movie he then gets snatched up by the Guardians and brought to the North Pole to be inducted as a guardian himself and it's here that one of my favorite sections of the entire film takes place where Santa talks about how each of the Guardians has their own sent and he shows how his is Wonder yes big eyes very big because they are full of wonder that is my center and this is some early films Harry Potter stuff like the Chris Columbus era in how this moment made me feel so epic so Fantastical and magical so beautiful just love this whole scene where they walk out into the North Pole into the workshop and all the toys are flying around it's just great but more importantly it sets up a plot point for the future in that Jack needs to find his Center in order to be a true guardian and at this point almost half an hour in the plot finally really kicks into gear although I got to say that half hour does fly by and I do think the story is very well paced in that regard you don't really care that you've had 30 minutes of exposition and setup because it's enjoyable and then from here the plot just goes super quick and you get to see heaps of cool stuff anyway the tooth fairies then get snatched and so in response the Guardians go out to find more teeth and ensure that children still believe in the tooth fairy both defend off the influence of pitch black and also so Jack can get his memory back from the baby teeth that pitcher stole and so we head to our next action Montage something that this film does very well and this Montage builds from Comedy as the Guardians compete to collect the most teeth including sabotaging each other rather violently builds to tension when they have to fight off a nightmare attack and then to sadness and grief when the Sandman gets sniped and killed by pitch and this scene you know I keep saying it but it's EP EP And the emotions so welld developed legit when I first watched this I didn't see his death coming and I felt very very sad poor kids in the cinema although I got to say I think it would have been a bit more emotional if he never came back and he was just dead dead but they walk it back later on oh well but yeah this part where he accepts his death and he faces it bravely gives me the sniffles even now I'll tell you [Music] what and then we move on to the Easter section where we once again build up that hope the Guardians have all banded together they're painting eggs it's all fun and sweet and happy getting the audience to let down their guard with all the wholesome vibes okay that's little f d i that's adorable before we get the rug pull again where Jack hearing a voice from his past he can vaguely remember goes off alone with baby tooth the fairy he loses her he doesn't get his baby teeth he gets clowned on by pitch black and he isn't there to help the Guardians protect Easter which in turn results in the Easter bunny losing his powers and the kids except for Jamie all no longer believing but the Jack Frost's bad decisions World Tour does not stop there as he goes and trades pitch black his stuff which pitch snaps and then he gets chucked down a ravine in the South Pole but hey baby tooth's back and she helps him unlock his memories which reveal he died long ago trying to help his little sister when they were skating on a frozen lake and this in turn inspired the moon to revive him and Jack decides that he has to be a guardian he fixes his stuff Powers up and off he goes and at this point both Jack and Pitch realize there's only one child in the world who still believes Jamie which leads to the most emotional and beautiful scene in the entire movie where Jack using his ice is able to convince Jamie to keep believing in the Easter Bunny he's real somewhat redeeming himself for his past actions and is seen by a child for the first time as Jamie realizes that only Jack Frost could control ice like this oh damn when he's jumping around screaming about how he can see him and the music's swelling a you love to see it so beautiful you just made it snow I know in my room I know and so the Guardians all arrived to protect the last believer they battle pitch black and then in a pretty long and exciting battle sequence they realize the secret to defeating fear is fun which is Jack's Center in the Boogie tying all those old plot threads together in a really cool finale and so they get the other kids in the neighborhood they defeat pitch who gets gobbled up by his own nightmares and the Sandman returns at the end hooray and yeah that's it pitch is dead and you end up with one of my favorite animated films heartfelt exciting fun it has it all great story great movie and it really did deserve better and I'll never stop being salty that it didn't but yeah with all that being said not really much else to say so just a reminder that these have been my opinions and now I'd like to hear yours would do you think of Rise of the Guardians did you like it hate it do you think it deserved more maybe a reboot maybe a second chance or maybe not I'm curious for your thoughts so make sure to like comment and subscribe and let me know

Channel: Smarty Pants

Views: 290,958

Keywords: Rise of the Guardians, Rise of the Guardians Review, Rise of the Guardians Reaction, Rise of the Guardians Theory, Rise of the Guardians Commentary, Rise of the Guardians Essay, Rise of the Guardians 2, Rise of the Guardians TV Show

Id: 5wIvK_smVQM

Length: 14min 12sec (852 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 19 2024