Rise of the Guardians

Personal Rating: 6.3/10
IMDb Rating (as of 12/8/12): 7.5/10

Rise of the Guardians is an animated film that is basically about believing, though not necessarily in a religious sense. The Guardians (Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, Sandman, and Tooth Fairy) are plagued by the boogeyman, Pitch (Dark?). To defeat Pitch, the Moon—something like the god or the big boss man of the Guardians—chooses another addition to the Guardians: Jack Frost.

Warning: spoilers after the jump
While the animation is commendable with its fluidity and imaginativeness, the story, especially from climax to end, falls short.

Jack Frost has been struggling to be noticed by children. He cannot be seen or heard by them because nobody believes he exists. He is a fun-loving sort-of-troublemaker (if I remember correctly, there were scenes and a statement from the Easter Bunny that verify this) who is most interactive with children yet remains to be "just an expression."

Pitch suffers a similar dilemma; however, in contrast to Jack, used to be feared until children stopped believing in his existence. And this becomes his motivation for destroying the Guardians—protectors of children (or, more of, childhood).

Jack has no recollection of his life before becoming Jack Frost. The Tooth Fairy, who has a big crush on...his teeth, tells him that his fallen teeth contain the memories of his childhood. With this, I assumed that teeth carried memories only up until they fall off from one's mouth. When Jack gets hold of his "baby" teeth (the Tooth Fairy stores everyone's fallen baby teeth), he is "shown" a memory of himself right before he died (and thereafter became what he is now). Now, he didn't lose a single tooth in that memory, nor did the Tooth Fairy or one of her Baby Teeth—her hummingbird-like helpers—come prying one of his teeth out in or after his dying moments. Why then is this specific memory the only one that plays through Jack's mind? It may have been understandable if bits of his earlier childhood memories were shown that would jog up his memory. This either a flaw in story or in execution.

When Pitch is near defeat, no sympathy is given to him, though it seemed that there was some foreshadowing of an I-know-what-it-feels-like vibe. He wasn't even that big of a villain to have just been "disposed of" (although they didn't actually show his annihilation, so I won't be surprised to see him again in a sequel, if one ever comes out) without any hint of hesitation.

Would I recommend this animated film? If you like cute characters and more-than-good animation, are looking for laughs, and don't care about character complexities and the nitty-gritties of story, sure. But if you're really keen on stories, it would probably be better to watch Disney/Pixar animations.