Rise of the Guardians <3
"Time to close your eyes, but when you awake, still dream."
So, having read book 1 of the Guardians of Childhood series (Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King), I was super excited for the film "Rise of the Guardians" (click for trailer). Also, okay, badass Russian Santa with swords? Awesome.
Anyway, I wanted to recommend this movie. I got to see it a couple weeks ago and absolutely adored it. It's funny, but in ways that kids can understand yet adults can still find funny, instead of pop culture references or adult humor that is written to pass over kids' heads, like a lot of recent animated films. The art and animation are lovely--it's not the anime-styled realism of Final Fantasy, but it's done very well and beautifully--and the music is absolutely wonderful. There's a lot of action, and yes, there are multiple things going on. One complaint I keep seeing in reviews is that the person had trouble keeping up, and honestly I felt like it was more a testament to their lack of brainpower than a failing of the film's. There was never a point where it seemed to me like a child would get lost in the story.
Ultimately, this is a story for children. It's got all the cheesy "believe" themes in it, but isn't that how kids' films (especially holiday-based ones) work? The main criticism I've seen for the film basically appears to be that it doesn't function like an adult drama and cynical adults feel left out. But, see, the thing I loved most about this film was how much it was a pure children's movie. It's doesn't, as I said, have humor they can't understand, and the message and the storyline and the sense of wonder is firmly targeted toward kids. I feel like a lot of people might try to critique this as an adult film, rather than as a children's film, which is what it is.
And yeah, I'm too old to really believe in Santa or the tooth fairy, and I never really believed in the Easter Bunny (we didn't celebrate Easter) or the Sandman (just wasn't a thing at my house?), but I can call up the feeling of being a child and believing in /things/. Maybe not these exact characters, but I think the point is the general ability to see wonder and magic everywhere and believe in things that can't be seen. And yeah, most of the time I watch slashable films for grownups with pretty boys in it, but this movie was so obviously for children that I never felt like it needed adult drama. So, no, I don't feel like a crotchety old man watching this movie, because I'm not working out ways to dissect the logic and figure out just why the plotline isn't 100% airtight. (Trust me, you could find far more plot holes in Harry Potter any day, if you really like plot-diving.)
So if you have kids, and/or if you can remember how it felt to be a kid, definitely go see this movie.
So, having read book 1 of the Guardians of Childhood series (Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King), I was super excited for the film "Rise of the Guardians" (click for trailer). Also, okay, badass Russian Santa with swords? Awesome.
Anyway, I wanted to recommend this movie. I got to see it a couple weeks ago and absolutely adored it. It's funny, but in ways that kids can understand yet adults can still find funny, instead of pop culture references or adult humor that is written to pass over kids' heads, like a lot of recent animated films. The art and animation are lovely--it's not the anime-styled realism of Final Fantasy, but it's done very well and beautifully--and the music is absolutely wonderful. There's a lot of action, and yes, there are multiple things going on. One complaint I keep seeing in reviews is that the person had trouble keeping up, and honestly I felt like it was more a testament to their lack of brainpower than a failing of the film's. There was never a point where it seemed to me like a child would get lost in the story.
Ultimately, this is a story for children. It's got all the cheesy "believe" themes in it, but isn't that how kids' films (especially holiday-based ones) work? The main criticism I've seen for the film basically appears to be that it doesn't function like an adult drama and cynical adults feel left out. But, see, the thing I loved most about this film was how much it was a pure children's movie. It's doesn't, as I said, have humor they can't understand, and the message and the storyline and the sense of wonder is firmly targeted toward kids. I feel like a lot of people might try to critique this as an adult film, rather than as a children's film, which is what it is.
And yeah, I'm too old to really believe in Santa or the tooth fairy, and I never really believed in the Easter Bunny (we didn't celebrate Easter) or the Sandman (just wasn't a thing at my house?), but I can call up the feeling of being a child and believing in /things/. Maybe not these exact characters, but I think the point is the general ability to see wonder and magic everywhere and believe in things that can't be seen. And yeah, most of the time I watch slashable films for grownups with pretty boys in it, but this movie was so obviously for children that I never felt like it needed adult drama. So, no, I don't feel like a crotchety old man watching this movie, because I'm not working out ways to dissect the logic and figure out just why the plotline isn't 100% airtight. (Trust me, you could find far more plot holes in Harry Potter any day, if you really like plot-diving.)
So if you have kids, and/or if you can remember how it felt to be a kid, definitely go see this movie.