Rise of the Guardians

[Satsuki]

Okay, apparently there's a movie being made adapted from a series of children's books called The Guardians of Childhood. Written by William Joyce (creator of Meet the Robinsons and Rollie Pollie Ollie), it's about a group of holiday-themed superheroes defending children from the Boogeyman.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=73527

I think it was the "Hugh Jackman as Bunnymund, the Easter Bunny" that cracked me up the most. But it's intriguing.

And what, Cupid doesn't get a spot on the team?

[Zkaiser]

This movie sounds awesome.

PS. Your link is janky.

[Robby]

Hugh Jackman as the Easter Bunny.

Well, that's stereotyping opposed to his Wolverine persona.

SOunds like fun.

[bavolparker]

This post is deleted!

[Satsuki]

@Zkaiser:

This movie sounds awesome.

PS. Your link is janky.

? The link works fine for me.

[Robby]

Works for me too.

[Renegadesoul]

@RobbyBevard:

Hugh Jackman as the Easter Bunny.

Well, that's stereotyping opposed to his Wolverine persona.

SOunds like fun.

They both like to hump, it is not far off. :ninja:

[Satsuki]

Okay, who wants a trailer!?
http://collider.com/rise-of-the-guardians-trailer/155607/

I didn't realize this was being produced by Guillermo del Toro. Now I'm really intrigued. (and I know Jack Frost is supposed to be a part of the movie, yet he wasn't in the trailer. Hmm . . .)

[superquotpetquotrobot]

Santa Claus is Russian! That is all!

[Ubiq]

Every time I see that title, I think it's another Ga'Hoole movie for a brief second. EVERY SINGLE TIME.

[Satsuki]

@super:

Santa Claus is Russian! That is all!

A Russian as played by ALEC BALDWIN.

@Ubiq:

Every time I see that title, I think it's another Ga'Hoole movie for a brief second. EVERY SINGLE TIME.

I know, right?

[Sorikai33]

This movie looks really cool. Hugh Jackman Easter Bunny and Alec Baldwin Russian Santa Claus sound like alot of fun.

[Shuhan]

Santa is credit to Team!

no but seriously, I read the description for this and was sceptical…but then I saw the trailer and was pleasantly surprised. Definitely interested...

[Nex 0]

So just got back from seeing this, and it was a lot of fun. It wasn't anything spectacular, and some of the writing was a bit wonky, but dear lord was it gorgeous. It looked amazing–the animation was simply fantastic.

There were some really great jokes, and little kids will love it.

All in all it was a solid film that I'd recommend seeing at Matinee price.

[Hiroy]

I'm going to see it this weekened or next weekend. I was looking forward to seeing this for several months now!

Edit: is it worth seeing in 3D by any chance. I remember seeing Avengers in 3D and being completely bummed watching it in any other format. It made THAT much of a difference.

[Gizmo]

Hiroy, the 3D is pretty awesome. I don't think you'd regret watching it in 3D.

On a different note, I'm pretty bummed that this seems to not be meeting expectations financially. I've read this movie is predicted to be Dreamwork's lowest opening weekend premiere in over 6 years (and given it's production budget I'm hoping at least Rise of the Guardians makes profit). Critics have all been saying mixed things about it as well (though I've noticed that the various criticisms for the most part have been pretty varied despite the general consensus that it's passable).

I have nitpicks, but overall I definitely enjoyed the movie and highly recommend this for a fun holiday/superhero film.

[taboo]

[Rebecky_Mo]

^ I'd watch it. XD

So Guardians is actually doing poorly? That's disappointing; I thought for sure people would be excited about it…but then again, it had Twilight to contend with too. Hopefully it'll pick up if some good buzz goes around (like with Hotel Transylvania).

BTW, has anyone seen the RofG commercial where we see all the VA's reciting a line with a cut screen of their character next to them?

ILU Hugh Jackman.

[Satsuki]

I'm going to see the movie in 3D today, so I'll say the word of whether it's good or not or if it's worth seeing in 3D.

Not doing well? That sucks, but any movie that has to contend with fucking Twilight . . . .

[Katzztar]

Gah…. I'd watch ANY movie to avoid TwilightCrap...
But the guardians actually look intersting

[Satsuki]

Saw it. Really really liked it. May need a re-watch by myself at night without a bunch of kids (who took away some of the magic of the opening scene), or any friends, actually, so I can sit back and enjoy things without any distractions. Not quite Pixar-level, but that's so hard to reach. Might have been better with a some better editing or script-tweaking. But I definitely recommend it.

And to all the reviewers who said it sucked: Fuck you, you're just a bunch of Scrooges.

! It had lots of little magical moments, but nearly all of them involved Jack Frost. Not a bad thing, but it just barely missed the schmaltz line. But some of them really shined, like the scene where Jack remembers his origins. I was actually surprised by how much I loved Jack, I was worried he might have been shoehorned in as a teenager character to suck in more viewers. But nope, he is the core of the movie, and I loved him. It's the end of the story that starts to lose the "mysterious wonder." Pitch's defeat was pretty generic.
! All the other guardians were cool too, Santa is a standout (natch), the Tooth Fairy was charming, the Easter Bunny was funny, and the Sandman was one of those classic silent characters ala Harpo Marx (which made me sad that he wasn't in half of the movie). But I wish we could have gotten to know each of them better.
! I loved the concept of all the guardians having a "core" that makes them who they are and what part of childhood they protect. Jack's is apparently "fun", although I would have thought it was "joy". (in the part where they were wondering who the new guardian was they brought up the Leprechaun, to which I thought, "What the hell could he represent?") And you just know there's a guardian of "love" out there, but I can't really imagine it as Cupid. Especially not the baby version. Although if you go with the Greek "Eros" version you could get a cool archer . . .

[Hiroy]

Gizmo gave the the okay that the 3D was great. What about you Satsuki? I didn't open the tags since I know abolutely nothing about the movie aside from the main cast.

[Satsuki]

The 3D was pretty good. I don't really know if I'd say yes or no to it. I honestly didn't pay much attention to the 3D effects for the most part.

[taboo]

Wow this movie was super cheesy. I'm kinda disappointed, how do you make a cheesy movie about a tattooed Santa and a Hugh jackman Easter bunny???

Also tumblr tricked me into thinking Pitch was a more interesting villain

Me and my mom both laughed every time they said pitch because it sounded like bitch

Visuals, models (aside from creepy eyed children), and animation was great, story guys really dropped the ball here

[tatermoog]

@taboo:

Me and my mom both laughed every time they said pitch because it sounded like bitch

Ha! Same here!

Sounds like we had the same experience. Took my parents to see it as thanks for all the Thanksgiving prep they did and we were all three disappointed, which was surprising to me.

Animation and creativity were great, but the script and story were pretty schmaltzy.

No opinion on the 3D here. Turns out that I'm an old fogey yet again, since I thought the effects were well done, but I'd rather not trade that for the drawbacks I had trying to watch the movie (which might be bad eyesight).

[The Laughing Man]

Was just…meh, to me.

[Rebecky_Mo]

Saw the movie last night; the 3D effect was good (especially during some sled/rabbit hole scenes), but isn't necessary. Personally, I really enjoyed the movie, and so did the audience judging from what I heard. Lots of funny moments where the whole theater was cracking up, and I had a tear in my eye a couple times, I must admit.

I see why people have issues with the movie's plot, and there were some scenes in it that I felt were too long (or unneeded). But to me, the characters themselves were the story more than the situation they were in. Who they are, what they stand for, why it's so important that they do what they do.

[Satsuki]

Yeah, pretty much reaction. (I had a tear in the corner of my eye too)

Yeah, it can be pretty cheesy/schmaltzy, but given that this is a movie about childhood holidays/fables and this is, well, the holidays, it worked for me. All holiday-related stuff has schmaltzy parts.

[taboo]

i cried some blood too after

[Persian]

I want to see this movie badly, but the cinema boss is too cheap and stupid to buy it… :getlost: Anyway, Bunnymund, North and Pitch look like characters I would like... And talking about Pitch... He look like the lovechild of Avengers!Loki and Disney!Hades...

[ChesCa]

[hide]
One big plus about this movie is Sandy's death and how the grief over it seemed genuine, even if I wasn't that sad. The guy was charming and even before you see him you know he's important to others when Jack sees his dream sand.

That said….yeah some things didn't make sense to me.

1. How was Jack's memory relevant exactly?
Jack: Oh my God I protect children and I'm nice to them!
Me: Uh...isn't that how he kind of was before?

2. In other movies, even if no reason is given the characters have to stay secret (I think Arthur Christmas gave one), it was fine but only because it never worked against them. Here they nearly lost if it weren't for the kid they didn't hide themselves from. And in the end they decide 'hey, we won't hide ourselves.' Even then the Easter Bunny tried to reveal himself when things went tits up so you have to wonder why all the secrecy? Especially since in the end it didn't matter.

3. A nitpick but I felt that the Tooth Fairy was justified in being busy and distracted. She has to work daily for millions if not billions of kids you know?

4. I hate how the low point of the movie was just not letting Jack explain that Pitch distracted/framed him while he was trying to free the little fairies. They got it half right by not having Jack betray them and falling for Pitch's trap, but they could've done a little better in making Jack more iredeemably guilty in the other Guardian's eyes than just 'DUR! WE NO DISCUSS IMPORTANT FACTS LIKE WHERE THE FUCKING BOOGIEMAN IS HIDING!!

That said the characters and their powers/hideouts/quirks were enough to make the movie entertaining and I did like Pitch's comeuppance. It did seem a little clever.[/hide]

[Gizmo]

@ChesCa:

[hide]1. How was Jack's memory relevant exactly?
Jack: Oh my God I protect children and I'm nice to them!
Me: Uh…isn't that how he kind of was before?

2. In other movies, even if no reason is given the characters have to stay secret (I think Arthur Christmas gave one), it was fine but only because it never worked against them. Here they nearly lost if it weren't for the kid they didn't hide themselves from. And in the end they decide 'hey, we won't hide ourselves.' Even then the Easter Bunny tried to reveal himself when things went tits up so you have to wonder why all the secrecy? Especially since in the end it didn't matter.

3. A nitpick but I felt that the Tooth Fairy was justified in being busy and distracted. She has to work daily for millions if not billions of kids you know?

4. I hate how the low point of the movie was just not letting Jack explain that Pitch distracted/framed him while he was trying to free the little fairies. They got it half right by not having Jack betray them and falling for Pitch's trap, but they could've done a little better in making Jack more iredeemably guilty in the other Guardian's eyes than just 'DUR! WE NO DISCUSS IMPORTANT FACTS LIKE WHERE THE FUCKING BOOGIEMAN IS HIDING!![/hide]

[hide]1) I feel like before, he liked bringing joy to children, but he didn't feel like he was the kind of person that wanted to actively protect them. It wasn't something he felt like he was obligated to do. He didn't want/need to carry responsibility like the other Guardians (which makes sense given Jack Frost probably doesn't have a set time table that he has to follow to bring his "gift" to children)

Once he got his memories back, he realized that he was a Guardian. Helping out the Guardians before were more for selfish reasons.

That said, I want to ask my own question. Why did Jack lose his memories (and to an extent how come his memories from right before he died were in his teeth)? The memory loss was never given an explanation (though maybe since Joyce is writing Frost's origin story in the near future the books might have some explanation).

2. This answer seems more like a stretch, but I guess that as long as they did their job, they didn't have to reveal themselves. It seemed to be less about the actual figure but more of their actions that made them believe. And I guess trying to hold a world press conference trying to explain the situation like saying "Easter might not be able to come this year because there is an evil guy ruining our jobs" would make the situation as hopeless as them not fulfilling their duties in the first place. Definitely an option that could've been explored more though.

3. As for Jack not explaining himself, I imagine he felt like he was entirely to blame. He knew he should've been with the Guardians protecting Easter, but he became distracted by a voice calling him and then by trying to look for his teeth, even prioritizing that over freeing the mini fairies. Even if it was Pitch's plan was to stall him, I feel like Jack felt like the fault still lies with him regardless. Jack not giving the Guardians any info on Pitch or his hideout was just a bad move on his part though, even if he did feel guilty.[/hide]
   One thing this movie did really interest me in was Joyce's books The Guardians of Childhood. They're the origin stories of all the Guardians, including the Man in the Moon and Pitch. Plus there are even other original characters (Mother Goose is part of the mythology as well as the Monkey King). Given a lot of the creative concepts from the movie actually came from the book series, I bet they're a good read, though I haven't read reviews on the actual books.

Also in box office news, rise of the guardians was about $3 million short of Paramount's (which I've read has been called modest) estimate of $35 million. Given the tough competition still playing right now and the reviews it's understandable, but here's hoping it stays solid in the coming weeks.

[Satsuki]

@ChesCa:

[hide]

1. How was Jack's memory relevant exactly?
Jack: Oh my God I protect children and I'm nice to them!
Me: Uh…isn't that how he kind of was before?

[/hide]

! Memory is relevant in that it shapes who we are, and Jack didn't have any memory other than he emerged from an icy lake and wasn't able to interact/talk to anybody. He liked playing with kids, but he was never recognized like the other guardians were. Very lonely.
! In getting his memories he didn't realize so much that "OMG I like kids!", it was a recollection of his previous life and realizing that he was important to other people, that they loved him back, and why he protected them (or specifically his little sister). A realization of why he does what he does (have fun with them), and why he would want to look out for them. The kid being able to see him later just cemented the idea.

It's a shame that it isn't doing better at the box office, but when you've got Twilight and Skyfall to compete with . . .

[Ubiq]

@taboo:

Visuals, models (aside from creepy eyed children), and animation was great, story guys really dropped the ball here

Pretty much; the film looked great, but never really clicked for me.

It didn't help that Wreck-It Ralph had a similar theme when it came to being an outsider because of what you are, but did an infinitely better job with it.

[Gizmo]

@Ubiq:

It didn't help that Wreck-It Ralph had a similar theme when it came to being an outsider because of what you are, but did an infinitely better job with it.

To be fair I haven't watched Wreck-It Ralph, but I never really got that the movie really had this message.

Tags in case this is spoiler worthy.

! I can't tell if you mean Jack Frost or that kid Jamie, but for Jamie he seemed more like the last kid that still believes but the other don't. Yet, they never make him an outcast for believing like Ralph was (presumably).
! As for Jack, his story was more about learning who he was and accepting responsibility and his role as a Guardian (standard superhero stuff). I guess you could mean he's an outsider because nobody believes in him, but Jack's journey of self discovery doesn't seem like Ralph's journey of trying to become more than what society's role tells him to be.

And I just had a brainstorm for a future Guardians film (honestly do think the franchise deserves to stick around and am hoping this becomes a financial success). And to add insult to injury this story has to be released on a future Thanksgiving weekend.

So the Thanksgiving Turkey's powers come from children giving thanks, but slowly but surely consumerism has grown exponentially over the years (to the point where instead of spending Thanksgiving night with the family people are out Black Friday shopping). So growing bitter and mad due to consumerism, the Thanksgiving Turkey sets his sights on the biggest icon/reason for his troubles, North aka Santa Claus. (Now the Turkey would have to cross the line of course somewhere to make him villainous and the story would have to have something to make the Thanksgiving Turkey wrong in his stance on Santa and his approach to the situation).

And of course the movie ends with children around the world learning to be grateful for what they already have with the Thanksgiving Turkey either defeated or reformed etc.

So how do I contact William Joyce/Guillermo del Toro/Dreamworks to pitch this?

[ChesCa]

@Gizmo:

[hide]

4. As for Jack not explaining himself, I imagine he felt like he was entirely to blame. He knew he should've been with the Guardians protecting Easter, but he became distracted by a voice calling him and then by trying to look for his teeth, even prioritizing that over freeing the mini fairies. Even if it was Pitch's plan was to stall him, I feel like Jack felt like the fault still lies with him regardless. Jack not giving the Guardians any info on Pitch or his hideout was just a bad move on his part though, even if he did feel guilty.[/hide]

! Maybe that could work but iirc he went after the teeth after it was confirmed that the fairies couldn't fly, and as bad as he felt he had some pretty important information he could've shared.
I think a better route was for him to be warned never to be deceived by Pitch or something and disobeying that warning by going into his hideout anyway all gung-ho. It would've changed the focus from him looking like he sold them out for teeth to him not fit to be a Guardian because he wasn't a team player or something. That might just be me though.
@Satsuki:

! Memory is relevant in that it shapes who we are, and Jack didn't have any memory other than he emerged from an icy lake and wasn't able to interact/talk to anybody. He liked playing with kids, but he was never recognized like the other guardians were. Very lonely.
! In getting his memories he didn't realize so much that "OMG I like kids!", it was a recollection of his previous life and realizing that he was important to other people, that they loved him back, and why he protected them (or specifically his little sister). A realization of why he does what he does (have fun with them), and why he would want to look out for them. The kid being able to see him later just cemented the idea.

! I guess that makes sense so I guess the more proper term I'm looking for is that I was underwhelmed by his memory restoration. Maybe I'm spoiled by Death Note/SH2/Adventure Time and how they use memories to change a person.

[Jazzy Jinx]

Completely random and misplaced tidbit but I know a guy that actually worked on this movie. His name is Chris Hewitt and he's really well known in the Smash Bros. community under the username Zigsta (which is where I know him from).

I believe this was his first major film that he made contributions to.

[Rebecky_Mo]

My sister has decided to cosplay Jack for Anime North next year. I am not surprised. Nor will I be surprised when there are a half-dozen Jack Frosts running around in blue hoodies with painted 'frost' on them.

My friend decided to join her, going as Pitch. Again, not surprised at this/any other Pitches next May.

I want to join them, but guess which character is the only one I really want to dress as?

!

And they aren't trying to talk me out of it. They're saying they'll help me, even though they live 1-4 hours away from me and I see them maybe 6 times a year.

I'm actually considering it. I hate them so much. So much.

As for RotG's bad week 1 numbers, one site has written a piece on why this may not be as bad as expected in the long run.

[Satsuki]

Everyone loves a challenge. Especially a cosplay challenge. I've seen some great Flemeths from Dragon Age.

I do agree with the article that the movie is a good addition to the Christmas movie collection for the new generation. I wished Santa was more in it, but as Jack Frost is a winter icon, it works. Maybe once Twilight and Skyfall slow down it'll catch up.

[Ubiq]

@Rebecky_Mo:

As for RotG's bad week 1 numbers, one site has written a piece on why this may not be as bad as expected in the long run.

It's got a lot going against it; Wreck-It Ralph has better reviews, there are a lot of high profile films out already, and it's only two weeks until The Hobbit comes out. It'll have a lot more competition than How to Train Your Dragon did and for screens as well as revenue. Screens given to a middlingly successful film like Rise of the Guardians aren't showing The Hobbit or films already in release that are much more successful. Monsters, Inc. also comes out the week after The Hobbit, which is going to take a hefty percentage of the family market as well as 3D screens.

[city_lights31]

hmmm…I enjoyed this for the most part but I honestly had super low expectations. The art/animation/character design was all super crisp. This film was pretty imaginative but the story was definitely a little hollow. Not bad at all but if you are going to see only one animated movie in theaters right now it sure as shit should be Wreck-it Ralph which was 1000x better.

[Gizmo]

Ubiq makes a really good point. Movies like Tangled and How To Train Your Dragon didn't have anything close this competition (well, Tangled had Harry Potter part 1, but that's about it and even that wasn't one of the strongest movie of the franchise unlike what's being said about Skyfall and Twilight)

The Polar Express was also in the same boat. It consistently did well sure, but during it's debut, it's biggest competition was The Incredibles funny enough. National Treasure was the only other big hit, and Ocean's Twelves came out roughly three-four weeks after the Polar Express' debut.

As for family movies aimed at children though, Wreck it Ralph has been cooling down (I still want to see it), and I can see a fair chunk of families still watching this for another week or two. As for Monsters Inc., I don't doubt it will take away some viewers, but if it's like Finding Nemo 3D it won't have a substantial audience, though given RotG's current status a showing like that could be a big blow.

Here's another fun tidbit I found, box Christmas movies at box office mojo. Now admittedly, a lot of these movies are old and the more recent Christmas films suck, but it does show that holiday films don't automatically equal success.

That said, I'm not going to just make excuses. The story isn't amazing, and the reviews have been mixed. If it was a stronger movie I doubt this would be an issue. But we'll see in a few weeks if it can consistently keep up its box office revenue (it'll be lucky if it can maintain weekly revenue in the range of $20-30 million for a bit, but I'm not sure that's likely).

[Ubiq]

It's the impending loss of showtimes that will hurt it; theaters will want to put The Hobbit on as many screens as they can while still keeping room for the more successful films that offer other options to The Hobbit for moviegoers.

Say that a theater has eight screens; right now, they have Skyfall, Twilight on two screens, Lincoln, Rise of the Guardians, Wreck-It Ralph, Life of Pi, and Red Dawn. There's not all that much coming out these next two weekends though they probably drop one of those Twilights after the initial rush. Now, the 14th rolls around and The Hobbit comes out and the manager wants to put it on at least two, probably three different screens. So either some of those films are going to be dropped or will be sharing a screen. Wreck-Ralph had a really nice opening weekend and has held up fairly well; it didn't do all that much worse than Rise of the Guardians despite already being out for three weeks. If Rise of the Guardians has the usual drop in box office revenue in its second weekend, it may well drop below Wreck-It Ralph. Having more screenings of Ralph makes more sense.

A few days after that, Monsters, Inc. will come out which will mean that they'll need to make room somewhere; 3D films are more revenue and a film with a proven track record will mean that those screens will come at the expense of another film. It won't be The Hobbit and since they already have two animated films showing, it'll come out of one of those films instead.

[Hiroy]

Copy pasta my Facebook post.

"This movie had a good message, but ehhhh… Wow. The biggest problem with this movie is that it focused on all five guardians. Me and my sis agreed it would have been better if it just focused attention on Jack Frost and Santa with Christmas being the main holiday, and saved the rest(including Pitch Black since his story was tied with Sandman) for another movie completely.

It felt like it tried really hard to mesh multiple concepts together and it didn't help at all. The dialogue and attempts at humor at times felt too fast, or completely overshadowed by the clusterfuck of things that went on over multiple scenes. I mean, the theater was FILLED with little kids, and most of time NO ONE was laughing at the jokes. It was that much of a mess, though there is that strong line of potential that it could have been a better movie.

Another issue was the plot device it used to show how much kids had faith in guardians. Yeah... A huge high tech magic globe of planet Earth with little lights that go on and off... Yeah... That was kinda terrible.

Still, even though it was the worse of the two movies, it gave me and my sis more to talk about because you can't help but imagine the potential. "

[Rebecky_Mo]

$90 million earned overseas have gotten RotG to $153.4 million total in the box office, meaning it's actually making money now (production budget was #145 million). It even beat Skyfall in the international box office last week. Still, it's a big disappointment here in North America, and now The Hobbit is due to come out…

Even if it wasn't the commercial hit Dreamworks was wanting, I'm fully expecting them to give it the same treatment they've given their bigger films (Monsters vs. Aliens, Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda and How To Train Your Dragon). Namely, holiday specials; if you can make a Christmas special with freaking Madagascar, I'd hope they'd do something with a villain suited for Halloween, the Easter Bunny, and Santa Claus himself.

[Ubiq]

Films need to earn roughly twice their production budget to cover advertising costs and the percentage that goes to theater owners so it really needs to reach about 290M before they can really start thinking about turning a profit off of it.

[Gizmo]

@Rebecky_Mo:

$90 million earned overseas have gotten RotG to $153.4 million total in the box office, meaning it's actually making money now (production budget was #145 million). It even beat Skyfall in the international box office last week. Still, it's a big disappointment here in North America, and now The Hobbit is due to come out…

Technically, the production budget doesn't take into account advertising costs, which apparently a good rule is half the production budget. So that's $217.5 million, roughly $60 still needed… and that's just to barely making profit, which while I'm still hoping happens, it doesn't look good for the series future.

Like everyone's been saying, it has a lot of potential as a series. Just a shame the story/writing in the movie wasn't written on par (and I like the story better than most).

EDIT: ninja'd by Ubiq and out info'd since I forgot about theatre costs.

[taboo]

i liked Pitch but i was literally sitting there thinking 'wow how long is this guy gonna keep monologuing'. i would have like to see just a SHRED of backstory on him, just a little HINT ANYTHING

[Satsuki]

These are the books the movie is based on:
http://www.theguardiansofchildhoodbooks.com/

I'm assuming if you read them there would be more backstory on Pitch.

[taboo]

yeah i know his backstory, i just for the hell of me dont know why they wouldn't have hinted at it in the movie

it would have done wonders at making his character more dimensional