This morning, in the first showing, I FINALLY saw "Rise of the Guardians."
Though I haven't been too open about it on here (maybe?), I've been seriously anticipating and looking forward to this movie. That means sometimes looking up news for it every day, scouring around for clips and trailers, etc, and getting seriously hyped up and excited over each new thing I saw.
It first started because Jack Frost (above) is such a cute-pie. Seriously. But then the whole basic concept for the characters and the story basically makes me jealous that it's not mine! Having different emblems of childhood myth be true, giving them a purpose directly correlating to childhood, not to mention establishing them as their own persons and characters within and without their role...it's a refreshing concept, and I can see why Dreamworks was so keen on adapting it to film.
But my obsession with this film
has lasted throughout these past two months, which have been rather topsy-turvy in ways that, back in, say, summer, I wouldn't really have imagined. It's strange and, maybe just fitting, that the particular topsy-turviness would basically conclude itself shortly before this film came out.
And so, with all my expectations built up over the months AND the emotional investment I have in this movie, I was dying to see it (almost literally, but maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit.)
Frankly, I wasn't disappointed. Of course, the film was not perfect; no film is. But I'm not going to dwell on it's flaws, because they don't really matter too much. I'm usually not the type to get defensive over what I like...usually, I don't care about other people criticizing things that I like, because usually the points are valid, and other views are often as good as my own. And personally, it always got on my nerves when people dismiss other views just because they're different...it's always seemed to be not dismissive to the other view, but to the other person, but of course, this may be reading into it much too far, because this certainly isn't necessarily the case at all.
And that aside, when it comes to this film and a few other select stories (such as Baten Kaitos, in regards to which I acknowledge it's flaws but I hate hearing people go on about them), that's basically how it is for me, I just really don't like hearing criticism. Maybe it'll change over time, I dunno. But there's just so much I feel about this film and have invested in it and...as I said, I wasn't disappointed.
Firstly there was, of course, the fact that everything, from the character designs to the worlds and places, were all absolutely gorgeous.
The designs look good enough as stills (and I'm going to go ahead and say that I absolutely adore the Tooth Fairy's design) but what really counts is how well they help express the character in the film. And let's just say that the designs worked well to that end. The only one that bothered me even a little was Pitch, mainly because I could tell they were making him less scary to keep him from frightening the kids. Because goodness, especially when one looks at some of their earlier design art and drafts, he could have been positively terrifying. Not that his design is really bad or anything, but there was just unfulfilled potential.
Anyways, the characters themselves were also strong enough on their own, too. The Tooth Fairy (or "Tooth") was a verging on sometimes hyper multi-tasker who really at one point echoed working mothers who have become so wrapped up in their work for their children that they have no time for their children, and they don't always realize how much they miss it or value it (this holds true for North (Santa) and Bunnymund (the Easter Bunny) as well.) But she had additional sides to her, and one that was just cute and funny was the ongoing gag of the crush that she and her little fairies have on Jack Frost's....teeth.
Frankly, I just wasn't expecting it but it makes perfect sense.
And then there was North, who worked so well as a Santa Claus figure while..also being his own character in a way. There's the Russian (not such a big change for me), but what really nailed it was the scene with the matryoshka doll. There are two reasons I love the inclusion of that doll: the first is that I grew up with a couple of those around the house, and I really loved them as a kid. For some reason, they just fascinated me. So, for me personally, it made absolutely perfect sense to include it in a film about childhood.
And the second reason is that the doll pretty much perfectly serves it's purpose: to show that these Guardians are multidimensional, but their "job" and the element that makes them personally important to children and childhood is their center, what defines their character as a whole. It writes out any sort of conflict between the self and this role towards children and childhood, and that's a pretty clever thing for them to do, since otherwise it might potentially be seen as an unresolved angle on it all.
Then there's Bunnymund. He was fine for his character and all, but personally he did not make QUITE as big as an impression as some of the others did. But then again, this may change the next times (and there WILL be more) that I see this movie. And some of his scenes were gut-wrenching enough to drive the immediacy of what was happening within the plot home. I guess the biggest thing is that his character is more reactive rather than proactive towards the other characters...in general. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but it does make it harder to appreciate him. Still though, he was a good character and I'll certainly be paying more attention to him onwards.
Saving Jack and Pitch for last, there's the Sandman. He was...well, there were several things in this movie that did and did not surprise me (both in good ways) and Sandy certainly qualifies for this. He was overall a pretty mild character, but it was nice to see that he was also more than that. And he was a little more reactive like Bunnymund was, yet at the same time he bounced off all the characters in a different way...I don't know, he just stood out as like your beginning-to-age-somewhat-batty-uncle-that-is-so-nice-and-everyone-wants-to-know type of character, which made him stand out from the rest of the cast, who had more aggressive, defined, far less mild personalities. It was a good contrast. And he really DOES look like marzipan!
Soooo then we have Jack Frost and Pitch. Spoilers from hereon out, until I mark them ended.
Again, with the things I was not expecting. Mainly, there was the not-so-different element between these two characters to begin with. Some reviewers saw Pitch's motivations as weak, but I don't know about that. He's really not very different from the main cast, and especially in Jack's case, he's rather the representation of what would happen if they went too far, became too lonely, etc. Of course, it doesn't justify anything he does, but it's quite sad. And it's really driven home in the scenes in the South Pole, just what all these negative possibilities mean for Jack's character.
So I felt that Pitch's motivations were just fine, really, considering the nature of his character and, well, "being" I suppose. And the whole part about wanting to be noticed, believed in, wanting to be loved and to have a family were especially poignant since Jack very obviously reflected these AND because I know that in the original story, Pitch had a daughter. I don't know what happened to or is up with her character therein, but still. There's that loss of a connection between home and family/love (which is also very especially clear with Jack, where the place he calls home is somewhere no one at all can see or hear him.)
There's a lot that I really loved about Jack (and not just his good looks gosh.) Firstly, even though it's very clear that he's a different sort of being now, like the Guardians, he's still got a lot of human aspects (that the Guardians also share.) His seeking to know about his life before becoming what he is, learning about his family (and it was so perfect that he was a big brother, geez, he's a perfect annoying-but-still-lovable-big-brother type of guy) is just perfectly understandable, and it's also quite sad and desperate, but it makes perfect sense, so it's a certainly justifiable motivator for him throughout part of the movie.
It also reminded me about a very precious idea that had been introduced to me some time ago: the idea that all stories (all good stories, with truth, goodness, life, death, love and/or God in them) are really all one large, ongoing story. And this struck home with Jack's predicament and desires in regards to his memories, because it just kept making me think of this song:
That aside, there's really an infinite amount of things I could write about Jack's character, but I'm going to have to cut that short, since I'll wind up going on too long.
He was a strong character, an individual, standing out well amongst the cast but also playing off them and vice versa well. Neither he nor the other characters are exaggerated, leaving them as themselves, which is really just refreshing. Really, the different sides of his character and the cast all worked together well for the plot and overall story and the feel of the film. And I know a lot of people will say the film is really too cheesy....and eh. I mean, I admit it's a little cheesy (and I still don't know what was up with having Renée Fleming covering the ending credits song, because her operatic voice just sort of seemed to be way more hammy than anything else in light of the more cheesy parts near the end, and just sorta hammered the cheesiness home. But maybe I'm just not used to voices like hers enough) but the thing about the cheesy-super-heart-warming parts of this film is because they actually, really worked.
Any cheesiness, out-and-out just having fun for the sake of fun, or almost crazy amounts of being super heart-warming-melting just fit because of the nature of the film (children and childhood), the characters and the story. And they satisfied the audience as well; for example, at the end I was almost ready to scream at Jack and Jamie when they didn't hug at first, but then they did and it all felt extremely warm and fuzzy and just exactly what you wanted for Jack. That and other things, such as the really just extended parts of fun and other warm and funny scenes between the Guardians and the kids were just perhaps invaluable to set the film apart and give it its signature identity and direction towards talking about childhood.
Spoilers End.
Honestly, there really were so many scenes in that movie where I know I and I'm sure many other older folks had near flash-backs to their childhood, or at least feelings that they experienced as children. And even though I never believed in any of the title characters (except maybe the Tooth Fairy, and that was mostly for fun even though I knew otherwise), there was still plenty to share....which directly contradicts any criticism saying that people can't enjoy the films just because they don't have all the character mythology or anything. So ha!
So when I came out of that movie, I was just pretty thrilled and happy with it, really. The strange ending song and the almost too-cheesy ending threw me off a little, but really all that I put towards this movie and all it's been to me...it's really kinda been perfect at least insofar as it was all I wanted and needed it to be. Frankly, I can't wait to see it again, and this is one of the rare times (because I'm a cheapskate) I think I'll look to see if I can watch it again while in theaters (though maybe not the specific theater I went to because something was up with the video AND the sound, so it was all quite a headache recipe.)
Though at the same time, any movie that celebrates childhood and all the fantastic, pure and awesome dreams and wonder and joys that you can only really fully, without realizing it, experience as a child...after the movie is over, it can leave the adult (or especially young adult?) viewer feeling almost too nostalgic.
But, then there's the thing that was so perfectly expressed in a chapter of ARIA (that had something to do with holidays and losing faith in childhood figures!) that nailed down perfectly why growing up and losing what we had as a child doesn't need to be depressing. When we're young, we're only on the receiving end of the wonders of the world; we can't shape them or control them or really do much to give them to other people/children. That's part of why being an adult (or in this case, being a Guardian) should be just as fun and wonderful as being a child, just in a different way. We lose some things, but we begin to see different signs of goodness, beauty and just the fantastic in things we would not realize as children. And then, we can also give all these wonderful things to children. This is something that's so pure and amazing, I'm almost afraid it'll be lost in our world that focuses on sex, even in regards to children....but then a movie like this comes out, and I can't help but feel it will, in some way, help some people to realize in different ways the beauty and preciousness of purity, pure joys, pure experiences...that the fantastic and that childhood has nothing to do with sex and vulgarity. And as much as I know there are a lot of people who totally miss that, I'm sure at the same time there are also so many who do know this, even if they don't realize it. It might just also be a part of being a good parent, or really just loving children and childhood for it's own, good sake for what it is at it's purest....that's all part of these characters, really.
Perhaps this is really what makes the movie special, fulfilling all that I put in stock in it by making me realize all that there is out there in a different way than I would have thought of before. It's almost like a gift; something else to be grateful for, to appreciate and to help me live, really live, no matter what may or may not come. Because the things that this movie holds up and shines: wonder, hope, joy, memories and just pure, clean fun and the magic of it all together are things that certainly can't be bought in a store. Priceless...and a very Christmas-themed story indeed.
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