Rise of the Guardians

Peter Ramsey’s 2012 animated feature gathers the figures children believe in against a nightmare spirit and enters the story through Jack Frost. How the other four became Guardians is withheld by design. Ramsey has said Jack was picked as the gateway character and that the structure drops you into the middle of a larger conflict the way Star Wars does; the origins stay in William Joyce’s books. The same discipline keeps out fart jokes, topical gags and parody: Ramsey wanted a tone that would not date. A live action cinematographer, not the animation department, shaped the light: Roger Deakins helped the crew reach the grounded look they wanted. Leonardo DiCaprio was announced as Jack Frost before leaving the project. Guillermo del Toro produced and argued for the darker, more poetic passages. The Guardians idea grew from a question Joyce’s daughter Mary Katherine asked as a child; she died at eighteen of a brain tumour, and the film carries a dedication to her. It took more than twice its 145 million dollar budget without turning a profit, and DreamWorks announced around 350 job cuts in February 2013. Anyone coming to learn where Santa or the Easter Bunny came from will wait in vain; anyone who wants these figures played straight rather than sent up is in the right place.