Rise of the Guardians: Meh. (Spoiler Free)

I’ve been wanting to see Rise of the Guardians for a while now, because Rufftoon worked on it, and because of all the cool gif sets on tumblr, so I got it from Netflix.

And I’m not really sure what other people see in it.

Maybe it’s because I never really celebrated Christmas or Easter as a kid, but Rise of the Guardians seems even more culturally specific and alienating to people outside of the culturally Christian European and North American mainstream than the current Hollywood norm.  Two of the guardians are specifically tied to Christian holidays.  Great.  Little kid me would have felt very welcomed.

And then there’s the fact that of the main characters, there are five guardians, Pitch, and a kid.  Of those, all but one of them are male.  One out of seven is pathetic, especially in a movie about people who guard and take care of children.

Plus, I didn’t like the movie’s attitude towards fear.  Fear itself is a protective force.  Yes, it can become toxic and put you in danger, but as anyone who has ever had a manic episode can tell you, so can the “positive” emotions.  Fear protects children.  It helps keep them safe.  I would love to have seen a dark, terrifying, but ultimately good guardian embodying fear, and instead we got the sinister and one note Pitch.

There were things about it I did like.  I liked the animation, I liked Jack’s story and why he was chosen to be a guardian, I liked a lot of the imaginative details, especially he hummingbird themed tooth fairy.  It was fun, it was diverting, but it didn’t do much for me, and I don’t feel the need to rewatch it. *shrug*