Do You Believe in the Easter Bunny?
By Skip Sheffield
Did you believe in the Easter Bunny? How about Santa Claus,
the Sand Man and the Tooth Fairy?
All these childhood characters and a few more appear in
Dreamworks’ CG-animated “Rise of the Guardians.”
I was a pretty skeptical kid. It didn’t help when I saw my
dad putting presents under the Christmas tree late at night when I was 5.
I told my mother what I saw, and she said don’t tell your
brothers or sister.
I did not. That is pretty much the premise of “Guardians.”
Those childhood characters are symbols of hope, imagination and love. They
should be preserved, not trashed.
The characters are inspired by William Joyce’s childhood “Guardians
of Childhood” series, with a big-name cast voicing the roles.
Jack Frost, of “nipping at your front door” fame, is the
main character in this fable. Chris Pine does his voice. Jack is a carefree
dude but he would like some respect. Nobody believes in him- nobody this is
except the other make-believe characters of Santa Claus, known as North here
(Alec Baldwin); the Easter Bunny (Hugh Jackman), the Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher),
and the dreamy Sand Man and Tinkerbelle, who are voiceless.
An evil celestial spirit called Pitch (Jude Law), who is
known as the Boogie Man on Earth, is a spoilsport who wants to dash the dreams
and hopes of children everywhere.
My expectations were quite low for “Guardians,” but it is
more entertaining and action-packed than I expected, under the direction of
Peter Ramsey. Perhaps Ramsey is atoning for the darkness of “Fight Club,” which
he` also helmed, as well as the “Men in Black” movies.
As one who believes in the power of imagination I am
sympathetic with the secular alternate universe this movie creates in glowing
3-D. Anything that promotes “Wonder, hope and dreams” can’t be all bad.
A Good-Looking but Uneccessary "Red Dawn"
On the other hand we have the paranoid fantasies of “Red
Dawn,” a remake of the 1994 film that imagined a ground attack on America ’s
heartland by Soviet Russia.
Since the U.S.S.R. has been fragmented and Russia is now
considered an ally by most, it would not do very well to cast them as villain
in 2012. Instead we have the handy Red Menace of the North Koreans, who are
considered crazy Black Hats by just about everyone.
Director Dan Bradley has cast for good looks in a
far-fetched tale that has a group of feisty teenagers saving the entire USA with sheer pluck and improvised weaponry
from their outpost in Spokane ,
Washington
If you crave action, explosions, gunfire and all manner of
cartoon violence, you may be amused by a fascist fantasy that is even less
believable today than it was 18 years ago.
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