When I think of Christmas I still remember Dad telling us Santa would like a glass of Schnapps rather than milk to keep him warm on his cold holiday flight, after all we were in Ohio and we usually had snow by Dec. 25.
Mom always left cookies which “Santa” always managed to eat, leaving crumbs on the plate to prove he was there. One night my little sisters and I even heard a loud “Ho! Ho! Ho!” that echoed up to our bedrooms and we all knew it had to be Santa.
When I think of Christmas I still remember Dad telling us Santa would like a glass of Schnapps rather than milk to keep him warm on his cold holiday flight, after all we were in Ohio and we usually had snow by Dec. 25.
Mom always left cookies which “Santa” always managed to eat, leaving crumbs on the plate to prove he was there. One night my little sisters and I even heard a loud “Ho! Ho! Ho!” that echoed up to our bedrooms and we all knew it had to be Santa.
“Rise of the Guardians” captures those warm cozy memories of childhood when we believed in magical beings like Santa, the Easter Bunny and of course, the Tooth Fairy. The film also adds the fears of our youth in the form of the Boogeyman (voiced by Jude Law).
Another fun- loving myth from the past is Jack Frost and as this engaging, beautifully animated 3D film begins, snowflakes come spiraling into our faces and lacy icy designs decorate the screen.
Jack (Chris Pine) is a young boy with frost colored hair who loves to play tricks and make children happy, but even as he mixes with people, no one sees him because no one believes he is actually real.
This is not the case with Santa (voiced with great gusto by Alec Baldwin) who lives and works at the North Pole, creating fantastic new toys every year to delight the children of the world. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a crisis arises as youngsters all over the planet fall under a dark spell created by a dark spirit named Pitch, aka the Boogeyman. He has begun to turn happy dreams into nightmares, which are personified by pitch black horses made of filmy dark smoke.
These frightening wisps of terror invade childish dreams. Soon young boys and girls stop believing in the Guardians of youthful joy as they give in to their unhappy fears about everything.
To avert this crisis all of the holiday Super Heroes come together at the request of the Man in the Moon. This also includes the Sand Man who provides sweet dreams and the beautiful Tooth Fairy.
As the heroes of happiness converge they unanimously attribute the universal catastrophe to Pitch, aka the Boogeyman, and they are right.
Then, through a special portal, they are joined by Jack Frost who was sent to join them by the Man in the Moon. Mystified, Jack and all of the other heroes wonder why he has been called to join in the “Quest” to save holiday joy.
At this point, Santa takes Jack into his gigantic work room where he tells the boy there has to be a reason he has been summoned to join the Guardians. As they talk privately Santa encourages Jack to look deep inside to find his center.
For Santa that core is “Wonder” which inspires him to work tirelessly for 364 days a year in order to envision holiday magic that will remain in the human heart long past childhood.
The animation, crafted by artists from around the world, is whimsical, colorful and imaginative, filled with images like lacy patterns that frost windows, trees and ponds and the colorful Easter Island workshop of the 6-foot-tall Easter Bunny (voiced by Hugh Jackman).
The little kid in all of us will relate as the playful Jack Frost takes a group of children on a whirlwind adventure over the icy streets of a small Midwestern town in the USA. Tiny elf like creatures dressed in red also provide lots of laughter and personality to the story as they scurry around the North Pole, but the big surprise is who really does all of the hard work along with Santa.
The film is rated PG for some scary action caused by Pitch and his dark minions, but little ones who don’t scare easily will enjoy the fright.
DVD Update: Holiday shoppers, be advised that “The Dark Knight Rises” comes to Blu-ray and DVD on Dec. 4. This too is a superhero movie (from Warner Bros). It is definitely on the dark side, but it will make a perfect holiday gift.
