When I got to Blue Oaks Century Theaters and XD  and found out I — a sophomore — would have to watch a kid’s animation film about Christmas instead of a totally action-packed film with James Bond, I won’t lie… I was outraged. But it was either that or go home. I’m glad I didn’t go home.

“The Rise of the Guardians” went above and beyond my expectations. Of course it was still more of a kid movie, but it was full of action. The story line was predictable in the way that we all know who will win in the end, but the characters had a twist that made it enticing.

The movie tells the story of the Guardians and their newest addition Jack Frost, and their quest to defeat their strongest enemy yet: Pitch (Jude Law), also known as the Boogeyman. Pitch wanted to make another time of fear in the world like he had done in the dark years.

The characters weren’t the traditional characters from our holiday stories. Santa was called North (Alec Baldwin) and he was a Russian tough guy with tattoos all over him. The Easter Bunny (Hugh Jackman), called Bunny, was a six foot tall  bunny with an Australian accented and a boomerang. The Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher) called Tooth, looked like looked like a hummingbird and was obsessed with everyone’s teeth. Lastly was the Sandman, called Sandy in the movie, who moved the sand around and created people’s dreams to people at night.

Throughout the movie there were twists and turns. As the heroes try to save the children of the world from Pitch’s evil dust they all go through trials and tribulations, as more kids stop believing in them they start losing their powers and become weak. As the Guardians work together they learn their true identities and find out what they can accomplish when they work together.

I really liked how it was relatable to teenagers because every teen in high school at some point feels invisible. I could connect to how Jack Frost felt because of that. I also liked that the characters had a twist it made it interesting because it gave me something that was unpredicted because they weren’t like the characters in the stories I was told growing up. For example I was told that Santa was a fat old man who wouldn’t hurt anyone is a warrior in this movie ready to do anything to protect the kids.

The animation was pretty good. They definitely didn’t look like real actors acting like with the Hulk in the Avengers or the Adventures of Tintin, but the way it was animated made it look everything look magical. Jack had the power to turn things to ice or frost, the ice he made looked real. In the movie there was a really cool point when Pitch and Sandy were fighting and the sand they were using to fight clashed together or when Jack and Pitch were fighting and Jack’s ice and Pitch’s sand would make an aftershock effect which was really cool.

The movie also had a few funny points. Sandy’s inability to talk was funny because he used his sand to make symbols above his head and the other Guardians didn’t always pay attention.  Also there were times where Bunny and Jack’s insults added some comedy to the film. But other than that the movie wasn’t very funny it was more action and adventure

Overall this was a great movie because of the action and adventure. If you liked “Wreck it Ralph” (read our review on it here) you’ll really like this movie. Both movies have characters trying to show who they really are. If you want to watch a family movie, this is the movie to choose.