Rise of the Guardians

What’s it about?

Jack Frost floats up through water and breaks through the surface of a frozen lake to discover that he has no memory of who he is or his past life but the Man in the Moon tells him his name.  It seems Jack has been using his magic for 300 years to create snow storms, freeze lakes and window panes and generally create winter fun for children throughout the world.

Sadly, Jack finds a world where the evil Boogieman, Pitch Black, is destroying children’s dreams and turning them into scary, dark nightmares. The guardians of childhood such as Father Christmas, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and the Sandman have always tried to protect children from evil forces but now Pitch has grown too strong for them. The Man in the Moon tells them they must get Jack Frost to help them fight this growing evil.

What to look out for

There’s quite a bit of fantasy violence that might scare younger kids such as:

• Shadowy, black, smoke-like tendrils reach out for children and the Guardians, then transform into black shadowy horses with long black flowing manes and glowing yellow eyes.
• Pitch shoots one of the Guardians in the back with a black tendril-like arrow. A black patch appears on his back and it spreads out until it covers and kills him in a swirling black mass.
• Several fights between Pitch and the Guardians who use various weapons to shoot at Pitch and the horses who are chasing them.
• Pitch holds a tiny tooth fairy in this fist and threatens to crush her unless Jack Frost does what he says.

Moral of the Story

The message of the story is that believing in something good helps us to deal with bad things.