Pure family entertainment

Rating: Null/10 (22 December 2012)

I was hooked from the moment I saw the trailers with crisp and colourful images, Santa with a Slavic accent and an Easter Bunny voiced by Hugh Jackman. That's a recipe for success and the movie doesn't disappoint. It's very solid film from Dreamworks Animation, losing just slightly to Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon.
What I liked the most are the characters. Santa is easily my favourite with his booming voice, his accent, his tattoos and he's workshop full of yetis. But the rest are equally as entertaining, each with their own quirks and personalities. Though personality-wise the character of Sandman is something of a disappointment, mostly because he has no dialogue, and the film fails to convey him through his expressions and little sand images. He has his moments, but he gets lost in the background while the rest of the character talk with each other.
The other slight disappointment was the villain, Pitch (Jude Law), who was just so smarmy and clichéd with his drawling speeches and megalomaniac posing. At least he avoids the worst pit fall by having a motivation for his actions against the Guardians. Granted, the motivation isn't the most exciting ever, but it works in a pinch. Still, the character just isn't unique enough to fully satisfy the viewers. Especially when the Guardians, with the exception of Sandman, are such unique versions of their fairytale origins. Santa has tattoos, Easter Bunny is a badass warrior, Tooth Fairy is a hummingbird... while the villain is just a dark man in a cape. You can see the problem here, right?
The protagonist, Jack Frost (Chris Pine), isn't quite on par with the rest of the Guardians as far as uniqueness goes, but he is given a lot more backstory, and he's the audience surrogate in any case. While I do think that some of that backstory was slightly clichéd and overly sentimental, I can't deny that it doesn't do its job. Jack is a good character and you sympathize with his problems and can thus understand when he falters and struggles. Plus he's just plain fun to watch.
On the technical side of things, this film looks amazing. The textures are amazingly detailed, the backgrounds look awesome, the locations are entertaining to observe and study, the character designs fit the characters' personalities and are equally intriguing. Everything moves with smooth grace, which makes the film very easy to follow and enjoy.
As a whole this is a great film from Dreamworks. It isn't their greatest movie to date, but it's up there with the best. It's a good family adventure, while being mature and wise enough to appeal to adults just as well. Entertainment in its greatest form.