The best Dreamworks film since the Shrek franchise, albeit its confusing title

Rating: 9/10 (27 April 2014)

When I first heard of this film, I got it confused with 'Legend of the Guardians,' a live-action fantasy film about owls. Due to my passion for animation, this appealed to me more when I saw this trailer, which had the most impressive character designs since those from the 'Shrek' franchise, particularly those of the guardians themselves.
The animation quality is on par with that from the 'Shrek' franchise with intricate character designs, pretty special effects and atmospheric backgrounds if some were a little too dark. The musical score is powerful, epic, poignant and magical while the closing credits song is absolutely beautiful. As for the story and dialogue, they both have a fine mix of excitement, sadness and humour while the story is adventurous and uses representations of Jack Frost, Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny in an entirely new and unique way. The funniest characters for me are the elves (they reminded me of the minions in the 'Despicable Me' franchise if they were not quite as humorous), the Easter Bunny and the furry creatures with moustaches. With regard to the main characters, Jack Frost is ambitious, Tooth is bubbly, Sandy is an effective communicator by expressing himself through facial expressions, body language and various sand symbols floating above his head and surprisingly comes back to life towards the end of the film, North is supportive, the Easter Bunny (I love his accent) is cynical yet comical and Pitch, while reminiscent of Voldemort from the Harry Potter series and Maltazard from 'Arthur and the Invisibles,' is threatening yet suave. The child characters are sweet and full of fun, especially Jamie Bennett and his little sister Sophie. Moving on to the voice acting, Chris Pine, Alec Baldwin (despite his Russian accent making his voice as unrecognisable as Steve Carrel's voice for Gru in the 'Despicable Me' films), Isla Fisher and Hugh Jackman all provided a brilliant variety of voices to their characters while Jude Law provided Pitch with a chilling combination of intimidation and menace.
To conclude, 'Rise of the Guardians' is a stunning fantastical adventure that is better than 'Shrek the Third' and 'Shrek Forever After' and nearly as good as the first two 'Shrek' films. 9/10.