Rise Of The Guardians

Exactly, that's what I love about this too. It's Dreamworks, but it looks to be more Kung Fu Panda than Shrek; some fun may be poked at the concept here and there, but it's largely played straight. So yeah, it looks awesome.

Who is the bad guy? The Boogieman?

Yes. His real name is Pitch, King of Nightmares, but he's who Earth's children know as "the boogieman".

edited 2nd Apr '12 9:31:47 AM by ManwiththePlan

Makes one wonder if Pitch has a personal history with the Sandman or whether he's associated with Halloween.

I wonder who Joyce could've included into the story if Halloween was associated with any character? I suppose it's for the better, as any Halloween figure would seem too similar to the villain.

Korra is a hot piece of woman!

edited 2nd Apr '12 10:25:21 AM by kyun

...this sounds like the greatest thing ever. The Santa thing has one me over because I'm a big fan of the dude. He's a damned badass.

Idea: A Halloween character could be based around one or more of the classic movie monsters, like a Frankenstein's or a ghost. They lead spirits and ghouls to cavort on Earth on Halloween Night, but it's a very choreographed thing, with clearly delineated boundaries, and the rest of the year, they keep those rowdy spirits in check to make sure they only scare kids when they want to be scared. After all, a little scare now and again is fun!

A bad-ass Jack Skellington????

ALL MY MONEY!!

Would't the logical Halloween character be Jack O'Lantern?

Maybe, but it would likely be a character everyone celebrates on that holiday. Halloween doesn't have one.

Which is why I figure a more generic "spirit" might be good.

Well, Jackolanters are a pretty prevalent tradition, so far as I know. And they were based off of a single legend about a single person. Although given that the legend is about a guy who made a round trip through hell itself by carving a lantern that warded off evil, methinks he might be a tad overpowered here.

About the whole, 'dead serious', Dreamworks actually seems to be moving in that direction to me. Megamind had some tongue in cheekness, but on the whole it was still pretty close to the genre, there, and KFP 2 was pretty much a straight kung-fu movie. A lot of their stuff recently is beginning to feel like love letters to genres, rather than the vague spitefulness of Shrek. Which I like, honestly.

As for the designs, I'd actually really like the tooth fairies design if it weren't for the whole 'feathers on the forehead and neck' deal. If she had, say, an outfit designed after hummingbirds, and her entire head was clear and human, I'd really like that. But the way it is, with just the face skin... is weird. I still don't really care for the sandman's design, too. Next to all the others he just looks a bit too cartoonish for my tastes.

IMO, Shrek didn't really get spiteful until the second one. The first movie was subversive, but was for the most part pretty low on potshots save for one or two scenes. On the whole, it was remarkably sincere compared to the rest of the franchise...

Still, it was pretty snarky in general. Pleasantly so, but still very different from the sincerity of their recent movies.

I'd differentiate "snarky" from "spiteful," though. True, it wasn't as sincere as something like How To Train Your Dragon, but still pretty far away from, say, something like the third Shrek movie.

Fair enough. I don't think I've watched the original since it came out... how long ago? My clearest memory of the franchise is Shrek Forever After, which was a tad less kind, I presume.

I don't even like the first one.

Getting back on topic, has anyone seen that new ROTG app? I think it looks pretty cool.

I'm kinda worried that Jack is gonna be used as a way to sneak snark into the movie. Being the only teen in a group of adults that includes Santa gives them a lot of chances to snark.

And that app is pretty neat!

What's this App I'm hearing about now?

This thing.

Ehh, a little bit of snark wouldn't hurt. Even HTTYD had a bit of snark, but it was mostly in good fun.

But according to that article that was posted earlier, they're being really reverent with this, because they know the movie has the potential to color kids' perception of these characters, and they want to leave them with a good one.

You know what's so nice about that? In respecting the mythos of childhood, the filmmakers are respecting children. Very young children view Santa Claus et al as powerful, awe-inspiring figures, and this movie is saying it's okay to view them that way, there's no hurry to take on a more cynical "adult" viewpoint that treats them as frivolous or overly saccharine. There's something very heartwarming about that.

Yeah, this movie looks to have that genuine sense of magic and wonder that's been so sorely missing from children's movies lately.

Am I the the only one who loves the effects for the Sandman's powers? I think that one might be my favorite of the four.

They look amazing. As do Pitch's hell horses.

edited 9th Apr '12 1:42:54 PM by Mort08

I love the effects, but I still don't really care for him personally. Amidst all the other fairly realistically proportioned guardians, to see him so cartoonishly squat and tiny is... a tad off-putting. I'd have preferred him to be closer to the size of the rest of them. Still, a minor complaint. As I said, his sand does look awesome, and I like that he actually makes shapes with it. The shot of sand dinosaurs and planes and whatnot was easily one of the best from the trailer.

edited 9th Apr '12 1:43:59 PM by kegisak