Episode 156 - Rise of the Guardians (Peter Ramsey, 2012)

Rise of the Guardians (Peter Ramsey, 2012).

The Fantasy/Animation podcast takes listeners on a journey through the intersection between fantasy cinema and the medium of animation. Available via Apple Podcasts, Spotify and many of your favourite podcast hosting platforms!

To mark the Easter break, Fantasy/Animation crack open Rise of the Guardians (Peter Ramsey, 2012), the 2012 computer-animated film produced by DreamWorks Animation studio and a Hollywood blockbuster adapted from the children’s book series by William Joyce. Something of a box-office failure and a film that prompted an $87 million loss for DreamWorks, Rise of the Guardians is, as Chris and Alex suggest, certainly a complex and uneven effort that nonetheless incorporates some intriguing animated elements as part of its tale of belief and wonder. Listen as they map the film’s place as entry number 19 within the expanding DreamWorks canon and how it emerged at a crucial moment in their own corporate expansion; the characters of Jack Frost, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Sandman, and Pitch Black as renditions of different types of animation; drawing, artistry, and the Frozen-esque spectacle of cryokinesis; and how Peter Ramsey’s film narrativises the value of what it means for children to believe in fantasy.

**Fantasy/Animation theme tune composed by Francisca Araujo**

**As featured on Feedspot’s 25 Best London Education Podcasts**

Suggested Readings

  • Brown, Noel. 2020. Contemporary Hollywood Animation: Style, Storytelling, Culture and Ideology Since the 1990s. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

  • Holliday, Christopher. 2018. ““We Go by Many Names, and Take Many Forms”: DreamWorks’ Rise of the Guardians (2012) and ‘Assembling’ Animation.” animationstudies2.0 (January 8, 2018), available at: https://blog.animationstudies.org/?p=2305.

  • Holliday, Christopher. 2018. The Computer-Animated Film: Industry, Style and Genre. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

  • Hooks, Ed. 2012. “Rise of the Guardians – Why Did It Flop?” Animation World Network (December 6, 2012), available at: https://www.awn.com/blog/rise-guardians-why-did-it-flop.

  • McClintock, Pamela. 2012. “DreamWorks Animation Reveals Unprecedented 12-Picture Slate.” The Hollywood Reporter (September 9, 2012), available at: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dreamworks-animation-jeffrey-katzenberg-seth-rogen-bureau-otherworldly-operations-how-train-dragon-368966.

  • Sergeant, Alexander. 2012. Encountering the Impossible: The Fantastic in Hollywood Fantasy Cinema. New York: SUNY Press.

  • Summers, Sam. 2020. DreamWorks Animation: Intertextuality and Aesthetics in Shrek and Beyond. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantDREAMWORKS ANIMATION, COMPUTER-ANIMATED FILMS, ADAPTATION, SUPERHEROComment