“I know it’s no ‘hard boiled egg,’ but kids like what I do.”

“No, we aren’t here to molest you.”

Rise of the Guardians looked like a load of Grade A bullshit, a weirdly children-hating (festive!) engine designed to ape the superhero fad and use it against the wee ones. From its uninspired title to the ridiculous conceit that holiday figures are actually magical guardians protecting kids from evil, this seemed like something that could only be made in a creative landscape devoid of all sense of irony or self-awareness. Even the trailer just screamed “trying too hard” with it’s super-warrior reinvention of classic characters like Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, etc and an obvious Hero’s Journey story just like all the rest.

There’s a certain class of critic who, having formed strong preconceived notions about something, will stick to their guns whether the pot of gold at the end of the marketing rainbow is actually shit or gold after all. I am not that guy, I have realized, because I am here to tell you how very wrong I was about Rise of the Guardians. By now, word is coming in from many critics that this movie is actually pretty damn good, one of Dreamworks’ best and yet another annual entry that successfully competes with Pixar’s. I have the seemingly minority view that Brave is one of Pixar’s best movies, and I don’t think Rise of the Guardians is as good, though it’s close. That said, for many people it’s going to be Guardians (or Wreck-It Ralph for the Toy Story crowd) that leads the pack of 2012 animated films. And it’s quite a pack this year.

“You look very fetching in mail.”

Usually seeing one of these “it people” match-ups is a lot less fun.

Snow White and the Huntsman is sort of the anti-John Carter. This is to say that it’s actually a good movie and one not saddled by a number of crippling flaws and ridiculous creative choices. Why compare it to John Carter  (and the many movies like it) though? Let me explain how this works.