These albums are THE BOMB. It is so fun for me that so many of my clients agree because then I get to have a blast designing them and then beauties like this one get delivered to my doorstep.
Want more information about my Sunshine Albums? CLICK HERE
Rise of the Guardians came out around Christmas time last year. Since I’m a sucker for animated films I’ve been dying to see this one. I wasn’t expecting much and I don’t know why I felt that way but I was more than pleasantly surprised by the quality of this movie.
SUMMARY
Rise of the Guardians is about a band of children’s heroes forced to put aside their differences to fight the onslaught of evil suddenly invading the children of the world. The Boogeyman has unleashed his evil powers on the children in attempts to gain the children’s belief in him and, in turn, snuff out their belief in the guardians.
Our main character in this film is Jack Frost. He is a spirited and fun-loving young man with a deep longing for friendship; however, he is invisible to all children, no matter how hard he tries to get them to believe in him and, in turn, love him.
REVIEW
This film is a perfect feel-good, holiday movie. The screenwriting, characters, and artistry were whimsical, colorful, and all around lovable.
The Rise of the Guardian’s screenwriters did an excellent job making Jack Frost lovable and relatable. He is everyone that has ever been left out, misunderstood, or ignored. They also did an excellent job with character arc. Most of the characters molded into new, more lovable characters throughout the movie. They each were confronted with their own wrongdoing and forced to battle it head on. The only character exempt from any character arc was the Sandman and that’s because he was this sort of role model, grandfather figure who had it right from the beginning.
Creativity oozed from the characters. The Rise of the Guardian‘s knocked these done and redone characters out of the park and gave them wholly new, and very appealing, identities. And all the little details about the stories of each of the characters were not only addressed but they were integral parts of the story. The new take on how the Sandman, Toothfairy, Easter Bunny, and Santa got to each child in one night was intensely imaginative and eye-popping. I particularly loved how they focused more on the lesser known characters of the Sandman, Jack Frost, and the Tooth Fairy and brought reason to dreaming, the collecting of teeth and all things cold and wintery.
By the end of the movie I was left with a heart beaming with gladness, eyes full of wonder, and all of two small qualms. My issues were a result of two open-ended statements left unattended. At one point in the movie Jack Frost lets the band of guardians down. The Easter Bunny is particularly let down and he says “Easter is about new life and new beginnings…” The reason why this line bothered me was because if that’s what the Easter Bunny’s “center” is about then he should have been the first to accept Jack Frost and the first to forgive him for making a mistake, however grave. The second statement that remained unanswered was in the final battle of the film. The kids had discovered a secret to the demise of the Boogeyman and in one instant Jamie, the first friend and believer of Jack Frost, says “I know what we have to do.” I assumed that this meant it was up to the kids to defeat the Boogeyman once and for all; instead, the Boogeyman is simply knocked out and when he awakes again he is suddenly no longer a threat because the children don’t believe in him. For such a brilliantly woven film to leave the movie hanging on a loose thread that could have been tied in beautifully was very disappointing. As a result of this the ending was stiff and generic.
CONCLUSION
I love how this story was written through the eyes of our children’s imaginations. So many movies now-a-days are created from the parents perspective where there is revelation that the parents put the presents under the tree and the parents trade the tooth for the gift. I’m not even an advocate for planting lies in little kid’s minds, however innocent and small, but in the made-up world of imagination and creativity, keeping the real world wholly out of it is truly a stroke of beautiful brilliance.
I would highly recommend this movie to anyone of all ages and backgrounds. Whether adult or child we all need a little dose of childlikeness every once in a while. Besides, I promise you will be left with a heart that feels like it was just warmed by the fire while you sat in the world’s most cozy chair with a heavenly cup of hot cocoa in hand.
If you had to be one of these children’s heroes, who would you be and why?
Photo credit: http://alienbee.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/rise-of-the-guardians-banner.jpg
Remaking Home | Blog Post 1 / 5
Back in early November I was struck by an epiphany. Up until that point Josh and I had spent a lot of time in prayer about our living situation and thinking it was getting close to time to move again. Instead, God answered our prayers by giving me a vision for our home that included the things we were asking Him for.
Josh had been gone for a day or two when the Remaking Home idea came to me. It all started with a vision for A Sunshine Moment Photography Studio. Because I was committing to a studio I suddenly had to up the quality in the rest of the house. In order for my clients to get to my studio space they were going to have to pass through our living room. And lets say they had to tinkle, in order to get to the bathroom they would have to pass through the living room, the kitchen, and the bathroom. Two rooms untouched right? Wrong. I also needed storage shelves for all my new equipment so I looked to the otherwise unusable porch space. Finally, with one room remaining and completely disheveled at this point, we decided to convert that into Josh’s studio so he could set up his drum kit.
The Living Room was step one in the process, mostly because it was the easiest to work with. The remake consisted of touching up one wall and repainting the other three, opening the space up, incorporating a new bookshelf, de-cluttering surfaces, dressing the walls, ditching the junk, and adding some aesthetically pleasing nicknacks for a final accenting touch.
Main points of interest…
Wall of Us: every year Josh and I get pictures taken of us right around our anniversary.
I got this chandelier from my Grandma Hagberg. She has several of these in her summer home and bequeathed one to me last summer when I visited. It came to me looking pretty shabby (before and after pics later) so I cleaned it up and gave it a new paint job. I also ripped out the wiring and converted it to a candle chandelier.
Those double doors are a friends and family favorite. When we were considering moving into this lower level house apartment all doorways were open. I told our potential landlord that we loved the place but couldn’t move in unless we had doors for the bedrooms. He found the rustic set hiding in the basement and the darker set at an antique store. He was going to refinish the rustic doors but we asked him to keep them as is 🙂
The stuff…
Remaking Home posts to come… Music Room, A Sunshine Moment Photography Studio, A Summary (including bathroom, kitchen, and storage room), and Before & After
Monday: Josh and I got a “get all the winter residue off the car” wash.
Tuesday: Shoes + legwarmers + tights = it’s spring again!
Wednesday: Project Homemaker – a snap of the living room I made (full blog post coming soon).
Thursday: I’m selling my 35mm. Interested? CLICK HERE
Friday: Project Homemaker – I refurbished this chandelier It was a gift from my grandma that I fixed up with a little paint and rewiring! (Full blog post coming soon.)
Saturday: Becky and I did our 6ish month maternity session! (PREVIEW coming this week.) CLICK HERE to see the 3ish month session we did together 🙂
Sunday: I planted my garden and, while I was at it, felt this little guy deserved a bigger vessel to spread his cramped little roots. This plant means a lot to me. It’s the one plant still living from the basket of plants I was given from my grandpa’s funeral last year. Cute little bugger isn’t he? Maybe he’ll actually get bigger now that he’ll have some more room 🙂
Monday: For a mid Redeemed Tour getaway the Calhoun clan made for the hilly countryside of Galena, IL. Our first moonlit night.
Tuesday: Burgers for dinner and Ava was a little hesitant to partake. After one bite she was in love though 😉
Wednesday: A family walk at dusk.
Thursday: Savannah’s birthday breakfast!
The full blog post of the Calhoun’s in Galena, IL is coming soon.
Friday: I stopped in at Acacia Organics for a press shot featuring the Passion Art Walk. I posed with my piece, the store owners, and my hubs. I snapped a shot of the piece while I was there (full blog post coming soon).
Saturday: Josh and Ben from Citizen Way played the Catlow for the Passion Art Walk (full blog post coming soon).
Sunday: A resurrection sort of sunrise on Easter Sunday 🙂
Musings of a Musician's Wife 