If turkey puts you in a tryptophan coma this week, the frenetic "Rise of the Guardians" might be just the thing to get your pulse racing again.

"Guardians" is all over the map quality-wise, but one thing about it is consistent: Its pace never lets up. That's probably because the movie, much like this year's more successful "The Avengers," tries to do a lot.

It's an adventure story that unites several iconic characters, and because we don't know much about a couple of the icons (sure, we know Jack Frost nips at our noses, but then what?), it also has to fill us in on their origins before it can even get started.


Along the way, "Rise of the Guardians" is enlivened by an entertaining array of accents (in addition to Law, there's Alec Baldwin's Slavic Santa and Hugh Jackman's Aussie bunny) and by inventive character design (the exception being the weird-looking "Guardians" kids, one of whom looks like a competitor in "RuPaul's Drag Race: Children's Edition").


"Guardians" was inspired by illustrator/writer William Joyce, whose work, such as the book "Dinosaur Bob" and the Oscar-winning short "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore," is unfailingly inventive. That may be why it's the simplest things that work best in "Guardians," things like the way the mute Sandman communicates via clever Pictionary-like drawings.


-- Chris Hewitt


Directed by: Peter Ramsey

Starring: Voices of Alec Baldwin, Jude Law, Isla Fisher

Rated: PG

Should you go? It's not fantastic, but it's fun, and it's the one of the few family films coming out this holiday season. **-1/2