Rise of the Guardians rises above its competition

When I first saw the trailers for this film, I was filled with both skepticism and excitement.  The trailer seemed to promise to combine several of my favorite film themes: epic fantasy, folklore, and humor.  This could be very good...or a disaster.  Dreamworks Animation doesn't have a great track record this year (or in past years for that matter).  I knew I would eventually see it, but wasn't really excited to see it until the folks over at collider.com liked it and made particular mention that there weren't any fart jokes in it.

SYNOPSIS
The children's legends Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Sandman, and the Tooth Fairy are the Guardians: protectors of children's happiness.  A new threat has presented itself in which the fun-loving Jack Frost is chosen to join the Guardians to help protect the children of the world.

REVIEW
This movie was the best thing to come out of Dreamworks animation since How To Train Your Dragon.  The story is epic as I hoped it would be.  It's very funny and is even touching at points.  It's the closest that Dreamworks has come to the Pixar formula.  But, it's not quite Pixar quality.

The voice acting was better than How To Train Your Dragon, IMO.  Chris Pine as Jack Frost really showed subtlety and made you feel his conflict.  Hugh Jackman using his native Australian accent was brilliant.  Alec Baldwin's Russian Santa Claus was over hyped and didn't really do much for me.

The music was forgettable.  Although the climax was well scored.

CONCLUSION
It was a very enjoyable film.  It's quite a shame that it's not doing better at the box office (I think it came in 4th this long weekend).  3.5/5 Stars.