I’m really excited for this, it seems like it could reach the same level of success as How to Train Your Dragon. The art direction seems solid (aside from the character designs), and I really like their interpretation of Santa . They seem to be playing the idea pretty straight which is a step in the right direction, and I generally enjoy William Joyce’s work. I’m hoping for the best for this.
I’m not sure if I’ll like this that much. With KFP and HTTYD there were two protagonists at the heart of the film, and I’m not sure yet what’s at the heart of this film! Besides spreading cheer with magic and holidays and stuff. It looks like a pretty entertaining film, and I’m anxious to learn more about it. Where’s the white-haired fella voiced by Chris Pine?
I’m going to sound like a broken record saying this, but I’m not crazy about some of the designs. The original illustrations in the book are fine, though.
DreamWorks Shark Lawyers Bully Small Businessman and Rightful Rights-Holder
Orlando, Florida – September 27, 2012 –
Dreamworks Animation (DWA) has produced a new film ‘Rise of the Guardians’ in which the Guardians help keep kids safe. Steve Ruff started a board game 16 years to teach kids how to be safe. A film was made of this in 2006 for release in 2013. Owners of “The Guardians” full common law trademark rights took their game and its characters on the Rosie O’Donnell Show; won awards including the FBI’s “safety game of choice” and endorsements from McGruff the Crime Dog. In all, “The Guardians” were featured on board games utilized in schools and churches throughout the nation, on t-shirts and pajamas.
The rights holder believes this film will hurt his properties by confusing the public. The rights holder contacted DWA to come to an agreement to use the name and was threatened by DWA with legal against him! This is a true David and Goliath story against a small company. Steve Ruff believes his rights have been hurt and now if he pursues his legal rights, he will be crushed by a legal team. This will not stop them. They will pursue to protect their property against financial intimidation. DWA’s attorney in the matter, Chris Miller fights to protect his companies intellectual property, but when DWA infringes on someone else, he switches roles and makes sure they can’t protect their intellectual property.
‘Rise of the Guardians’ should be called ‘Rise of the Lawyers.’
Dreamworks did this before and lost.
The 1998 case of Dreamwerks vs Dreamworks. A brief synopsis: when
Dreamworks was founded, a company called Dreamwerks was already in existence. Dreamwerks brought a trademark infringement case against Dreamworks for what they believed was a “confusingly similar” name. The appeals court agreed and ruled that Dreamwerks had common law rights to their name and that plaintiff would be damaged by Dreamworks superior financial power and marketing –essentially ruling that a smaller/senior company can be afforded trademark protection even if against a much larger/newer company.
Creators of “The Guardians” ask for the public’s support and help boycotting DWA’s Rise of the
Guardians and all related products/merchandise as a show of strength that the “little guy” can not always be pushed around. Please sign the petition here at boycottguardiansmovie.com/. Even though DWA is infinitely bigger, the intellectual property embodied in “The Guardians” deserves the same strength of protection that DWA has asserted over its own property time and time again. Smaller companies should not be subject to corporate bullying and retaliatory litigation threats if they attempt to assert their rightful claims against infringement.
This was a wonderful film, up there with Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon as some of DWA’s best work. Great story and characters, beautifully crafted on the tech front, and full of magic and wit–what else could you want?
Non-speaking characters are often the scene-stealers in animated films, and Sandman is no exception to the “rule.” It would be tough to pick which Guardian was the most interesting, although Santa and the Bunny have been done before (but differently here), not so much the others.
ROTG’s modest box-office success so far is a head-scratcher, unless teen viewers have been lured away to Twilight and Bond. It would be great if Christmas good will and maybe an Oscar nomination (then win?) helped out on the business front.
I was really impressed with this movie. The (relatively) low Rotten Tomatoes rating turned me off for a while but when I watched it I was surprised how good it was. The animation is beautiful and it really evokes a child-like wonder in a way that most movies don’t even attempt anymore. The second act feels a little episodic/unfocused and I don’t like the villain too much, but it’s probably my favorite Dreamworks movie behind HTTYD.
I kinda would like to see this, mainly because I’m a dork and I just wanna see Capt Kirk (Chris Pine) voicing Jack Frost. But the movie itself does look interesting.
I wasn’t especially excited at first but now I very much want to see this.
I was going to get to see it today, but the rain prevented us from doing that.
I’m sad it’s not doing as well at the box office as it could be.
I’ve heard really good things about this from friends, but not great things from critics. I don’t have too high expectations from it because I wasn’t impressed by the trailers. When I do see the film, I hope that I am prove wrong.
I’m probably gonna miss seeing “Avengers, Childhood-Heroes-Style” in cinemas, seeing it’s down to barely a few screens and I need dough to rewatch Wreck-It-Ralph and maybe Jackie Chan’s action swansong CZ12 and Les Miserables.
Hmmm… mighty tempted, EJE. The regular film critic at my paper also recommended RotG over Wreck-It-Ralph to me too. If it’s still showing in cinemas on New Year’s Eve (my day off, journalists have their holidays one day before everyone else), I’ll see if I can catch a session. It might be on its last legs now, though, so I’m not sure if there will be any halls left in Singapore by Monday.
I would recommend RotG to anyone who enjoyed How to Train Your Dragon or Kung Fu Panda. Although they’re by no means identical in approach, the three share tone in a way that’s outside the “usual” DreamWorks approach. If memory serves, Guillermo del Toro was involved with KFP2 and RotG, which might be part of an answer.
I saw Guardians in the cinema. I really wasn’t expecting much, as I am definitely not a fan of Dreamworks. I just personally find their films cringey and they lack a certain emotion or charm, at least for me.
It was… Better than I expected. The animation was quite nice, although as some people already brought out the character designs could’ve been a little better. Wasn’t crazy about the story but they pulled it off fairly well. They continued their streak of pop culture-less films, which is a major boost. Overall, while I way much prefer Wreck-It Ralph, Guardians is up there with HTTYD as my favourite Dreamworks film. I don’t like Guardians or HTTYD that much, but they’re decent films.
. They seem to be playing the idea pretty straight which is a step in the right direction, and I generally enjoy William Joyce’s work. I’m hoping for the best for this.