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| Rise of the Guardians |
Dreamwork's "Rise of the Guardians" conjures the Ancient Greek pearl "know thyself" in order to believe in yourself.
For everything else is just layers of who you are but what is at your core will guide you towards your purpose in this life. It is only there that you follow the Shakespearean pearl and be true to yourself ("to thine own self be true"). Once connected with your purpose, your life will flow truly north.
Rise of the Guardians is a magical wonderful ride delivering the perfect mixture of wonder and enchantment bringing our best known fantasy figures to life in a truly amazing way.
The Man on the Moon, who is the emotional and intuitive guidepost, draws out its newest chosen one to rise to the ranks of the Guardians. There are currently four Guardians - the Tooth Fairy, Sandman, Easter Bunny and Santa.
Each one tasked with the specific purpose of protecting one innocent virtue of childhood. Each dependent upon children to believe in them in order to exist. That's not too much pressure.
I loved watching the takes on these characters and peering into their worlds. The Tooth Fairy is part human/part fairy and protects the childhood memories stored in the teeth (brilliant!) they collect. The Sandman, (who I haven't thought about since I was a child) aka Sandy, is the protector of dreams/imagination. The Easter Bunny is from down under and protects hope. This version of Santa, aka North, and his workshop is a laugh riot and North protects wonder.
The film is visually beautiful and hits you right in your childhood center. Like a Tootsie Pop, it may take a few scenes before you let down your guard and find your own space of wonder and belief. Once you let go and view the Film with your child eyes, it captures your heart.
My son loved Jack Frost. Jack didn't know his purpose but provided so much joy for others, he like invented snow balls and snow days! Yet for hundreds of years Jack was invisible and unknown to the children and not given credit for his talents. Jack forgot his purpose and why he was chosen by the Man on the Moon.
We spend our adult lives searching to reconnect with our core. That essence of who we are and what we are born with that shines through our personality the strongest. The trusting nature of childhood permits imagination and reality to be one in the same. Instead of letting that essence continue to shine and blossom most of us work our children away from their core and into acceptable standard issue molds.
Children and parents alike experience the beautiful balance of wanting to be accepted and believed in for being exactly who we are. We spend our lives seeking validation for what we know to be at our core yet when you are fully connected to your core, validation is no longer required. Our talents do not cease to exist even if they are invisible to others.
Discovering your personal brand of truth may require a dismantling of your beliefs, particularly the beliefs you hold about yourself.
Fear is a belief system. Fear disconnects and distracts us from our truth and has staying power when our logical minds prove just how irrational our beliefs are. When there lies doubt, a vulnerability exposes an opening for fear.
Pitch (aka the Boogie Man) is an amazing representative of the shadow world within us all that balances out our human experience. It's the fear which can consume us and turn our dreams into nightmares.
Like the Guardians, Pitch also wants to be accepted and prove his existence in the only way he knows how, by being himself. Pitch can't help but turn the world to darkness and prey upon children's fears. Don't blame him, it's just his nature (or perhaps nurture from bad parenting). Pitch is scary because he manipulates fear to disprove our beliefs and create a new belief system based upon hopelessness and despair.
So what's a guardian to do to rise up against this threat to their belief system? The only thing they can, be themselves.
SPOILER ALERT: Pitch turns the children's dreams into nightmares by defeating the Sandman (brace yourself and your children to see one of the guardians defeated) and almost succeeds in his mission said for one boy, one boy who still believes that the Guardians exist.
The power of one. One believer can eradicate the darkness with a speck of light.
This world can be filled with wonder and lightness or darkness, it just depends on which way you choose to see it. What if it was as simple as having fun, beholding the world with a sense of wonder, remembering our childhood, wishing upon a star and chasing your dreams?
Rise of the Guardians is a wonderful holiday family movie.
One thing is for certain, I'll never be able to convince my son now that Santa "isn't real" because what he and the other Guardians stand for is very much alive. I pray that God does a fleet of guardians to protect my own sense adventure to seek out the wonder, hope and imagination of this wonderful world so that I may too rise up to help my children protect theirs. :)
Mommas Pearls Meter: 4 Wonderful Pearls
RISE OF THE GUARDIANS
Dreamworks, Rated PG
Directed by Peter Ramsey
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Purchase via Amazon
Copyright © 2012 Cynthia Litman d/b/a Tigris Imprints. All Rights Reserved.
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