‘Rise of the Guardians’ is the type of film I would have loved watching as a kid. It features a team that consists of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and the Sandman. Together, the Guardians of Childhood, as they are called, they spend their days bringing joy and happiness to children. Based on William Joyce’s The Guardians of Childhood book series, what we get is an ‘Avengers’ style film for the kiddos.

The most famous characters are set in the background while Jack Frost is front and center as the hero. Frost (voiced by Chris Pine), a mischievous boy who has the ability to control cold weather, becomes the newest member of The Guardians just in time, as a great evil suddenly returns. This villain is Pitch, aka the Boogeyman (Jude Law), who’s tired of spending his days in isolation with kids no longer afraid of him. His goal is to spread darkness to the world and fill children’s dreams with fear. Jack Frost has similar jealousy issues with the Guardians as well; every child knows of Santa or the Tooth Fairy, but none know, or care about, Jack Frost. The story follows Jack’s attempts to fit in with the Guardians while at the same time retaliate against Pitch and his army of darkness.

The childhood heroes depicted here are quite different from any previous incarnation. Santa has a thick Russian accent, has tattoos on his body, and is known as North (Alec Baldwin). The Easter Bunny, known as E. Aster Bunny (Hugh Jackman), is apparently Australian and fights with a boomerang. The Tooth Fairy, aka Tooth (Isla Fisher), is a hummingbird-human hybrid with an army of birds, and they store children’s memories in the teeth they collect. Sandy the Sandman is a mute who can make anything he wants out of sand, only limited by his imagination, Green Lantern style.

Choosing to re-imagine these childhood favorites is a wise decision as their new history and designs are rich and interesting. Every inch of this world is full of life and color, from Bunny’s Alice in Wonderland-esque land of tunnels, psychedelic flowers, and hundreds of eggs, to Tooth’s land of rainbow-colored birds. And Sandy’s sand creations are beautiful to look at.

This film utilizes 3D in the typical fashion, during roller coaster-like sleigh or tunnel rides with the camera constantly zipping up and down or side to side. Since these heroes have powers there are a couple of kinetic fight scenes that take advantage of the 3D’s extra depth.

As gorgeous and imaginative as ‘Rise of the Guardians’ is, I’m not too sure what type of audience they’re really gearing towards. The plot is a little darker and more serious than traditional children’s films, leaving less room for laughs, but it’s also too paper thin for older audiences to enjoy. It spends most of its 97-minute running time showing off its visuals and churning out its morals of belief and childhood imagination. More time should have been spent exploring the wonderful worlds the filmmakers, including director Peter Ramsey and producer Guillermo del Toro, created.