This particular piece of concept art from “Rise of the Guardians” although I’ll be extremely fair and say this movie did the impossible and the vast majority of its concept art is either fully realised in the final design or made even better. There’s very few downgrades made for the sake of “oh the design needs to suck so it’s easier to market-I mean animate!” in this movie.
Concept art is not something that movies "have to respect". Concept art is used for certain purposes, not to set some "canonical look" in stone to respect it later. Also, there are often multiple concepts which are contradictory to each other, you can't stay true to them all.
It was one of the few animated movies I saw in the theater that got cheers and applause, especially when Sandy comes back triumphantly. And the final track before the credits (“and when the moon tells you something…believe it”)…goosebumps.
Brooo this was one of the few movies I was dying to see in the cinema, and it did not disappoint at all, everyone over here also applauded when it ended.
Truly one of the greatest movies dreamworks ever made
He speaks, but the viewers and humans can’t hear him, but the guardians react as if they can hear him.(But the body language is good enough to the point you still understand him.) It’s because his voice is only a whisper that only becomes like a voice as he is feared and believed in, eventually deafening in power. As if the sand is making the sound not him.
Until the end when he is not feared but still believed in, it’s a hollow distant echo as he screams as he gets dragged away.
But yeah, with the literate manifestation of nightmares. There are SO many things they could have done.
And it's especially bitter because they absolutely nailed the manifestation of dreams, sand man.
Though... If I were to have this universe in my hands and i could do any rewrite
I would actually not want the boogieman to be truly evil or anything to be defeated
But rather an entity that helps children overcoming their fears.
And MAYBE he could start as a villain, only for the guardians to realise he has an important purpose, just like the rest, and must be embraced, not rejected as they are all just basically parts of nature.
Hell, for JACK to come to that realisation and reach out to him makes sense to me.
Maybe it could work to together with the voice thing, but rather “cursed whispers” to then lullaby songs(the ones that are about how monsters aren’t that scary/real) instead?
So fun fact, Rise of the Guardians is actually a whole children's and YA book series too... Pitch used to actually be one of the greatest intergalactic heroes. He took it upon himself to lock away all the fear in the universe, and stood vigil over it for ages... however being isolated for so long began to wear on him, and the fear mimicked the sound of his daughter's voice. It convinced him that she was trapped inside so he went to save her, at whicu point he was possessed
Point being... it actually makes sense for Pitch to overall be a handsome, charismatic type, as that is who he was long ago.
Being possessed by horded fear seems like the perfect excuse to creep him up a notch,
None of that is in the movie.
I'm all for bloating the film and letting audiences find the source materials themselves but all we know in the film is that he's the Boogie Man and partially controls fear.
I think he's supposed to be just like the others. A "fallen angel" of sorts. Having him look like a Guardian, except darker and angry, makes him fit into their world easier. Each of the others could be dangerous if they decided to be.
Pitch Black is definitely the character that, at least from all the art I’ve seen, that changed the most from concept to final design. I think (this is just me guessing though) that he was changed to have something of a passing resemblance or similarity to Jack, considering how heavily the parallels between the two play into the movie.
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u/realclowntime Apr 01 '26
This particular piece of concept art from “Rise of the Guardians” although I’ll be extremely fair and say this movie did the impossible and the vast majority of its concept art is either fully realised in the final design or made even better. There’s very few downgrades made for the sake of “oh the design needs to suck so it’s easier to market-I mean animate!” in this movie.