Jack Frost's Heroine's Journey
So I saw Rise of the Guardians on lookingatthepieces‘s recommendation, and on the whole, I liked it very, very much. And, wow, talk about a textbook case of Heroine’s Journey. Like Flutie catnip. :)
Let’s step through it stage by stage, shall we?
Needless to say, there are Super Duper Plot Spoilers behind the break:
Just saw this movie, and I loved it! And this certainly helps explain why I liked it so much, beyond my initial incoherent fangirling. I do find myself disagreeing on one point, though. I didn’t really see the Tooth Fairy as the love interest; in fact, I didn’t really think there was any love interest at all.
I saw the Tooth Fairy more as a maternal or possibly big sister figure. She’s the Keeper of Memories, collecting children’s baby teeth which hold precious childhood memories. At one point, she’s seen Jack’s. She mentioned that to him while explaining why she collects teeth. And there was also the scene when she first met him. She fangirls over his teeth, which could mean she’d seen baby versions of them before. My mind automatically made the connection to older maternal figure. Because who else remembers your childhood and (probably) collected your baby teeth? Your mother.
And then, there’s the age difference. My memory’s already a little fuzzy on this, so someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I think Jack has been around for 300 years, not counting the time when he was human. I’m fairly certain that, when asked, the Tooth Fairy said the last time she was ‘out in the field’ collecting teeth herself was something like 400 years ago. And if we assume that she was doing that for a while, then there’s quite a bit of difference in their ages. I’m not sure this is really relevant to the ‘not a romance’ argument, as they are immortal beings, but it definitely sways me more toward a mother-child relationship than a romantic one.
I don’t think the lack of romance detracted from the overall movie. It would be, at best, a side plot and, at worst, something that they tried to shoehorn in just for the sake of having a romance. For a movie about finding one’s purpose in life and the journey to self discovery, I don’t think romance is a necessary component.
Or, I could be completely delusional and they’ll be canon by the next movie (if there is a next movie).
Definitely a fair point. And I admit, I struggled with how to classify Tooth, because her and Jack's relationship does come off as fairly un-romantic in the movie. Yet, while she seems like a Mother figure to the tooth fairies, she doesn't strike me as particularly motherly to Jack in particular -- plus there was that awkward bit at the end, the "do we hug, or not?" moment you typically see given to love interests.
Also, I can't quote scenes because I've only seen the movie once, but in Tooth's introduction, I got the impression that, while she discourages her own fairies from fangirling about Jack in his presence, she crushes on him just as much as they do -- she's just trying to hide it from him.