Hugh Jackman's 2012 fantasy movie Rise of the Guardians is proving popular on Netflix, with the film becoming the third most-watched English-language movie on the streaming platform this week.
Based on the book The Guardians of Childhood by William Joyce, the animated film centres on a group of immortal guardians – such as Santa Claus (Alec Baldwin), the Easter Bunny (Jackman) and the Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher) – who have been protecting the world's children from darkness and despair for generations.
However, when an evil boogeyman named Pitch Black (Jude Law) plans overthrow the Guardians by obliterating children's belief in them, it falls to a winter sprite named Jack Frost (Chris Pine) to save the day.
Rise of the Guardians is currently the third most-watched English-language movie on Netflix in the past week with over 5.4 million views, coming in behind adventure film Alpha and Sofia Carson's new rom-com The Life List.
The film performed pretty well with critics, earning it a 'Certified Fresh' score of 75% on Rotten Tomatoes from 160 reviews.
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"A sort of Avengers for the elementary school set, Rise of the Guardians is wonderfully animated and briskly paced, but it's only so-so in the storytelling department," reads the site's critical consensus.
Pine also compared the movie to the Avengers ahead of its release, telling Digital Spy at the time: "Credit to Bill Joyce for coming up with an idea that I think we all wish we had.
"All these characters our parents taught us about as children and the idea that they may know one another, and are kind of like The Avengers for children. I think it's a brilliant idea."
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In other news, Jackman is currently taking part in a 12-show residency at New York's Radio City Music Hall.
Titled From New York With Love, the show features some of the actor's iconic roles from musicals including The Greatest Showman, Les Misérables, The Boy From Oz and The Music Man, plus some special "surprises" for fans.
The show began in January and is continuing through select weekends in April, May, June and July, before closing on August 16. Tickets are available to purchase via Ticketmaster.
Social Executive, Entertainment Portfolio After completing her joint honours degree in Journalism and English Literature at Cardiff University, Iona joined Digital Spy as a Content Production Intern in 2022, where she wrote across both news and features, specialising in TV and movies. Following her internship, Iona continued contributing to the site as a freelance reporter, becoming social executive for the Hearst UK entertainment portfolio in summer 2025. Iona now leads the DS social channels, covering red carpets with stars such as Paul Mescal, Austin Butler, and more.
