Rise of the Guardians is a 2012 American animated science fantasy action-adventure film produced by DreamWorks Animation. The film was directed by Peter Ramsey from a screenplay by David Lindsay-Abaire, based on the book series The Guardians of Childhood and the short film The Man in the Moon by William Joyce. It stars the voices of Chris Pine, Alec Baldwin, Jude Law, Isla Fisher, Hugh Jackman and Dakota Goyo. The film tells a story about Guardians Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and the Sandman, who enlist Jack Frost to stop the Pitch Black from engulfing the world in darkness in a fight of dreams.

Rise of the Guardians premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival on October 10, 2012, and was theatrically released in the United States by Paramount Pictures on November 21. The film received mixed reviews from critics, and despite grossing $306.9 million worldwide against a budget of $145 million, it was a failure at the box-office and lost the studio an estimated $87 million due to marketing and distribution costs. It was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film and the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature.

Jack Frost emerges from a frozen pond with amnesia and finds himself invisible to the mortal realm. Though he knows the Man in the Moon played a part in his transformation, the moon does not provide any answers as to why he has been turned into "Jack Frost". Three centuries later, the Man in the Moon alerts Nicholas St. North to the return of Pitch Black, who threatens to plague children with nightmares. North rallies his fellow Guardians, E. Aster Bunnymund, Sanderson Mansnoozie, and Toothiana, and they discover that Jack has been chosen to join their ranks. Jack gets kidnapped by Bunny and transported to the North Pole, where he learns from North that every Guardian has a "center", something they foster in children. Jack knows nothing of his center and resists the call to become a Guardian.

Meanwhile, North gets a message from Toothiana that her palace is under attack. The Guardians and Jack Frost manage to chase away Pitch, but not before Pitch kidnaps Tooth's subordinate fairies and steals all of the teeth, weakening children's belief in Tooth. Jack learns that every baby tooth holds the childhood memories of its owner, and may help him find out more about his past, motivating him to help Toothiana. To counter Pitch's plan, the other Guardians and Jack embark on a mission to collect teeth from children themselves. In their quest, they visit Jamie Bennett, a young boy who, still clinging to his belief, sees all of them except for Jack. On their way back to the North Pole, Pitch's Nightmares attack the Guardians and Sandy is killed.

With Easter approaching, the Guardians travel to Bunny's Warren and assist in the egg-coloring preparations. An unknown voice lures Jack to Pitch's lair, where he finds his teeth. Pitch distracts Jack long enough for the Nightmares to destroy all the Easter eggs, causing children to stop believing in Bunny. Jack flees to Antarctica, where Pitch, after attempting to persuade Jack to join him, breaks his magic staff and throws him into a chasm. Unlocking the memories within his teeth, Jack learns that he was once a human who sacrificed himself to save his younger sister. Inspired, he repairs his staff and rescues the kidnapped fairies.

Thanks to Pitch, every child in the world has stopped believing except Jamie, drastically weakening the Guardians. Finding Jamie's belief wavering, Jack makes it snow in his bedroom, restoring his faith in the Guardians and making Jamie the first person to believe in him. Jack realizes that his center is fun and uses it to gather Jamie's friends, play, and diminish their fear, which bolsters the Guardians and resurrects Sandy. The children's dreams prove stronger than the Nightmares, who turn on Pitch and drag him to the underworld. Jack finally accepts his place as the Guardian of Fun.

In 2005, William Joyce and Reel FX launched a joint venture, Aimesworth Amusements, to produce CG-animated feature films, one of which was set to be The Guardians of Childhood, based on Joyce's idea. The film was not realized, but they did create a short animated film, The Man in the Moon, directed by Joyce, which introduced the Guardians idea, and served as an inspiration for the film.

Early in 2008, Joyce sold the film rights to DreamWorks Animation, after the studio assured him it would respect his vision for the characters and that he would be involved with the creative process. In November 2009, it was revealed that DreamWorks had hired Peter Ramsey to make his feature debut as director of what was then titled The Guardians, and playwright David Lindsay-Abaire to write the script, Lindsay-Abaire previously co-wrote the screenplay for Robots, which Joyce previously produced. The next month, Leonardo DiCaprio was announced to make his animated feature film debut as the lead character of the film—tentatively titled The Guardians—Jack Frost. DiCaprio would later leave the project for undisclosed reasons. Joyce acted as a co-director for the first few years, but left this position after the death of his daughter Mary Katherine, who died from complications relating to her brain cancer positive diagnosis in May 2010. Joyce continued to work on the film only as an executive producer, while Ramsey took the helm solo as a full-time director, making him the first African American to direct a big-budget CG animated film as well as making it one of the first DreamWorks films to have only one director instead of two and not have a co-director. As with some previous DreamWorks films, Guillermo del Toro came on board to join Joyce as an executive producer. Present almost from the beginning, he was able to help shape the story, character design, theme and structure of the film. He said he was proud that the filmmakers were making parts of the film "dark and moody and poetic," and expressed hope this might "set a different tone for family movies, for entertainment movies." The final title, Rise of the Guardians was announced in early 2011, along with the first cast.