Alec Baldwin, Chris Pine and Isla Fisher, who lent their voices to the film about iconic figures like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, liken it to “The Avengers.”

Alec Baldwin called them “the Justice League of childhood.” Actress Isla Fisher called them the “animated Avengers.” They are the Guardians, the title characters in the 3D animated movie Rise of the Guardians, that DreamWorks Animation will open stateside Nov. 21.

In what has become an annual tradition for the Burbank, Ca.-based studio, DWA is using the Cannes Film Festival to show off its latest wares to the assembled international press. On Friday, DWA’s summer release Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted will get the full red-carpet treatment when it screens at the Palais. And as a sort of curtain-raiser, on Wednesday morning as the festival was just getting under way, the studio staged a press event of its own to show off footage from Guardians.

Introducing the show-and-tell, DWA CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg credited author and illustrator William Joyce for the project’s genesis. It all began when Joyce’s daughter asked him if any of the characters that fuel kids’ imaginations – Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy – had ever met. “You’re going to hear the answers to that today,” Katzenberg said.

Director Peter Ramsey then took the stage to lay out how the movie, based on Joyce’s The Guardians of Childhood book series, has reinvented the iconic characters: Santa Claus is North, a big guy, with a booming, Russian-inflected accent voiced by Baldwin; the Easter Bunny becomes the tunnel-travelling Bunnymund, voiced by Hugh Jackman; ToothFairy is a half-hummingbird, half-human creature to whom Fisher lends her voice; and the Sandman is a silent character, who Ramsay described as “a cross between Harpo Marx and Bhudda.” In the movie, they are joined by a new recruit, Jack Frost, voiced by Chris Pine, as they all do battle with the Boogeyman, who goes by the name of Pitch and is voiced by Jude Law.

After showing select scenes from the film that set up the characters and plot, Ramsey was joined by Baldwin, Fisher and Pine, who all earnestly offered testimonials on the film’s behalf.

“It reminds you of old, old animated cells,” Baldwin said of the movie’s look. “It’s very beautiful, arresting.”

“It shows the joy of imagination,” Pine added.

Ramsey explained that as the filmmakers – who include Guillermo del Toro, who served as an executive producer – developed the film, they constantly asked themselves what sort of film it was. Is it a fairy tale?, they asked themselves, until Del Toro offered, “It’s a superhero movie where the superheroes get their powers from belief.”

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The wife of Sacha Baron Cohen says she doesn’t live a “normal” life with The Dictator actor.

Actress Isla Fisher married him in 2010 and although she admits “it’s not a normal life to lead,” she does love it.

Fisher says: “Obviously it’s not pleasant to say to your husband – instead of ‘Did you pick up the dry cleaning?’ or ‘Did you pick up someone from a play date?’ – ‘Oh wow are we getting sued? Has anyone put a death threat on us?’”

The couple have two young daughters and in 2009 it was reported that Baron Cohen had received death threats due to controversy over his gay fashionista character Bruno.

With that in mind, and being the person closest to him, does Isla Fisher ever feel she can censor the words that come out of Sacha Baron Cohen’s creations?

“Oh, of course,” Fisher reveals. “There’s a lot of, ‘Oh my gosh, no you cannot say that! We’re friends with that person, blah, blah, blah, no!’”

She still feels that’s just a natural aspect to their relationship.

“I think all married couples tend to run things by each other in every capacity and we’re not different to them.”
The Dictator and his beard

If you were to describe Baron Cohen’s latest comic incarnation as a fragrance, it may be fair to say the Dictator, Admiral General Aladeen, reeks of Saddam Hussein, with undertones of Colonel Gaddafi and a top note of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

One bonus for Fisher on this project though was that she did get her husband back at the end of a day’s filming.

“The good news is the beard came off in the evening,” she smiles remembering. “So I did not have to look at the beard, unlike the Borat handlebar moustache which I was saddled with for months and months.”

Fisher doesn’t think there is any one scene that will mightily offend the masses in The Dictator movie, but has she ever had any cringing moments watching Baron Cohen’s films with, say her in-laws or parents?

“No, luckily no one ever really says anything, what they really think,” she admits before laughing off the thought.

As you’d expect, Fisher wholeheartedly supports Baron Cohen’s film choices and finds his latest work the most appealing.

“I love it (The Dictator). It’s the funniest movie he’s made, I think by a long way, and it’s also really sweet. There’s a love story and I like to see him, like in Hugo, showing that side of him, creatively it’s great.”

The Dictator is released in the UK on 16 May.

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018 x Public Appearances > 2012 > “Rise of the Guardians” Q&A With Talent And Filmmakers at Cannes Film Festival – 05.16.12