With DreamWorks Animation's Rise of the Guardians opening November 21, we've been provided with a new featurette called "Making Dreamsand."  In the video, you can see how the filmmakers were able to bring Sandman's powers to life.  If you're not familiar with the story, it  revolves around the rebellious Jack Frost (Chris Pine) teaming up with other mythical figures North aka Santa Claus (Alec Baldwin), E. Aster Bunnyman aka Easter Bunny (Hugh Jackman), Tooth aka The Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher), and the Sandman to battle the evil Pitch (Jude Law).

I got to see the finished film the other day at DreamWorks in Glendale and it's really well done.  Not only is the animation great to look at, it's got a strong story that's character driven and it doesn't rely on stupid jokes.  In addition, unlike most films that spend half the time introducing characters by explaining their origin and showing off their powers, what's fantastic about Rise of the Guardians is we join almost everyone in the middle of the story.  I wish more "origin" stories would do this.  Hit the jump for more.

Besides getting to see the film at DreamWorks, I spent half the day with a small group of online reporters as we were shown how the film came to life and we also spoke to the filmmakers.  In about a week you can expect to see a video blog I recorded with Devin from Bad Ass Digest after seeing the film.  We will also have some choice quotes from Guillermo del Toro (who produced the film), director Peter Ramsey and a few others.  Until then, here's the new featurette and a ton of images and posters.

click on any image for high-res

Click here for all our previous Rise of the Guardians coverage.