Many benevolent icons of childhood innocence are universally adored faces of capitalism and greed.

Father Christmas rewards well-behaved children with expensive gifts, the Tooth Fairy marks the loss of an incisor with money under the pillow and the Easter Bunny reduces a Christian festival to a carnival of cocoa-smothered excess.

So it seems fitting that the computer-animated Rise Of The Guardians should imagine a world in which children suddenly stop believing in these idols. Without proof in the form of material or financial reward, impressionable young minds turn their backs on centuries of myth and legend.

Based on The Guardians Of Childhood book series by William Joyce, Peter Ramsey’s entertaining family-oriented film is a timely reminder that there are many things without rigorous scientific proof that still touch our hearts.

Screening in 3D in selected cinemas, Rise Of The Guardians boasts a mix of action, adventure and comedy – the latter courtesy of Santa’s army of expressive elves – to stoke younger audiences’ sense of wonder as they stuff their faces with popcorn.

The film is narrated by Jack Frost (voiced by Chris Pine), who emerges from a frozen lake without any memory of the past.

Rise Of The Guardians unfolds at a brisk pace, leaving scant time for in-depth characterisation between the eye-popping action sequences.

Visuals lack the meticulous detail and complexity of Pixar’s recent offerings but colour radiates from the screen and director Ramsey combines the various elements with confidence.

FOUR STARS