Kozmotis Pitchiner, better known as Pitch Black, is the main antagonist of DreamWorks' 25th full-length animated feature film Rise of the Guardians.

He is the cunning and manipulative boogeyman who plots to make children forget their favoured trio of world-bringing Guardians and send the world into "eternal darkness", an era where fear is the only thing that can be felt anywhere by anyone. He is The Guardian’s sworn archenemy including being the arch-nemesis of Jack Frost and his counterpart Sandman.

He was voiced by Jude Law, who also played Harlen Maguire in Road to Perdition, the second transformation of Tony Shepard in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, King Vortigern in King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Yon-Rogg in Captain Marvel and James Hook in the live-action Peter Pan remake. In the videogame adaptation of the film, he was voiced by Fabio Tassone.

History[]

Past[]

Pitch Black was originally a powerful master of terror due to humanity's great fear and terror of the dark in the times before the Guardians. But after the Man in the Moon chose and sent the Guardians to give light and happiness and hope to the children of the world, children lost their misery and fear of the Boogeyman, causing Pitch's power to wane until his existence was so fragile that he could not be seen or heard. This lonely existence, in comparison to the Guardians of Childhood who are loved and believed in all over the world, caused Pitch to harbor a bitter hatred for the Guardians.

Rise of the Guardians[]

For centuries, Pitch searched for a way to strike against his foes. Eventually, he found a way to transform the Sandman's dreams into nightmares, which are monstrous horses that he controls.

Pitch attacks what gives the Guardians their power: children's belief in them. He kidnaps the Tooth fairy's army of fairies to stop her from collecting teeth, but the other Guardians help her perform her duties. Seeing that more direct action is in order, Pitch battles against the Guardians, and manages to overwhelm the Sandman with black nightmare sand, killing him. Next, he sends nightmares to destroy the Easter Bunny's warren, while he distracts Jack Frost by taunting him with his memories.

When all hope seems lost, Pitch approaches Jack in Antarctica, and offered an alliance due to the fact that they were both outcasts. He nearly succeeds in turning Jack to his side but makes a mistake in revealing he will take full control. This causes Jack to refuses, so Pitch snaps his magic staff in two and throws him into a crevasse.

Children all around the world ceased to believe in the Guardians, and soon only one boy named Jamie still held on to the hope that the Guardians exist. With so few children believing in them, the Guardians become weak while Pitch gained incredible strength. As Jamie's hope is too irrepressible, Pitch tries to kill the boy, but the Guardians all try to protect him. With encouragement from Jack and the other Guardians, Jamie gets his friends together and prepares to stand up to Pitch. By not giving in to fear, the children gain the power to turn nightmare sand back into dream sand.

The Guardians regain their strength and manage to fight off Pitch and the nightmares. Sandman is also revived. Ultimately, the children no long fear Pitch and hence no longer see or hear him. Pitch attempts to retreat back into his lair, but is confronted by the Guardians. Pitch vows that they cannot be rid of him forever and that there will always be fear, but North reminds him as long as one child believes, that Guardians will be able to fight fear. Pitch noticed that the remaining Nightmares were nearby and assumed that they were there to support him, since they sought out people who felt fear, but North says that he doesn't know what the Nightmares are here, but says he isn't afraid. Jack then says that they are possibly sensing his fear. Pitch realizes, to his horror, that Jack is right and tries to flee, but the nightmares catch up to him and drag him down back into his lair, where the entrance is sealed permanently, trapping Pitch forever.

Personality[]

Pitch is bitter, jealous, arrogant, deceitful and oppressive towards the Guardians as they were believed in and he was merely just written off as a bad dream. Out of all of the Guardians, Pitch has the most interaction with Jack Frost as he feels the two have much in common, which they do; however, while Jack is mischievous yet kindhearted, Pitch is extremely malevolent, sadistic, greedy and cruel. He is also seen as being the rival of Sandman as the two are polar opposites in both their abilities and color scheme.

Pitch is the Boogeyman and described as the King of Darkness. He is a downright and unequivocal sadist, deriving glee from turning children's dreams into nightmares and mocking a dying Sandy. When being confronted by the Guardians at Tooth Palace, he was heavily sarcastic and contemptuous, so he shows his rivals nothing but contempt with insults and threats.

He is also shown to be very manipulative and duplicitous, luring Jack Frost away from the rest of the Guardians so his Nightmares could destroy the Easter Eggs and was able to trick an enraged Jack into finding sympathy for him. However, if he couldn't persuade someone, Pitch resorted to blackmail; for example, he threatens to murder Baby Tooth if Frost doesn't yield his staff.

When it comes to Jack, Pitch takes a sinister, twisted, heartless, unpleasant and ruthless approach towards him. Initially, Pitch saw him as nothing more than a "neutral party" and ignored him; however, when Jack overpowered the Boogeyman using his ice powers Pitch was impressed and began to relate to him (the director himself confirmed it was genuine and not fake). After Jack refused his partnership, he breaks his magical staff and left him for dead.

Pitch plays extremely sadistic mind games with Jack Frost throughout the film, when he has lured him to his lair, he cruelly taunted him over his forgotten memories and mocked him over the Guardians never accepting him as a member.

He is also very insulting and vituperative; an example was when he told the Easter Bunny to suck an egg and threatening to snuff the Tooth Fairy's helpers with a pillow. He is also extremely traitorous, depraved and evil, so he was perfectly fine murdering Baby Tooth and Jamie to fulfill his goals.

Appearance[]

Pitch is tall and lithe in appearance. He has pale gray skin, dull golden eyes, and glossy black hair that is styled in spikes that curve towards the back of his head. He wears a black coat that appears to be made of tangible darkness.

Quotes[]

Trivia[]

• Pitch also appears as the main antagonist and final boss in Rise of the Guardians: The Video Game.
• In the books which the film is based off, Pitch was originally an alien army general named Kozmotis Pitchiner, who was possessed by fear demons.
• In the film, Pitch is shown as an evil counterpart of Sandy, the Sandman: While Sandy is bright, short, round and gives happiness and dreams, Pitch is dark, tall, willowy and gives fear and nightmares.
• Pitch's underground lair is located down a dark hole under an old and damaged bed; a reference to the fact that Pitch Black is the inspiration for the Boogeyman, which children often fear to be hiding in the darkness under their beds.
• He is the second animated character to be voiced by Jude Law.
• Pitch Black serves as a dark reflection of Jack Frost, serving as what Jack would become if he held on to his grudge of not being believed in.

External Links[]

• Pitch Black on the DreamWorks Wiki
• Pitch Black on the Rise of the Guardians Wiki