Hm. I guess that poses the question of how much book canon they're using for movie canon. On one hand, they're clearly meant to be two separate things. On the other hand, separate doesn't mean they're throwing their arms up in the air and chucking book canon entirely. Since thinking about it, you could argue that Father Time's thing could make Tooth's schtick redundant since they'd both probably deal in memories (among other things.)
So, thinking way too hard about this, there's probably actually one of two ways to go about coming up with a list of spirits:
1. Figure out major holidays, pull spirits from there. 2. Figure out concepts/values held across humanity (hope, inspiration, wonder, etc.) and then assign spirits to those concepts/values.
Re: RISE OF THE GUARDIANS
So, thinking way too hard about this, there's probably actually one of two ways to go about coming up with a list of spirits:
1. Figure out major holidays, pull spirits from there.
2. Figure out concepts/values held across humanity (hope, inspiration, wonder, etc.) and then assign spirits to those concepts/values.