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A hapless young Viking who aspires to hunt dragons becomes the unlikely friend of a young dragon himself, and learns there may be more to the creatures than he assumed.
Jay Baruchel: Hiccup (voice)
Dreamworks always has a sense of humour when it comes to animated projects. Shrek was hilariously truthful from the company while Kung Fu Panda had the same effect with me. This year 2010 brings to our attention the latest project: How to Train Your Dragon. Is it another feel good, heart warming comic hit? In a one word response, YES! Needlessly to say, in 3D the whole affair soars and sizzles as it strokes and tantalises the synapses. It will make you fall in love with animated films all over again.
How to Train Your Dragon is based on the novel by Cressida Cowell and the film uses William Davies screenplay. Direction comes from a joint effort in the guise of Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders. Everyone does an excellent job with the visuals, the story and the simplicity of creativeness and entertainment striving hand in hand.
Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T.J. Miller...To name but a few all give voices and essentially bring the characters to life alongside the animation.
The story is a simple one yet it is ultimately very special and demands your attention yet never overly tries to. How to Train Your Dragon is a moral lesson revolving around ignorance and two species that strongly hate each other without ever knowing fully why. Hiccup is the reluctant hero Viking and if you will revolutionary for his people. Stoik is the father and leader of the village. Stoik and his people to begin with cannot understand Hiccup because he is different, he thinks and has creative tendencies. So as proceedings carry on and the film explains to us the situation thus he meets and captures a dragon. Thus it turns his World and his thoughts on dragons upside down. The two species dragons and humans both misunderstand each other, Hiccup and Toothless(The Black Dragon) forge a friendship and bond stronger than life itself.
The visuals, soundtrack, story are all larger than life. How to Train Your Dragon is fun for adult and child alike and has some of the best uses of 3D I've ever seen thus so far. The flying sequences even rival Avatar in terms of momentum and thrilling exhilaration.
Overall, How to Train Your Dragon is one of the best films this year in terms of animation and from Dreamworks. This is the loving, simple story of courage, friendship and overcoming ignorance. Peace and two very different yet very alike species coming together, overcoming misunderstanding and hatred. Everything probably has been done many times before in terms of story telling yet it's done in a way that is fresh and fun. No matter how many times creativity merges with entertainment and moral ambiguity, no matter the relevance or originality, projects like How to Train Your Dragon will always capture the imagination and minds of dreamy audiences everywhere. You go in feeling whatever your feeling, you finish the film with a happy glow. That's priceless.
''My village. In a word? Sturdy, and it's been here for seven generations, but every single building is new. We have fishing, hunting, and a charming view of the sunset. The only problems are the pests. You see, most places have mice or mosquitoes. We have... dragons.''
8/10
