How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
As the son of a Viking leader on the cusp of manhood, shy Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III faces a rite of passage: he must kill a dragon to prove his warrior mettle. But after downing a feared dragon, he realizes that he no longer wants to destroy it, and instead befriends the beast – which he names Toothless – much to the chagrin of his warrior father.
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Waste of time
Just so...so bad
It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.
It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.
Warning: this beautifully animated tale is highly addictive! As soon as it's over you'll immediately want to watch it again. I'm a grown man, but somehow this movie managed to ignore all the layers of cynicism and fake toughness we grown-ups tend to build around ourselves to cope with life; it cut right through to the wide-eyed, adventure-loving boy in me, right through to the heart. It's impossible not to fall in love with this movie, with these characters - especially if you love wild animals. This beautiful story of a very unlikely friendship between a boy who's a bit of an outcast and a dragon is just so well done; it's never cheesy, yet full of passion, and there's simply not a dull moment in it.And although it's very funny, this really isn't just an accumulation of gags and one-liners loosely held together by a paper-thin story: this is a great adventure and touching coming-of-age tale where the protagonist has an actual arc; it tells an intelligent and compelling story about people who are not just one-note characters, and they're wonderfully realized through the great voice-work of such actors as Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, Gerard Butler and Craig Ferguson. The animation is fantastic, and there's so much playful creative energy at display in the design of the characters - especially in the design of all the different dragon species - that it's simply a joy to watch. 10 stars out of 10.
Oh, this was just fantastic! Great premise. Great animation. Great voicing. Great music. This was just such a sweet little film. 'Never judge a book by its cover' has probably never been better depicted - in this case from the young Viking Hiccup's perspective, as well as from the dragons. It is a story about an unlikely friendship, and how if affects everyone and everything around them. I loved the characters and the story. What an absolutely beautiful film. This is the type of animation film that will appeal to young and old.
So in my review of The Prince of Egypt, I briefly mentioned how I adored the How to Train Your Dragon franchise. And... yeah I do. Today I am only talking about the first one, the second one is so amazing that it needs it's own review too.This 2010 DreamWorks film is one of the most beautiful 3D-animated movies I've ever seen. Amazing animation, first of all. It is very photo-realistic. I can get lost in the world it establishes so well. It's one of the best looking world I've ever seen, on par with Avatar (2009). The flying scenes especially make you feel you are flying with the dragons.The story is riddled with cliche's, HOWEVER this is one of the times when the writing, pacing, and characters are so well done that it makes me feel like I'm hearing the cliche's for the first time. The story follows the formula of Steven Spielberg's E.T. with Hiccup, the main character, hiding the seemingly monstrous but apparently harmless dragon Toothless from his father and other vikings, however I would argue it's done as good if not better than it. On a side note, the sequence after (SPOILER) Hiccup loses a leg and Toothless helps him is not only heartwarming in of itself, but it is reflective of earlier in the film where Hiccup helps Toothless with his broken tail to help him fly again.The characters are all memorable, understandable and likable, and that includes all the various dragons (I love you Toothless). On the subject of the dragons, this is one of the few movies I've ever seen that doesn't personify or anthropomorphize the dragons, but it treats them like they are ACTUAL animals, not monstrous beasts as the vikings in the film see them as first. Hiccup and Toothless, the main character and main dragon, are some of my favorite DreamWorks characters.This film is very emotionally investing, partially due to the writing as well as the tone of this movie, which knows when to be dramatic and funny at appropriate times.Overall, this film and the sequel (which I'll talk about another time) is fantastic and one of the few things that prevents DreamWorks from being a complete laughing stock the past decade.RATING:9/10
Warning: this beautifully animated tale is highly addictive! As soon as it's over you'll immediately want to watch it again. So much fun, never cheesy and for pure entertainment value quite simply the best animated film since 1967's 'The Jungle Book' (well, at least in my humble opinion). No surprise, given that co-director Chris Sanders has had a hand in every good Disney film starting with Aladdin until he left the mouse house in 2006 (and I suspect John Lasseter now regrets letting him go). And as much as I adore and admire pretty much every Pixar film, for this once, Dreamworks just had the movie with the higher 're-watchability factor' which makes it one of my favourites. See it!