How to Train Your Dragon (2010)

Genre: Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Fantasy

Release Date: March 26, 2010

My Rating:   
(Click here for more info on my rating scale)

How to Train Your Dragon a great family film, it's very entertaining, touching, good-hearted, and visually beautiful.  It combines elements of The Iron Giant and Avatar, and breathes new life into old, exhausted clichés.

I never saw How to Train Your Dragon in the theater.  However, I did watch it when it came out on DVD.  Having not heard much about the film and not knowing anything about its story or any of that, I didn't have any expectations prior to watching it.  However, I ended up loving it.  In fact, in my opinion, DreamWorks has surpassed Pixar with this film.

The story is set in and around a Viking village up north called Berk, which often gets attacked by dragons.  The protagonist is Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), a teenage Viking who wants to be like his father and the other Vikings and wants to kill dragons.  Unfortunately, however, while he's smart and nice, he's scrawny and weak, not to mention socially awkward.  And he often ends up inadvertently causing trouble.  Because of this, he's pretty much considered a loser is his society.  Early one morning during a dragon raid (the opening scene of the movie), Hiccup goes out and shoots down a young dragon, specifically a Night Fury, but nobody believes he actually did so.  He goes out and finds the dragon he shot down.  It's a young dragon, about Hiccup's age, but Hiccup can't bring himself to kill it, so he frees it.  He and the dragon, whom he calls Toothless (due to his retractable teeth), begin to develop a forbidden friendship, and Hiccup realizes that his people have misjudged the species, and that there's more to the creatures than he and his people originally thought.

The story is very simple, predictable, derivative, and clichéd, and it's a total retread of basic cinema clichés, but it works, and I found it entertaining and immersive.  There is not much depth, story development, or character development, but it's still pretty effective as it is.  Also, the wonderful animation helps contribute to the emotion and energy of the story.  So, overall, to sum this up, this film works in many of the same ways that James Cameron's Avatar worked, and in fact it works much better.  They both consist of simple, predictable, and clichéd stories.  They don't have much depth, story development, or character development (like I just said above).  However, the stories are sufficient, well-structured, well-paced, and coherent, and they flow and make sense.  The characters are not developed much, but they are sufficient and very likable.  Also, both use brilliant visuals and keen detail to tell their stories and bring emotion into them.  Although I do have to admit that HTTYD has a somewhat better script and better dialogue.  Also, like Avatar, HTTYD doesn't go much into the depth and backgrounds of the characters, or much into any of that stuff, but a lot of that stuff - character background, personality, relationships, etc. - are evident in the detail.  So, given all of this, I think it would be safe to say that, in many ways, HTTYD is the Avatar of 2010.

Now, HTTYD doesn't have a new world, like Pandora, but it does have beautiful scenery all the same. Also, it has the lovable dragon Toothless, who is a full character in the film.  He was excellently designed, and is very cute and lovable.  In addition to excellent physical design, has a great personality, is smart, and has an excellent balance between that of a person and that of an animal.  He is a great character, and, in fact, the most memorable character in the film.  The voice actors all put on good performances, and they really help bring out their characters with their voice.  Jay Baruchel did a very good job as Hiccup.  A lot of people say that his voice is annoying, but I personally disagree.  I actually kind of like his voice, and it's just right for the character in the movie, Hiccup, who is very likable.  The other voice actors did an equally good job with their characters too, such as Gerard Butler as Stoick the Vast, America Ferrera as the likable and beautiful Astrid (Hiccup's love interest), Jonah Hill as Snotlout, and some others.

Like I said before, the animation is absolutely beautiful.  John Powell composed and excellent music score for the film.  As for the target audience: everyone - in many ways, it's like a kids movie, but in others it's pretty mature.  Also, being a good comedy, it has some good humor.  But it doesn't let the humor get too abundant.  The humor is spaced out throughout the film and given at appropriate intervals, and is balanced excellently with the story, drama, emotion, and moral messages, much like The Iron Giant was.  In fact, the film has a lot of similarities to The Iron Giant, and it works for many of the same reasons that movie works.  Everything about the movie is very well balanced.

Overall, I love this movie.  It's a great family film, it's very entertaining, touching, good-hearted, and visually beautiful.  It combines elements of The Iron Giant and Avatar, and breathes new life into old, exhausted clichés.  Also, it has great staying power - it's one of those movies, like Ghostbusters, that never really gets old on repeated viewings.  Unfortunately, DreamWorks plans to make a sequel to it.  Wow, way to go, DreamWorks, ruining the best film you've ever made.  Please don't make that sequel.  This is the type of movie that's just best left alone.  Leave a good thing alone.

One final note: I've only seen this movie in 2-D.  I've never seen it in 3-D, and guess what?  I don't want to.  Aside from the usual fact that 3-D is unnecessary, this movie is so awesome that it doesn't need 3-D.

Cast and Credits:

Hiccup: Jay Baruchel

Astrid: America Ferrera

Stoick: Gerard Butler

Gobber: Craig Ferguson

Snotlout: Jonah Hill

Ruffnut: Kristen Wiig

Tuffnut: T. J. Miller

Fishlegs: Christopher Mintz-Plasse

Spitelout: David Tennant

DreamWorks Animation presents

A film directed by Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders

Music by John Powell

Running time: 1 hour and 38 minutes

Rated PG for sequences of intense action and some scary images, and brief mild language