How to Train Your Dragon: A Review
Be warned: I am long-winded and I did this purely to have some fun. In addition, it's spoiler free.
The movie starts with our protagonist and somewhat narrator, Hiccup, informing us about his home in Berk. It's cold there, everything is bland and every person is a tough and gritty viking. And then he informs us of the most exciting, and of course, the most deadly trivia about his village: it's at war with dragons. Not just one kind of dragon either, there's a variety, you see. There are dragons that are stubby and small, there are two headed dragons, there are dragons that can set themselves on fire and then there's the most dangerous one of all: the Night Fury, which is blindingly fast and never misses when it shoots fireballs.
Hiccup is the kind of protagonist you'll usually find in a film or book aimed at ten year olds. He's a teen, fifteen or sixteen I'd say, thin, clever and no matter what he does he doesn't fit in. Especially as a viking, since vikings are usually, you know, big blokes with full beards and funny hats. And, to add that little extra bit of shame for him, his father is the leader of their village Typically, at least, what I've seen from such fiction, heroes in children's fiction are these types. Not vikings of course, that would be...a strange thing, but rather the out-casted children, those kids who sit around and think about things, the ones who read, who write, who draw. They're skinny and awkward and no one knows nor wants to deal with them. Sometimes, such as the case in this film, they have a lack of communication with their parents or guardians, leading to the child to feel a little more alone. And deep down, almost every child knows what that is like. Especially when they're twelve year olds, when their worlds are shifting and changing all around them and they, they just want to be kids for a tiny bit longer. Their social lives could be collapsing, popularity and what's cool start to take root and sooner or later the kid feels completely left out. We know these kids, hell, we could have been these kids. Maybe that's why a character like Hiccup is so easy to relate to and like; he's that kid we all were at some point.
With a viking chief as his father, Hiccup has a lot to live up to, and has no chance in hell to be able to. He's searching desperately for way to belong, and, as dragonslaying is the way vikings become respected, he resolves to kill a dragon. Not just any dragon, the Night Fury.
Which no one has ever really seen. Bit of a damper on that idea.
This whole introduction takes place during a dragon raid, in which Hiccup is repeatedly told to stay out of. To his general amazement, he actually hits the Night Fury and it goes crashing into the forest. Of course, he goes looking for it, finds it and thinks about killing it for ultimate glory or something. But, Hiccup being a kind sort of person, he lets it free. It roars in his face and runs off. And of course, he comes back later to try to find it. And he does, marveling at what it simply looks like and realising half of its tail -what it needs to properly fly- is missing. On top of that, his father finally allows him to go to Dragonslaying School, where he will learn to kill and not be killed by dragons.
And so our real story begins.
The middle of the movie is essentially Hiccup and the dragon (Toothless) becoming friends, Hiccup keeping the existence of Toothless a secret, fashioning a way to ride the dragon, and, most of all, learning things about dragons from Toothless.
The film has incredible energy, gorgeous visuals and a good boasting of cleverness. My expectations for DreamWorks Animation have been lacking in the last few years, they released good movies, yes, but I couldn't seem to escape the feeling that some of their films (most noticeably Shark Tale and Shrek 3) seemed to just throw numerous pop culture references together and then toss the movie out for cinemas. That, and the the sequels, there are too many sequels. I know they are money hooks, but it bothers me that, instead of releasing new things, they rehash the old ones. And I was beginning to wonder what had happened with that same DreamWorks that had released Chicken Run and El Dorado, along with the much more recent Kung-Fu Panda. You know, the ones that had heart in them?
Not going to lie, I think I found it in this movie. At the very least, I found a part of it I missed.
How to Train Your Dragon is critically acclaimed for a reason; it's got this incredible amount of energy, these fun, interesting characters, a good premise and a lot of quirkiness. It was directed by Chris Sanders, whom you may remember as the guy who directed Lilo and Stitch. And it shows, he's definitely got some ideas and interesting ones, at that. Yeah, I think he's just a quirky guy by nature too.
The visuals, let me say, are gorgeous. I saw it in regular, good old fashioned 2-D, so I can't speak for the 3-D experience, but those visuals were just stunning. I know it may sound strange for me to have noticed such a thing, but you could see the hair on the vikings arms. Yeah, and the vikings' beards? They bounced. Think about it, there was some guy sitting at a computer screen animating the bounce in the vikings's beards. The dragon flying itself is, in a few words, really, really freakin' cool.
Oh yeah, and the music? Celtic dude. Celtic, allow me to say that I was incredibly happy with that. I happen to be fond of Celtic music, maybe because we have one too many Ashley MacIassac and Loreena McKinnett CDs in our humble abode, but it's one of those things that I could just sit there listening to for a long, long time. I fully intend on getting my hands on the soundtrack and listening to it as often as possible, because really, this kind of music is both perfect for the movie and inspiring for a girl like me who wants to write a children's book.
On another, sound related note, the acting was great. Most of the characters had these big, almost burly sounding (I kid you not. They Large Ham-ed it up here) Scottish accents. I just go by the feeling that the actors took their natural Scottish accent and ramped it up to eleven. The teen characters all had American voice actors, or, in the protoganist's case, Canadian, which begs the question of why all the adults have thick, Scottish accents while the children do not. Maybe it's some kind of genetic things that takes twenty years and then boom, you have yourself a Scottish accent. I don't know, I'll just roll with it.
Characters are strong and easy to like, for whatever reason you find yourself liking them. You'll find yourself taken aback by how much is communicated by simple gestures rather than words. Things like Hiccup and Toothless communicating through actions and on-off speaking on Hiccup's end. The simple things that make the characters feel real, like Astrid flipping her hair out of her eyes and the characters that don't mean anything standing in the background visible breathing. The little stumbles the characters have over words, and the expressions they made that simply fit perfectly. Hiccup is the master of this expressions game. The viewer is able to read so much from Hiccup by looking at his face. Not only that, but he's an incredibly fun, witty character that you can't help but like.
One thing I'll add to it is that; the only movie theatre with multiple screens within a four hour driving range is our previously mentioned ghetto theatre, and trust me, compared to the big seats in Galaxy theatres, ours are really uncomfortable. As such, I can usually be found tossing in my seat, and trying to get comfortable when the movie is slightly boring. Guess what? I barely fidgetted once during this movie. Usually, when that happens, I take it as a sign of 'good movie'. Yes, you will have to rely on my comfort level in my theatre to see if a movie is good. No, I'm not serious.
Hell, I think, if Toy Story 3 isn't received as well (Seriously, 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. That is freakin' high) that How to Train Your Dragon could be a shoe in for Best Animated Feature.
(In a non-review, more gushing note: Jay Baruchel is awesome because he has a tatoo of a maple leaf on his chest. And, David Tennant was in this movie yay.)
The movie starts with our protagonist and somewhat narrator, Hiccup, informing us about his home in Berk. It's cold there, everything is bland and every person is a tough and gritty viking. And then he informs us of the most exciting, and of course, the most deadly trivia about his village: it's at war with dragons. Not just one kind of dragon either, there's a variety, you see. There are dragons that are stubby and small, there are two headed dragons, there are dragons that can set themselves on fire and then there's the most dangerous one of all: the Night Fury, which is blindingly fast and never misses when it shoots fireballs.
Hiccup is the kind of protagonist you'll usually find in a film or book aimed at ten year olds. He's a teen, fifteen or sixteen I'd say, thin, clever and no matter what he does he doesn't fit in. Especially as a viking, since vikings are usually, you know, big blokes with full beards and funny hats. And, to add that little extra bit of shame for him, his father is the leader of their village Typically, at least, what I've seen from such fiction, heroes in children's fiction are these types. Not vikings of course, that would be...a strange thing, but rather the out-casted children, those kids who sit around and think about things, the ones who read, who write, who draw. They're skinny and awkward and no one knows nor wants to deal with them. Sometimes, such as the case in this film, they have a lack of communication with their parents or guardians, leading to the child to feel a little more alone. And deep down, almost every child knows what that is like. Especially when they're twelve year olds, when their worlds are shifting and changing all around them and they, they just want to be kids for a tiny bit longer. Their social lives could be collapsing, popularity and what's cool start to take root and sooner or later the kid feels completely left out. We know these kids, hell, we could have been these kids. Maybe that's why a character like Hiccup is so easy to relate to and like; he's that kid we all were at some point.
With a viking chief as his father, Hiccup has a lot to live up to, and has no chance in hell to be able to. He's searching desperately for way to belong, and, as dragonslaying is the way vikings become respected, he resolves to kill a dragon. Not just any dragon, the Night Fury.
Which no one has ever really seen. Bit of a damper on that idea.
This whole introduction takes place during a dragon raid, in which Hiccup is repeatedly told to stay out of. To his general amazement, he actually hits the Night Fury and it goes crashing into the forest. Of course, he goes looking for it, finds it and thinks about killing it for ultimate glory or something. But, Hiccup being a kind sort of person, he lets it free. It roars in his face and runs off. And of course, he comes back later to try to find it. And he does, marveling at what it simply looks like and realising half of its tail -what it needs to properly fly- is missing. On top of that, his father finally allows him to go to Dragonslaying School, where he will learn to kill and not be killed by dragons.
And so our real story begins.
The middle of the movie is essentially Hiccup and the dragon (Toothless) becoming friends, Hiccup keeping the existence of Toothless a secret, fashioning a way to ride the dragon, and, most of all, learning things about dragons from Toothless.
The film has incredible energy, gorgeous visuals and a good boasting of cleverness. My expectations for DreamWorks Animation have been lacking in the last few years, they released good movies, yes, but I couldn't seem to escape the feeling that some of their films (most noticeably Shark Tale and Shrek 3) seemed to just throw numerous pop culture references together and then toss the movie out for cinemas. That, and the the sequels, there are too many sequels. I know they are money hooks, but it bothers me that, instead of releasing new things, they rehash the old ones. And I was beginning to wonder what had happened with that same DreamWorks that had released Chicken Run and El Dorado, along with the much more recent Kung-Fu Panda. You know, the ones that had heart in them?
Not going to lie, I think I found it in this movie. At the very least, I found a part of it I missed.
How to Train Your Dragon is critically acclaimed for a reason; it's got this incredible amount of energy, these fun, interesting characters, a good premise and a lot of quirkiness. It was directed by Chris Sanders, whom you may remember as the guy who directed Lilo and Stitch. And it shows, he's definitely got some ideas and interesting ones, at that. Yeah, I think he's just a quirky guy by nature too.
The visuals, let me say, are gorgeous. I saw it in regular, good old fashioned 2-D, so I can't speak for the 3-D experience, but those visuals were just stunning. I know it may sound strange for me to have noticed such a thing, but you could see the hair on the vikings arms. Yeah, and the vikings' beards? They bounced. Think about it, there was some guy sitting at a computer screen animating the bounce in the vikings's beards. The dragon flying itself is, in a few words, really, really freakin' cool.
Oh yeah, and the music? Celtic dude. Celtic, allow me to say that I was incredibly happy with that. I happen to be fond of Celtic music, maybe because we have one too many Ashley MacIassac and Loreena McKinnett CDs in our humble abode, but it's one of those things that I could just sit there listening to for a long, long time. I fully intend on getting my hands on the soundtrack and listening to it as often as possible, because really, this kind of music is both perfect for the movie and inspiring for a girl like me who wants to write a children's book.
On another, sound related note, the acting was great. Most of the characters had these big, almost burly sounding (I kid you not. They Large Ham-ed it up here) Scottish accents. I just go by the feeling that the actors took their natural Scottish accent and ramped it up to eleven. The teen characters all had American voice actors, or, in the protoganist's case, Canadian, which begs the question of why all the adults have thick, Scottish accents while the children do not. Maybe it's some kind of genetic things that takes twenty years and then boom, you have yourself a Scottish accent. I don't know, I'll just roll with it.
Characters are strong and easy to like, for whatever reason you find yourself liking them. You'll find yourself taken aback by how much is communicated by simple gestures rather than words. Things like Hiccup and Toothless communicating through actions and on-off speaking on Hiccup's end. The simple things that make the characters feel real, like Astrid flipping her hair out of her eyes and the characters that don't mean anything standing in the background visible breathing. The little stumbles the characters have over words, and the expressions they made that simply fit perfectly. Hiccup is the master of this expressions game. The viewer is able to read so much from Hiccup by looking at his face. Not only that, but he's an incredibly fun, witty character that you can't help but like.
One thing I'll add to it is that; the only movie theatre with multiple screens within a four hour driving range is our previously mentioned ghetto theatre, and trust me, compared to the big seats in Galaxy theatres, ours are really uncomfortable. As such, I can usually be found tossing in my seat, and trying to get comfortable when the movie is slightly boring. Guess what? I barely fidgetted once during this movie. Usually, when that happens, I take it as a sign of 'good movie'. Yes, you will have to rely on my comfort level in my theatre to see if a movie is good. No, I'm not serious.
Hell, I think, if Toy Story 3 isn't received as well (Seriously, 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. That is freakin' high) that How to Train Your Dragon could be a shoe in for Best Animated Feature.
(In a non-review, more gushing note: Jay Baruchel is awesome because he has a tatoo of a maple leaf on his chest. And, David Tennant was in this movie yay.)