Painting by Numbers
"How to Train Your Dragon" (2010) Animated. Director(s): Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders.
A young viking teen who is the son of the chieftain is an outsider in his own village. Nobody likes him and even his father regards him cooly. One night the teen, named Hiccup, shoots down a dragon with a net launching thing and eventually goes after his quarry. After finding the dragon he eventually finds a true companion and everything eventually ends happily ever after.
If you thought that Avatar had a thin plot then this is tissue paper. There really isn't a whole lot of story to concern yourself with and most of the characters are rather pointless for the most part save to show how Hiccup over comes adversity and gains the respect of his peers. To be honest when it comes to creating painting by the numbers characters and storylines Chris Sanders (who also helped write it) certainly is adept at creating mediocrity when greatness could have been achieved.
That isn't to say that the movie is bad. The relationships between father and son, teen and dragon and teen and viking friend/boss guy are pretty solid and well executed. The visuals are nice, though to be honest, the way the narration describes the town and the way it actually looks don't mesh. Truth be told the visuals carry the movie quite a bit and the music is appropriate.
The voice acting is also spot on and folks stayed in character (even if some of the dialog was weak).
In the end though the writing is this film's undoing. A paint by numbers plot, a ton of wooden characters that needed to either be fleshed out or axed, hinder what could have been a very good film.
(On a side note I can also say that this will be nominated for best animated film of the year and has a good shot of winning based upon what appears to be a very weak year for animation.)
If you have to see it rent it.
** out of ****
A young viking teen who is the son of the chieftain is an outsider in his own village. Nobody likes him and even his father regards him cooly. One night the teen, named Hiccup, shoots down a dragon with a net launching thing and eventually goes after his quarry. After finding the dragon he eventually finds a true companion and everything eventually ends happily ever after.
If you thought that Avatar had a thin plot then this is tissue paper. There really isn't a whole lot of story to concern yourself with and most of the characters are rather pointless for the most part save to show how Hiccup over comes adversity and gains the respect of his peers. To be honest when it comes to creating painting by the numbers characters and storylines Chris Sanders (who also helped write it) certainly is adept at creating mediocrity when greatness could have been achieved.
That isn't to say that the movie is bad. The relationships between father and son, teen and dragon and teen and viking friend/boss guy are pretty solid and well executed. The visuals are nice, though to be honest, the way the narration describes the town and the way it actually looks don't mesh. Truth be told the visuals carry the movie quite a bit and the music is appropriate.
The voice acting is also spot on and folks stayed in character (even if some of the dialog was weak).
In the end though the writing is this film's undoing. A paint by numbers plot, a ton of wooden characters that needed to either be fleshed out or axed, hinder what could have been a very good film.
(On a side note I can also say that this will be nominated for best animated film of the year and has a good shot of winning based upon what appears to be a very weak year for animation.)
If you have to see it rent it.
** out of ****