Movie Review - How to Train Your Dragon

How to Train Your Dragon is an animated movie based on the books by Cressida Cowell. A Viking village is plagued by attacks from dragons, and all of the villagers have become battle hardened dragon slayers. All except one; the chief's son Hiccup (Jay Baruchel - Tropic Thunder). His incompetence leads him to befriend the most elusive and mysterious of all dragons - a Night Fury. Hiccup nurses the dragon (whom he calls Toothless) back to health and through the dragon Hiccup learns to become a master dragon fighter, though he doesn't wish to become a slayer. His friendship with Toothless leads Hiccup and his village to discover the source of their troubles, but the ultimate question is will the Vikings learn to befriend the dragon menace, or end the threat the only way they know how?

This was another movie I saw in 3D (My eyes! My eyes!). The animation of Dragon was fantastic and didn't overuse the 3D technlology as some movies tend to do in order to cover up their lack of substance. The different species of dragon were well exexcuted in their looks as well as their movements and behaviour, and so you got a good sense of the character of each type of dragon. They did an excellent job of making Toothless behave more or less like a dog in his movementss, which made the relationship between him and Hiccup even better.

There's been some contention over the voice acting in this movie e.g. "If they're supposed to be Vikings, then how come they sound Scottish?". Would they prefer if the voice actors spoke Old Norse? Or had a thick Scandanavian accent? The use of Scottish voice actors, in particular Gerard Butler (300, Gamer) as Hiccup's father, allowed you to believably see a warrior culture whilst still making it accessible for your average movie goer (heck, it worked in 300 with Butler as Leonidis). The voicework of the adult Vikings is brilliantly done, and giving the Viking children standard American voices gives your average kid something to connect with. I was a bit wary about Jay Baruchel at first, but he did a really good job in this one. Let's hope the success doesn't go to his head.

Whilst this is meant to be first and foremost a children's movie, almost everyone will get a kick out of it. This is the best Dreamworks Animation since Kung Fu Panda. Stylistically it's brilliant and it has a great set of characters. Though the story arc may be a little cliché (kid wants to be like dad, kid is a messup, dad shuns kid, kid becomes awesome, dad realises what a jackass he's been) it's got plenty of enjoyable moments and it is a damn fine feel-good. Just go and see it.