How to Train Your Dragon

How to Train Your Dragon is another one of those successful animated kids movies from DreamWorks. How to Train Your Dragon is the story of a young viking named Hiccup, who does not have the brute strength as most other Vikings, but tries to make up for it with his smarts. The town he lives in has stood for seven generations, but all the buildings are new because of one problem and that is dragons that are constantly raiding the village. Hiccup after using one of his contraptions to help him battle a dragon ends up going after the dragon he knocked out of the sky falls into the woods. After finding the dragon he finds he is unable to kill it, but instead begins to learn that the dragon is simply misunderstood. The audience is taken on a fun ride as he goes through learning with the dragon he has named Toothless. How to Train Your Dragon while it does not push the boundary with technology capabilities or even the overall story, that is truly not needed in a kids animated movie.

Jay Baruchel lends his voice to the character of Hiccup and the role fits him perfectly. Baruchel seems to always end up in the role of the character who does not quite fit in with everyone else, yet he has this quirkiness about him in such a way that you can not help but want him to get the girl that is clearly out off his league. So even in animation form he is cast in the role that offers the same type of character that he has played so many times before. America Ferrera in the role of Astrid, the beautiful viking girl that Hiccup likes, and she is  a viking in the truest sense of the word. The jealousy that comes out particularly once Hiccup begins to succeed in their dragon combat training is played perfectly and done so well that we see the jealousy as more of an envy in a sweet and not a horrible way. Gerard Butler in the role of Hiccups dad and the village leader was not what I expected. With his character being so large and having a resonating deep voice it was surprising to learn it was Butler in the role. Although it was a smaller role I really think it showed a little versatility because in a voice animated role it is just not one I would expect to be Butler lending his voice to.

Along with the voice actors, based on this movie being called How to Train Your Dragon the importance of the dragon animation was vital. with the dragons if they all ended up looking similar with just different colors and sizes the audience would not care as much and I think because f that the audience would get bored of the movie. I think the creativity of the dragons not only being different shapes and sizes, but unique abilities really worked well. The added touch of Toothless being the dragon type that no one had seen before and that he ends up forming this unique bond with Hiccup or unique viking only strengthened the movie. I think this creativity really allowed the animation to go to the next level because they were no longer constrained by the typical thought of what a dragon looked like, so I felt they really used that to their advantage to animate these not so ordinary dragons with a great sharpness.

The story for How to Train Your Dragon was definitely a little different then what I thought, but still used some simple thoughts of others not understanding one another to being the main aspect of the story. The simple part about a boy befriending a dragon has been used countless time in movies, you just change the dragon part to some other and it hits a similar chord with all of us. In the end I felt that the big plot point behind why the dragons attacked was unique and ended up being very well thought out. I really felt that the story was done so well and yet simple that I found myself just sitting back and enjoying the story unfolding and I did not feel like I had to figure out what was going on.

How to Train Your Dragon is another fun and enjoyable for a family movie. I really enjoyed the story that was unfolded before us and it really just allowed you to sit back and enjoy the movie without thinking about anything else. The animation particularly the dragons I felt was truly amazing and a great step up. I am giving How to Train Your Dragon three buckets of popcorn out of five. this is a movie that is great for you to be able to sit down with your entire family to have a great quality family movie night to spend time together.

-The Movie Man-