Directed by: Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders
Starring: Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, America Ferrera
Lets face it, if you've been in the business of making feature length computer animated films, you've been chasing Pixar for the past 15 years. Many studios have tried to match the charm, humor, and heart that Pixar seems to nail every single time, and haven't succeeded yet. There have been a few memorable attempts, like DreamWork's Shrek (which has been wrung dry by a number of less than stellar sequels). With How To Train Your Dragon, DreamWorks still hasn't topped Pixar, but it has come pretty dang close. Lets just hope they don't ruin it with a bunch of crummy follow ups.
I've heard the sequels were only made so Eddie Murphy wouldn't starve trying to find work.
How To Train Your Dragon takes place on the fictional Island of Berk during Viking times. The island is almost constantly under attack by dragons, who will destroy houses and make off with the villagers' livestock. Most of the time of inhabitants is taken up by repelling the dragon attacks, or supporting the effort through other means. Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) is having trouble living up to his father and village leader, Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler). He desperately wants to kill a dragon himself, but is kept back by his father and others out of fear he will be killed or hurt.
Against his fathers wishes, Hiccup sets out to kill a dragon on his own. Using one of his inventions, he downs a "Night Fury", the most feared type of dragon that is known to the villagers. Once face to face, he finds himself unable to kill the creature, letting it go instead. The dragon, nicknamed Toothless, is unable to fly on his own. With the help of Hiccup, Toothless regains his flight abilities. Soon, the two learn to trust each other, becoming good friends. But that friendship is soon put to the test when Hiccup's father leads an attack on the dragon nest.
The story isn't anything too new for an animated fare, following a familiar path with only a few small deviations: Character X is misunderstood. Character X meets character Y, who is also misunderstood. Character X and Y become friends, much to the disapproval of their respective friends and family. At some point, there is an epiphany, and character X and Y must save the day. Everyone loves them, the end. This doesn't stop the story from being good, its quite good in fact, just not anything new in the area of kid friendly animation.
Speaking of animation, this is an amazing looking film. The fire and smoke legitimately look real. Textures and fabrics look fantastic. One of the other things How to Train Your Dragon does well is facial animations. While the human characters are still caricatures of human beings, they emote visually as well as any live action actor. This holds especially true for Toothless, who is only able to "act" through various facial expressions and animal like noises. The dragon can go from a "puppy dog" look to "I am going to murder you" in an instant, with the ability to show off a large range in between.
Action scenes are plentiful and well done. The aerial shots are spectacular, with a mix between fast paced dogfights, or slow cruises through the clouds. I wish I could have seen it in theaters, I bet it would have given James Cameron's Avatar a run for its money in the 3D department.
The supporting cast of characters isn't as nearly as interesting as our two stars. They provide not much more than a couple of laughs. The voice talents are good, each fitting their role suitably. Like I said above, most of the entertainment comes from the chemistry between Toothless and Hiccup. This is impressive, considering Jay Baruchel was not only reading lines off of paper in a tiny room, but his "costar" didn't even exist outside the minds of the animators and artists that brought him to life.
Bottom Line: 9/10: While How To Train Your Dragon still isn't as good as some of Pixar's greats, its the closest another animation studio has ever come. A charming story, combined with great main characters and some slick looking animation make this one of Dreamwork's best.
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