For years now DreamWorks Animation has almost always been a step behind Pixar, with the occasional "Shrek" making some inroads but not usually matching the sheer heart Pixar always puts into its pictures. So it's a pleasure to see DreamWorks come up with one that matches practically anything Pixar has made. That would be 2010's "How to Train Your Dragon," one of the best films of the year.
OK, I admit I didn't have high hopes for it going in, despite my having heard that a lot of people liked it (I looked it up and found at the time of this writing it was the eighth biggest-grossing film of 2010). Maybe it was the corny-sounding title that put me off. I had no idea the filmmakers based the movie on a best-selling book of the same name by Cressida Cowell. Title aside, the film is as cute, sweet, funny, exciting, and touching as anything you'll find.
The story takes place in Medieval Scandinavia in the little Viking village of Berk, which the main character describes as "twelve days north of hopeless and a few degrees south of freezing to death." The main character is Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel), a young fellow the townsfolk would rather keep out of sight because he's small and hapless, and they're all big and strong and capable. And everyone else enjoys killing dragons, one of the citizenry's main occupations, and Hiccup is rather reluctant and inept at it. Poor Hiccup is, in fact, the laughing stock of the town.
Stoick (Gerard Butler) is the strapping huge, bellowing chief of the tribe, who fights dragons with his bare hands. The dragons in the neighborhood are plentiful, and the Vikings spend a lot of their time fending them off or hunting them down. Oh, and Stoick is also Hiccup's father, something that grieves Stoick no end. Like father not like son.
Stoick and the villagers, including Gobber (Craig Ferguson), the blacksmith for whom Hiccup works as an apprentice, expect Hiccup to kill dragons; it's what all the young guys and girls in the village do when they're old enough: They go to dragon-fighting school and learn to slay dragons. That, however, is the last thing Hiccup wants to do. Among Hiccup's classmates are Astrid (America Ferrera), a feisty young lady who becomes a rival and a romantic interest; Snotlout (Jonah Hill), a big, dim-witted lug; Fishlegs (Christopher Mintz-Plausse), Tuffnut (T.J. Miller) and Ruffnut (Kristen Wiig).
The plot centers on Hiccup accidentally ensnaring the most fearsome of dragons, a Night Fury, one evening, and a few days later finding it in the forest tangled in Hiccup's rope and missing the part of its tail that acts as a rudder when it's flying. Although Hiccup knows he should kill the beast while it's defenseless, he also knows he cannot. He frees the creature instead, and helps build him a new tail, for which the dragon is eternally grateful. It seems dragons aren't such bad animals after all.
From this point on, the friendship between Hiccup and the dragon, whom Hiccup names "Toothless" because it has retractable teeth, resembles a variation on the old Aesop fable of "Androcles and the Lion." We can pretty much see what's coming, but we can enjoy it all the same. Toothless turns out to be quite smart, learning fast, and before long in their relationship we have to wonder who is training whom.
Yes, there is a good deal of sentiment in the movie, yet the sentimentality never turns sappy. Yes, there is a degree of violence in the film, yet while the action is exhilarating, it is never too intense for younger viewers. And, yes, there are morals, life lessons, applied, yet they are never excessive or preachy. The filmmakers temper the movie's ingredients just enough to make the balance acceptable to everyone.
"How to Train Your Dragon" is fun, funny, stirring, poignant, and all things a good, wholesome family film should be. The 3-D CGI animation is gorgeous--vivid and alive with intricate detail, shadows, color, and depth. It's a joy to watch. What's more, the movie is humorous without being crude or demeaning. A father-son talk between Stoick and Hiccup is moving and amusing at the same time, and a climactic battle is as thrilling as any action sequence you'll see in any picture anywhere. In fact, "How to Train Your Dragon" is delightful and appealing, rousing and friendly, thoroughly enjoyable from beginning to end.
Blu-ray review
FIRST PUBLISHED Oct 16, 2010By John J. Puccio
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