Movie Review: How to Train your Dragon

I didn't expect much from this movie when I went into the theater and sat my butt down on my seat. I told myself, "Well, it isn't Pixar...". But I was very impressed with the movie overall and I was pleasantly surprised by both its story and the action scenes.

How to Train your Dragon is the story of a boy who befriends a dragon, a dreaded Night Fury, which no one has ever seen or heard of. This boy's name is, strangely enough, Hiccup. Oh, and he's a viking. And the movie's vikings see dragons as their nemeses. To top it all off, Hiccup is the son of the Chieftain of their village.

There are plenty of sub-plots within this story: the relationship of Hiccup and his father, the budding romance between Hiccup and the girl he has always liked, being an outcast from other kids his age. But the story is essentially the relationship between a boy and his dragon. How our preconceptions about something lead us to assumptions that can wholly be wrong.

That's why this movie works, everything is else is like whipped cream, nice but unnecessary to the main plot of how two different beings can overcome their differences and forge a lasting bond.

Of course, this being a dragon movie, there are a lot of action scenes. There are a lot of dragons that breathe stuff: both on-camera, fire-breathing dragon, fire-breathing dragon that is on fire himself; and off, dragon that can spray scalding water that melts people faces off.

There is also, near the end of the movie, a gigantic dragon that looks like Godzilla with wings and is pretty cool. I was amazed by how such a large creature could fly, even if it is just a movie, and an animated one at that.

As I was writing this and referencing IMDB for some names, I noted that Hiccup was voiced by Jay Baruchel, who is a frequently staple in comedies especially the Judd Apatow version. Although the entire voice cast was good: America Ferrera as Astrid, Gerard Butler as Stoick, Hiccup's dad, in particular, I thought that the standout was Hiccup.

Jay Baruchel really nailed it with his performance of Hiccup. Initially he had this whiny, grating voice perfect for a whiny, weak boy. But eventually, he turns into this man who is brave and willing to do anything to save his friends, particularly his best friend, the Night Fury, Toothless.

So, How to Train your Dragon is pretty good for an animated movie, although there are some scenes that maybe the kiddies would get a little scared of. Especially, at least to me, near the very end where a main character loses a limb. I can imagine the questions children might ask about like, "Mommy, where did the leg go?"

Also, the other stories feel tacked on, like the relationship between Hiccup and Astrid and the outcast subplot. The father-son relationship works better though and is a key factor in developing the story.

Also, I watched the non-3D version. I don't know if the 3-D version is any better, but I was satisfied with the non-3D one. I feel that most 3-D feels tacked on and isn't real 3-D anyway, just depth of field.

Anyway, if you're looking for your animated movie fix this first quarter of 2010, How to Train your Dragon is a pretty good pick.