How to Train Your Dragon

How to Train Your Dragon (2010) is an animated Adventure/Comedy taking place on The Island of Berk, a Viking settlement. The young Viking, Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), who has always been smaller than the others, works as an Apprentice making weaponry for the other Vikings to use since he is too weak to fight. When a dozen dragons attack the settlement, he makes his desire to fight them off as clear as everyone else, however his best intentions only lead to further dismantling of the settlement. Even though his invention to throw weapons at the dragons seems to work, taking one down, no one sees and he's booed back indoors by his own father, Tribe Master, Stoik the Vast (Gerard Butler) who doesn't need a bigger mess to clean up. Hiccup is determined to show his father that his invention has worked, killing a dragon, so he goes looking for the corpse in the forest. He finds the injured, but not dead, body of the mysterious Night Fury dragon. He has ruined one of the wings on its tail, however, and stuck down in field of grass and water below the mountain level,  it cannot fly. He cannot bring himself to kill it, however. But his father has set his mind to accept Hiccup for a dragon killer just as Hiccup decides he doesn't want to kill them, he wants to learn from them. Still, he's thrust into training to be a dragon killer during the day time, seeing his long time, dragon-killing crush, Astrid (America Ferara), and leaving to tend to the dragon he trains for himself afterward- who he names Toothless due to his ability to disguise himself as having no teeth. But as each side of him develops, he realizes that each one has a path that he cannot turn back from. And dragons are not what his people have thought. Can he juggle both lives long enough to please his father, and save the dragon he's grown to love?

Produced by Dreamworks, How to Train Your Dragon is actually an adaptation of one story in a series of books written by the British, children's author, Cressida Cowell, published in 2003. When it was first adapted by William Davies, it was whimsical and adorable, sticking very close to Cowell's novel. But when Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders- most famous for their writing of Disney's Lilo and Stitch- entered the picture as co-directors, things changed. Davies had Toothless the dragon has a very small creature, smaller than most dragons, like the novel. He was redone to be the breed of the rare Night Fury, and large enough to carry Hiccup and Astrid on his back, at once. Roger Deakins, who often works with The Coen Brothers, was hired by the filmmakers as cinematographer to make the animated picture have a live action feel. This film is currently up for Best Animated Feature of the year at The Acamdey Awards, to be voted upon, tonight.

The score of the movie is another distinguishing feature it has. Listening to the movie, it's nostalgic of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and beautiful, old Celtic work. This score is probably my favorite so far, for 2010. Having now seen all of the nominations for score, I would have to pick this one. And we all know I LOVE Hans Zimmer (getting the credit this year for Inception) but this score really stood out from the film, all on its own. I wasn't listening for it, but it's there. As I said, it is also nominated for Best Original Score, this year, to be decided upon, tonight.

This movie is kind of adorable, as the writings dictates from the novel, but it's also hilarious at times. There is definitely a feel of the Lilo and Stitch humor by writers Sanders and DeBlois. Lilo and Stitch has a slapstick, hard-hitting punch line feel to it. It's really quick and witty. This film also has moments like that, and that style is great for a kid's movie, and can also keep adults widely entertained. The writing, in my opinion, is a huge success. I also found the picture to be really beautiful. Computer-generated animation can hit or miss at times, but this film is really nice to look at. The characters are in a less traditional style, not looking especially like anything else I've seen. They still look like PEOPLE, of course, but it's definitely not Disney.

It's hard to say if I prefered this film over Toy Story 3. They're both adaptations, but at least this one isn't a sequel, if I might say that (filmwise, anyway). I found them both to be as equally emotionally in depth as the other. I enjoyed watching them about the same. I found them both to be as graphically stimulating as the other. So it wouldn't be a surprise if either of them were to take home the award. Unfortunately, The Illusionist is still not available to me to judge, so if that one wins, I'll have to be surprised! How to Train Your Dragon has already won all of the Annie Awards it was nominated for, and the Visual Effects Awards. Animation is not my specialty, but it seems to be doing rather well.

I would reccomend this movie to kids, or to my cartoon-watching adult friends. Honestly, I didn't see any problems with it. It's not really a 'thinking' piece, it's another one of Hollywood's "3D Epics." You watch it to have fun, not to get involved. It's light in that way.