"How To Train Your Dragon" Movie Review

When it comes to kid’s movies, Pixar is #1. Only putting out one film a year shows how their priorities stay with that one film they’re working on. They take the time to come up with a new and interesting story line, create a line-up of unique characters, and on top of that make use of their beautiful animation. All that added together formulates a wonderful film that any age group can enjoy. Pixar has released ten movies so far in it’s fifteen years of making feature length films, and each one is individually special.

Dreamworks on the other hand is basically a knock-off of Pixar. The creator of Dreamworks Animation probably looked over at Pixar and thought, “You know, I could start a company and pretty much do the same thing they’re doing. Of course, to make my projects move along faster I’ll have to have less quality and more quantity. I’ll cut down on animation costs, forget about creating anything original, and focus more on popular voice talents and dirty jokes. Then I wait for the money to come on in! AHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHA!”

When we look back on all the Dreamworks Animation films we can see Shrek 1-endless, Shark Tale, Madagascar 1 and 2, Over the Hedge, Flushed Away, Bee Movie, Kung Fu Panda, and Monsters vs. Aliens, only a few really stand out to me. I admit; I did enjoy Over the Hedge, Bee Movie, and Kung Fu Panda. Sure, those three films were stupid, but they were fun and enjoyable.

The movie follows Hiccup (what a god-awful character name) who becomes friends with a dragon he nicknames Toothless (which is confusing because the dragon has teeth). However, in Vikingland dragons are horrible enemies. So Hiccup (I’m sorry, I just can’t get over how horrible this character’s name is) must keep his dragon a secret. Ok, I have to get this off my chest really quick; I-I-uh-I kin-kind-kind o-of li-lik-liked th-this mo-movie. It actually didn’t turn out being all that bad. Sure, every plot device has been seen thousands of times, the Viking characters were obnoxious, but man it was fun flying around on a dragon in 3D!

Like I said, every single part of this film’s plot has been seen and done many times before. Here’s a short list of the ones used…

-Main character’s mom and/or dad died before the point in time where the movie begins.

-The main character and his/her parent or guardian doesn’t get along well.

-Main character is a wimp/embarrassment.

-Main character is not what his/her parent wants him/her to be.

-Main character hides something from a bunch of people.

-Main character cheats on an event and everyone finds out.

-Main character insists that something bad would happen if the other character(s) do something, they ignore this, and it turns out something bad does indeed happen.

-Main character tries to get girl that is “out of his league”. Then at the end they wind up together.

-Everyone finds out that the thing they think is bad is actually good, and everyone ends up coexisting with that thing.

-Etc.

As for the characters, Hiccup (God! That name!) gets annoying at times, but I route for him in the end. Hiccup’s dragon Toothless is probably the best part of the movie. Evidently that character was modeled after the character Stitch in the Disney cartoon Lilo & Stitch, another character that I love! The girl who Hiccup falls in love with (Astrid. Another bad character name) confused me. I’m surprised he even liked her. She treated him as if he was lower than a cockroach, then she magically turns nice in the middle on the movie. Confused Matthew is right, sometimes there is only one reason for those sorts of things in movies; a wizard did it. Then we have the other Viking kids. One expects laughs because he’s fat. The kid Jonah Hill plays is supposedly funny because he thinks he’s a manly man. The other two are a pair of twins who exists solely for the purpose of arguing and beating each other up with things.

I probably wouldn’t have liked this as much is it wasn’t assisted by 3D. And on the topic of 3D, I think they finally figured out a way to perfect 3D technology, but I do think it is a marketing gimmick. Even without 3D, it is obvious Dreamworks finally stepped it up a little bit. They made better animation, a story that is at least okay, and perfect scenes between the kid and the dragon. So, my verdict is if you like this sort of movie, How To Train Your Dragon defiantly wont disappoint you.

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