Hullo there. My ‘official’ review of ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ is pending its own review on the blog I write for at collegetimes.us. I’ll link it when it is ready to go. Until then, here’s the full text of the review (without the score which you’ll have to wait for until the actual review comes up). Cheers!
Edit: The official review is up!: http://collegetimes.us/how-to-train-your-pet-dragon-a-beautiful-adrenaline-rushed-animated-feature/
____________________________
Many modern-day animated features have fallen into their own clichés and pitfalls. Either they are too set on bridge the gap between appeasing parents and children with two very sets of different humor and plot or have uninteresting sets of ideas because they fail to approach its medium with much creativity. The best-animated features freely take ideas and spin them into meaningful and imaginative landscapes, not being chained down by notions of reality. How to Train Your Pet Dragon is not the perfect representation of this interpretation but goes quite high in creating a unique and creative world. The animated film utilizes its Nordic Viking backdrop to a great cultural extent while being visually spectacular.
How to Train Your Pet Dragon is set in a mythical Nordic land where Vikings are constantly living in battle against fearsome dragons that take their livestock and ruin their land. The Vikings are a proud, bulky race with many of them living and breathing the thrill of battle. Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) is a young Viking who seems to have grown the wrong way as he wishes to join his brethren in the heat of battle yet his meek demeanor and different way of approaching situations with his brain seem to speak otherwise. He becomes the laughingstock of the town and a shame to his father, Stoick (Gerard Butler), the chief of the tribe. One day, Hiccup runs across a downed dragon that he hit in a prior battle, unbeknownst to the rest of his tribe. Instead of killing it and taking it back to his tribe, he frees it and slowly begins to bond with the beast. This begins to change Hiccup’s perspective on dragons although he soon comes to realize he has to either defy his father and tribe or protect a creature he has ultimately come to love.
Perhaps an unfortunate oversight of the film that needs to be noted is the lack of depth in its plots and characters. Hiccup is perhaps the most developed character among the cast along with his pet dragon, Toothless, getting some fun interactive moments and interesting characterizations. However, even with these characters, the character development seems more or less by the numbers. Although I have not read the book, the character progression and narrative seemed fairly predictable from the beginning and most audiences, teen and up, will probably not be too surprised by how the film ends. Other characters are fairly one-note in their roles and although some may make an always-repeated argument of “it’s a children’s movie,” that is no excuse when other animated features have pushed the benchmark for creating engrossing and developed plotlines.
Yet where the plot is typical, the visual splendor and the rich background are not. Dreamworks has created a gorgeous film here that is rich in detail and backed by great artistic design. This can definitely stand as one of the best-animated films to date. Simply take a moment when Hiccup and Toothless are flying over the sea towards the island as the camera zooms out. It is a breathtaking shot and an achievement both in the technology and artistry. Just as well, the 3D acts as a complement rather than a detracting gimmick. The depth is especially noticeable in the exhilarating choreographed actions sequences that are well done and needs to be witnessed in theaters for the full visual impact. These set pieces are smart and a pleasure to watch; the best being a flying sequence in the middle of the film that is sure to bring back memories of other similar and great moments like in Star Wars.
In addition to all the wonderful action moments is the attention to detail in terms of the culture and atmosphere. Directors DeBlois and Sanders has infused the Nordic backdrop well into the film to give it so much personality that sets the film apart from being just a simple animated film with visual bravado. The music, for instance, is a great draw that punctuates at the right moments in tandem with the film’s action but also includes lots of fiddles and bellowing bass that should bring smiles to viewers as the camera pans out to the beautiful foggy vistas with the music at full volume. And again, the art design needs to be mentioned again here since the look and feel of the village to the surrounding land and its inhabitants are given a cartoon spin yet is mixed with a lot of memorable designs to have the audience feel a lot of individuality in the models. For instance, the dragon design hits a good mark between beast and cute pet that the viewer grows more attached to throughout the duration of the film. The voice work also should be noted as fairly fun-natured and a good fit for the characters.
How To Train Your Pet Dragon is a wonderful and exhilarating animated film and is one of the better 3D films to grace theaters in recent years. It does lack depth in terms of its plot and character progression, boiling down to an action creature film melded with a boy’s forbidden pet backdrop and lacks a greater purpose in character progression. However, the movie is visually spectacular, one of Dreamworks’ best so far, with a great sense of choreography, complemented by its smart use of 3D that does not feel tacked on or gimmicky. And much like Dreamworks’ previous great-animated feature, Kung Fu Panda, it embraces a cultural design well and sticks to it throughout: here being the Nordic background with a great musical composition and great artistry/design. These types of rich and cultural animated features from Dreamworks are a joy to see and one that should be continually embraced by the studio and fans of animated works.
