How To Train Your Dragon (****)

Directed by: Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois

Starring (voices): Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jonah Hill, America Ferrera, Craig Ferguson, T.J. Miller, Kristen Wiig

Seen: March 27^th and April 3^rd 2010

**** Out of ****

In the village of Berk, the fighting (and slaying) dragons is a way of life. Students study how to kill dragons, and the chief of the village, Stoick the Vast (Butler), is the greatest dragon slayer. Dragons constantly raid Berk, and the village people live not in fear, but dreaming of destroying all dragons. Hiccup (Baruchel) is the son of Stoick the Vast, and he seems to have no aptitude for learning how to kill dragons; he is more of a Da Vinci type – trying to design tools to assist in dragon hunting, but his inventions have not met with real success/acceptance thus far.

The single one of his inventions that turns out to work does so during a raid when no-one sees it in the chaos, as he shoots down the Night Fury, an almost mythically feared dragon; Berk’s dragon guide books have only one thing to say on this dragon: hide. He finds the Night Fury in the forest the following morning, but standing with his knife over the bound creature can’t find the cold-blooded killer in himself and lets the dragon go. The Night Fury is injured however, and gets trapped in a canyon as he can’t fly. Hiccup starts befriending the dragon, and through designing an aid for the dragon to fly again comes close enough to realise that dragons are not what humans perceive them to be, and he learns a lot of small tricks that he exploits in his dragon hunting classes back in the village.

How to Train Your Dragon is a perfect example of 3D done right; as you almost don’t realise it, but instead get pulled into a movie experience so immersive you find yourself in constant big wow moments, as I did. The characters are all well-rounded, with great interaction between them. Hiccup is ridiculed, people tell him to be less of “this” while gesturing to all of him. His class of Viking youths are a truly entertaining bunch in the form of Astrid (Ferrera), the girl of Hiccup’s dreams and a pretty good student/dragon killer apprentice; Snotlout (Hill), the big-talker; Fishlegs (polar opposite in terms of body shape, Mintz-Plasse), the dragon dictionary; and the rough twins Tuffnut (Miller) and Ruffnut (Wiig). The one dragon to truly become a character is Hiccup’s Night Fury, Toothless, and without a voice, it is amazing what a character he actually does become.

The movie is chock-full of good values and family-friendly viewing. How to Train your Dragon is funny while at the same time teaching a great lesson – seek first to understand before acting with extreme prejudice. Visually this one is absolutely beautiful, and I found myself vocally exclaiming the coolness of what I saw on screen, something I don’t usually do. The dragons are in part big cats, and one small dragon actually purrs in one scene, and if not in the two minutes leading up to that, then that single scene will open space for these dragons in your heart. Toothless and Hiccup become friends, and while the rest of the town take some time to get in line with this, when they do it is glorious. The final battle is of huge scale, and will excite anyone.

How to Train Your Dragon might just be my new favourite animated feature – the one non-Pixar animated movie to rise above the rest. If Dreamworks can continue like this, they might become a powerhouse similar to what Pixar has always been. Definitely make time to go see this, you won’t be disappointed.