Made in 2010 How to Train Your Dragon is a film made by DreamWorks Animation that stars the voices of Gerard Butler, Jay Baruchel, Craig Ferguson and America Ferrera. It follows the exploits of a young Viking that struggles to live up to his father’s expectations whilst learning about an injured dragon.
Toothless the Dragon
Hiccup (Baruchel) is a young Viking that lives in a community that is seven generations old, but all the houses in it are new. This is because the village is being constantly attacked by dragons who steal livestock and burn the buildings down. The leader of the village is Stoick the Vast (Butler) who also just happens to be Hiccup’s father, and a master at killing dragons.
During an attack Hiccup uses an invention of his to shoot down the most dangerous of the dragons, a Night Fury. No one believes him so he goes off to find the body. Only the dragon is not dead but is entangled in the weapon Hiccup fired. After deciding he could not kill it, Hiccup cuts the ropes and frees the dragon. The dragon turns on him, pinning him to the ground, but it simply roars at him before trying to fly away.
Later Hiccup finds the dragon stuck in a shallow glade, and slowly manages to earn its trust after realising that its tail has been damaged which is why it does not fly away. He fashions a prosthetic limb that enables the dragon, ‘Toothless’ to fly, but through trial and error, they discover the tail will only work if Hiccup is on the dragon’s back to operate it.
Meanwhile Hiccup’s father sets off on a mission to find the dragon’s nest and destroy it once and for all...
DreamWorks Delivers the Goods
Any fan of animation will know that Pixar have produced some of the best animated films of recent years (think A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo, and The Incredible) whilst some of DreamWorks early offerings were either overshadowed by Pixar or were simply not very good (think Shark Tale). However, it seems that DreamWorks have learned from their mistakes and have started to set the bar as high as Pixar. How to Train Your Dragon is no exception. The animation is colourful, and the dragons themselves are varied and imaginative. Each one has its own distinctive personality and Toothless is both fierce and adorable at the same time.
The characters are lively and varied. With each character being flawlessly animated with each Viking fitting their voice actor perfectly. It is Baruchel who steals the show as the weedy Hiccup who learns through Toothless that everything his people through they knew about dragons was wrong.
All in all How to Train Your Dragon is an excellent example of what DreamWorks can do these days. They no longer phone-it-in, or rely on A-List vice cast to carry a story that does not engage or thrill its audience. How to Train Your Dragon has a fine voice cast, flawless animation, and is a magnificent underdog story and one that will thrill and entertain both children and adults alike.
4/5
Beautifully animated movie and a joy to watch.
Christopher Sharman - In 2009 I self-published my first novel entitled The Darkness Saga: The Light (currently available at amazon.co.uk) which has been ...
Join the Conversation