How To Train Your Dragon

I have to admit, I'm not always the biggest fan of the Dreamworks animated films.  I loved the first two Shrek films, but for the most part their animated movies as a whole seem way too obsessed with pop-culture references that become dated quickly and never seem to reach the storytelling highs that the Pixar films do.

When I first saw the trailers for How to Train Your Dragon, I assumed this would be another lackluster Dreamworks effort.  But wow, I am so glad to be wrong.  This movie is easily their best animated film and the best movie I've seen so far this year.  Granted, it's only April, but still...it's a good start.

Loosely based on the 2003 novel of the same name, How to Train Your Dragon is the story of Hiccup, a gawky, accident-prone teenager from a mythical Viking village (where all of the adults speak with Scottish accents and the kids speak with American accents for some reason) that is constantly under attack by all kinds of vicious dragons who torch homes and steal sheep on a regular basis.

While Hiccup is supposed to be learning how to be a dragon-slayer, he instead winds up befriending a dragon he shoots down, who he names "Toothless."  Toothless is a Night Fury dragon, supposedly the most elusive and terrifying dragon of them all.  But once they get to know each other, it turns out Toothless is actually kind of sweet...in a dangerous pet kind of way, and they go on to develop a sort of ET/Elliot-type friendship, much to the chagrin of his fellow classmates and especially his warrior-hero father, who's leading an army to destroy the rest of the dragons.  Needless to say, convincing everyone that dragons aren't so bad after all will prove to be as difficult as it sounds.

The 3D in this film was amazing.  Unlike Alice in Wonderland, which was converted from 2D to 3D and didn't necessarily need it, this was actually filmed for 3D and it looked as good as anything in Avatar.  The flying scenes alone make the movie worth shelling out the extra cash for the IMAX version, and the battle sequence at the end was equally impressive.

How to Train Your Dragon also benefits from a terrific voice cast, including Jay Baruchel (as Hiccup), Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, and America Ferrara.  We even get a mini-Superbad reunion with Jonah Hill and Christopher Mintz-Plasse voicing two of Hiccup's classmates.

I've never read the book, so I don't know if it's a good adaptation...but I can't say enough good things about the movie.  It was Pixar-good.  I loved that they got through it without a single pop-culture reference, and that it had an excellent story.  It also had what was probably one of the best dragon battle scenes I've ever seen.

Unfortunately, the movie opened to a lukewarm response at the box office last weekend (the sudden rise in 3D ticket prices certainly didn't help it), and the release of Clash of the Titans in 3D won't be doing it any favors this upcoming weekend.

But if you do get the chance - see this movie!  At the IMAX if you can.  It's incredibly good.