How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
Directed by Chris Sanders
As the son of a Viking leader on the cusp of manhood, shy Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III faces a rite of passage: he must kill a dragon to prove his warrior mettle. But after downing a feared dragon, he realizes that he no longer wants to destroy it, and instead befriends the beast – which he names Toothless – much to the chagrin of his warrior father.
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21 films that influenced How to Train Your Dragon
What critics say influenced How to Train Your Dragon
Despite the outlandish success of the “Shrek” movies, there’s often a sad, also-ran vibe to DreamWorks’ animated movies.
The company’s animation output has hitherto been of the Shrek model: packed with tiresomely knowing pop cultural references that jar you out of the story every five minutes like an elbow to the ribs.
But it is an especially nice touch in the dragon tale itself, which is both heartwarming and heartfelt, a significant departure from the pop culture saturated sarcasm that had become something of a DreamWorks Animation staple à la “Shrek.”
But even if Dragon leads with its visuals, be glad that Dreamworks has largely moved away from the inane pop-culture referencing and wiseass temperament that marked the Shrek films.
There's no compulsion to break into impromptu karaoke or drop jokey pop-culture references, the way DreamWorks' "Shrek" franchise and its many imitators have done.
The human/dragon scenario is reminiscent of both the delicate human/animal alliance in such films as The Black Stallion (1979) and the illicit romance of Romeo & Juliet (although here it is definitely a bromance).
Nevertheless, this is the first big-budget full fantasy animated movie since 1985's tragically ignored The Black Cauldron .
It's a joy to behold, a freewheeling exploration of impossible vistas that recalls, and arguably betters, the similar moments in Avatar .
It’s a combination of the wonder of flight in Avatar mixed with the speedy dogfights in Top Gun.
I have no emotional investment in the books, so I was nothing but totally thrilled with what ended up on the screen: a rousing tale beautifully animated to take full advantage of the current technology to create an invented world that is as touchably real as anything James Cameron showed us in Avatar.
How to Train Your Dragon blends the mythic-culture awesome of DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda, the geek chic of Sony’s Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and the dragon-riding euphoria of Avatar into an uneven but rollicking adventure that manages to be touching, funny, exhilarating and ultimately about as thrilling as a climactic battle with Vikings and dragons can possibly be.
We saw the movie in 2-D, but between this and Avatar, 3-D was specifically created to capitalize on our collective desire to fly a dragon/alien creature that’s basically a dragon with flammable breath.
The swoops and dives of the exuberant 3-D DreamWorks Animation feature "How to Train Your Dragon," in which the teenage hero breaks all the Viking rules and befriends the winged enemy, should prove as addicting to its target audience as similar scenes have in a little something called "Avatar."
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Think of the relationship between Buzz Lightyear and Woody in the "Toy Story" movies, Carl and Russell in "Up," Marlin and Dory in "Finding Nemo."
Despite the first two well-made Shrek films, DreamWorks has mostly played second fiddle to CG animation giant Pixar: From Antz to Kung Fu Panda , these illustrated marvels are clearly wondrous to look at, but the narrative arcs and characters never quite resonate with the same emotional complexity and punch as, say, Toy Story or even 2009’s Up .
Shark Tale , Bee Movie , Over the Hedge , the Madagascar pictures and the Shrek films are OK movies with OK animation, but there's a certain charm missing from them that's ever-present in Pixar's work, and even some of Sony and Fox's animated titles (though many films at these two studios are genuinely awful).
How to Train Your Dragon blends the mythic-culture awesome of DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda, the geek chic of Sony’s Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and the dragon-riding euphoria of Avatar into an uneven but rollicking adventure that manages to be touching, funny, exhilarating and ultimately about as thrilling as a climactic battle with Vikings and dragons can possibly be.
But here's one for the hit pile to rival Shrek, Kung Fu Panda and almost anything Pixar have ever done.
Like DreamWorks' own " Kung Fu Panda ," "How to Train Your Dragon" creates a world and revels in the details and wraps it all in a rich, lush storybook ambience.
(Maybe they are saving them up for the upcoming Shrek Forever After , who knows?) Okay, in fairness How to Train Your Dragon isn't quite as much fun as their last two efforts, namely Monsters vs. Aliens and Kung Fu Panda .
This is the first semiserious animated flick from DreamWorks, which usually deals with fractured fairy tales (the Shrek series) and genre spoofs (Monsters vs. Aliens, Kung Fu Panda).
“From the makers of Shrek , Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda ” tends to be a virtual guarantee of slick, smirking entertainment – wise-cracking creatures embarking on a hip quest for Happy Meals, essentially.
Beyond just clinging to Joseph Campbell's oft-used "Hero's Journey" paradigm, HTTYD also retreads some of the same ground covered in Disney's 1997 animated feature Hercules and its direct-to-video prequel Hercules: Zero to Hero, where the title character is a gawky misfit who, after accidentally wreaking havoc on his own village, must undergo training in order to attain his true potential.
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Shark Tale , Bee Movie , Over the Hedge , the Madagascar pictures and the Shrek films are OK movies with OK animation, but there's a certain charm missing from them that's ever-present in Pixar's work, and even some of Sony and Fox's animated titles (though many films at these two studios are genuinely awful).
“From the makers of Shrek , Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda ” tends to be a virtual guarantee of slick, smirking entertainment – wise-cracking creatures embarking on a hip quest for Happy Meals, essentially.
While their rivals at Pixar are turning out pictures that transcend the limitations of the form and rank among the best of all recent cinema, Dreamworks has turned out a steady stream of profitable but formulaic efforts like Bee Movie , Shark Tale , and the endless, witless Shrek and Madagascar franchises.
The bond that grows between Hiccup and a fearsome dragon known as Night Fury is derivative of everything from Old Yeller to E.T., but it still works as well as it ever did.