How To Train Your Dragon (2010)
It's practically the law now that if you release a kiddie-centric film it has to be in 3D. We all know why-kids are the most powerful advertising vessels known to man. Pitch a product at the child market and you have a guaranteed nagging, whining license to print money. In this case, the product is 3D, because everyone who isn't a gullible, dribbling spunksquit knows that this whole 3D thing is a crock of shite (I would like to take this opportunity to point you to my Monsters Vs. Aliens review where I basically suck 3D's dark, evil schlong and profess my love for it. Well, a lot has changed since then and I'm fucking fed up of this 3D nonsense. The novelty soon wore off.)
On the Viking island of Berk (no, really), the inhabitants are constantly under attack by dragons, burning their houses, stealing theirwomen sheep and whatnot. We are introduced to clumsy kid Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) who yearns to be a big, strong Viking like his father Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler). However, after accidently grounding a dragon dubbed "Toothless", Hiccup soon
It's practically the law now that if you release a kiddie-centric film it has to be in 3D. We all know why-kids are the most powerful advertising vessels known to man. Pitch a product at the child market and you have a guaranteed nagging, whining license to print money. In this case, the product is 3D, because everyone who isn't a gullible, dribbling spunksquit knows that this whole 3D thing is a crock of shite (I would like to take this opportunity to point you to my Monsters Vs. Aliens review where I basically suck 3D's dark, evil schlong and profess my love for it. Well, a lot has changed since then and I'm fucking fed up of this 3D nonsense. The novelty soon wore off.)"Most people would leave, but not us. We're Vikings. We have stubbornness issues."
On the Viking island of Berk (no, really), the inhabitants are constantly under attack by dragons, burning their houses, stealing their
discovers there might be more to dragons than their vicious appearance. The plot is actually pretty decent. The underlying messages of not judging on appearances and being kind to animals are sound ones and something that children should learn, if only by computer generated osmosis. The voice actors are all fine, although it is never explained why the Vikings have a Scottish leader and various Irish members of their clan.
How To Train Your Dragon (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb) has some really enjoyable bits, but it's quite an inconsistent film. The flight sequences are genuinely thrilling, but some of the quieter, character based moments start to drag after a while. In fact, the film seems to struggle whenever there aren't any dragons on screen and the characters are left to explain what's going on to each other. Most of them are pretty standard comic relief type characters who do stuff like walking into walls and farting- something which will undoubtably make the kids happy but made me grind my teeth into a fine powder. The ending is great though, with an epic final battle to round things off. It's also surprisingly brave too with the fate of Hiccup (you'll know what I mean when you see it), which is to be applauded.
How To Train Your Dragon is a fairly decent kids' film. It's by no means essential viewing- there are much better examples in the genre, but it's worth a viewing- in 2D if possible.
How To Train Your Dragon (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb) has some really enjoyable bits, but it's quite an inconsistent film. The flight sequences are genuinely thrilling, but some of the quieter, character based moments start to drag after a while. In fact, the film seems to struggle whenever there aren't any dragons on screen and the characters are left to explain what's going on to each other. Most of them are pretty standard comic relief type characters who do stuff like walking into walls and farting- something which will undoubtably make the kids happy but made me grind my teeth into a fine powder. The ending is great though, with an epic final battle to round things off. It's also surprisingly brave too with the fate of Hiccup (you'll know what I mean when you see it), which is to be applauded.
"Thank you for nothing, you useless reptile!"
How To Train Your Dragon is a fairly decent kids' film. It's by no means essential viewing- there are much better examples in the genre, but it's worth a viewing- in 2D if possible.
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