Released in Theaters: 03/26/2010
The reviews are in – How to Train Your Dragon is a smash hit. It’s been out since March 26, and since then has been receiving constant praise. Not wanting to have high expectations and be disappointed, I sauntered into the theatre Tuesday afternoon with the thought that I’d witness a cute, animated flick – nothing more, nothing less. It was definitely cute, with the adorable lead, Hiccup, voiced by Jay Baruchel, and his even more adorable dragon friend, Toothless. But it was so much more than just a feel-good movie. How to Train Your Dragon is an adventure from start to finish. It opens with dragons attacking Hiccup’s village, Berk, in an awesome 3-D action sequence that puts you right into the movie.
It’s dragons vs. humans. The dragons attack and take their food; the humans retaliate and defend their land. Hiccup is ‘different’ from the rest of the Vikings in his village. He’s physically smaller than everyone and doesn’t seem like he has what it takes to kill the dragons. He wants to prove everyone wrong and with a machine he built, he takes down the most dreaded dragon of all: the Night Fury. No one can see it, no one has ever killed it, and Hiccup manages to take him down in one shot, capturing him. When Hiccup cannot bring himself to kill the dragon, so begins their friendship. He names him Toothless, and helps to repair his broken wing.
In the meantime, he doesn’t want to disappoint his father, Stoick (voiced by Gerard Butler), who is also the village leader of Berk. In doing so, he attends training with his other peers to kill dragons and become a Viking. His peers include his crush, Astrid (America Ferrera), Snotlout (Jonah Hill), and Ruffnut (Kristen Wiig). The kids – a very funny group – have to face some crazy dragons. The dragons are so cool. There are so many different kinds with different names and outrageous abilities.
Without giving anything else away, this movie makes you feel warm inside, especially with the heart-warming and uplifting relationship between Hiccup and Toothless. How to Train Your Dragon is exciting, well-shot, and enjoyable from beginning to end. Go see it while you still can.
IMDB 8.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes 98%
Movie Wiseguys 8.0/10
