How To Train Your Dragon

Viewer Rating:simonconnolly has rated How To Train Your Dragon rating: 5 Star

When this film was released I got some tickets for it courtesy of entertainment.ie. Sadly I couldn't go due to looming assignment deadlines and my mates who said they'd take them didn't show up, thinking the film would be rubbish. And since then I have regretted not going. The film was released to some some amazing reviews and the film even took a place on IMDb's Top 250 films of all time list. But finally, months later I have seen this film and I was right to regret missing out.

How to Train your Dragon is set in a town which has a severe dragon problem, with the enormous fire-breathing beasts stealing all their cattle for food. And so almost all of the town is dedicated to killing the pests who out of fear more than anything fight back. Then little Hiccup takes down a Night Fury dragon, the most feared of all the dragons, in order to get the respect of his dragon killing expert father Stoik the Vast. But he doesn't have the heart to kill the beast in the end and sets it lose. The next day he returns to find he has injured the dragon, leaving him unable to fly. And so he decides to help the dragon, forming an unique bond. Now outraged by his towns dragon killing citizens he tries to destroy the hatred between the enemies.

The perfect way to describe how good this film is by saying that it is so good Pixar could've made it. It's no secret that since Toy Story Pixar have pretty much dominated the animated genre in terms of quality. Almost all of the most memorable animations since Pixar arrived on the scene have come from them. Shrek is really the only animation they haven't made that's even worth mentioning. Well now it's Shrek and this. It's unlike most recent animations. I wouldn't go as far to say it's got grit but it's certainly more dark than the likes of Kung-Fu Panda and them. It's not afraid to get a little tragic and really pulls no punches, appearing to do whatever it wants.

And this is great as these things always make the classics. The Lion King, Bambi and so on, all animated films almost defined by their tragicness. More recently Up and Wall-E have been willing to incorporate some sadness. The likes of Bee Movie, Over the Hedge and Monsters vs Aliens will never be remembered for this same reason. Maybe they figured kids these days can't handle it but in reality they can handle it more than ever.

At times it seems they might be trying a bit too hard to be different, a fact which is evident in the films final scenes. I won't ruin it but I will say that they do something extremely odd and unexpected. Some would say ridiculous and really stupid. That being said I thought it was a genius addition. Why? Well it gave the film more of an impact and made it really stick with me. It's been too long since we've been surprised by an animation, too long since the days when they were unpredictable.

But the fact is I actually liked this film just as much as I liked Up. It's seriously funny, visually vibrant and heartwarming, with an exceptional adventure story. Taking a leaf from the exquisite silent storytelling tendencies of Pixar, even when the jokes and dialogue aren't coming in the film is still entirely engaging and charming. How to Train your Dragon is simply 90 minutes of pure entertainment and the perfect family film in every way. The kids will love it because its imaginative, exciting and the characters are really fun. Adults will love it for those very same reasons and more.

So all in all How To Train Your Dragon is, along with Up and Wall-E one of the only animated films of recent years which actually deserves the time it takes to write a review. I generally don't write reviews for animations too often (although expect one for Toy Story 3) but after seeing this I had to get on my laptop and highly recommend it. As a pretty immature adult I think I am able to say that adults and children will love this film and if not for Up this would've definitely won last years Best Feature Length animated film of the year Oscar. Either that or it would've been unjustly robbed.

Review published on the 18 July 2010 23:03