Dreamworks Animation has always played second fiddle to Pixar. Films like Antz and Shark Tale haven’t come close to matching the quality of A Bug’s Life or Finding Nemo. Kung Fu Panda and the first Shrek were good though the latter has become a franchise of diminishing returns. It’s taken a long time, but Dreamworks has produced their best movie to date in How to Train Your Dragon.
On the island of Berk is a village of Vikings constantly under siege by dragons. Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) is the son of the village’s leader Stoick (Gerard Butler). While Stoick is the biggest, burliest of the Vikings, Hiccup is an awkward, neurotic beanpole. Hiccup apprentices for a one-handed blacksmith named Gobber (Craig Ferguson) though his gadgets are never taken seriously. Using a catapult of his invention, Hiccup manages to bring down the most dangerous of all dragons, the Night Fury.
Hiccup finds the injured dragon, but cannot bring himself to kill the feline-like creature. Naming him Toothless, the pair bond quickly and Hiccup begins cataloguing all manner of dragon behavior. All of these new facts conflict with everything the Vikings are taught about dragons being utterly savage. Hiccup and a band of young warriors must protect the dragons’ nest when Stoick leads the others on a mission to wipe them all out.
How to Train Your Dragon bares many superficial similarities to Avatar. Both films feature protagonists that embark on almost identical hero’s journeys. However, Dragon manages to capture the wonders of flight in a slightly better manner. The 3D here gives you a slight sensation of flying without any nauseous side effects. The film even has a Superman-like moment when Hiccup takes love interest Astrid (America Ferrera) for her first dragon ride. It’s not essential to see it in 3D since the process does dull the vivid colors of the animated world.
What works best for Dragon isn’t some fancy new gimmick, but the relationship between Hiccup and Toothless which is the heart of the film. In lesser hands, Dragon would have been filled with anachronistic pop cultural references and the dragon would have been voiced by a high-priced celebrity. Remember Dragonheart? No? There’s a reason. Co-directors Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders previously worked on Lilo & Stitch which dealt with comparable themes. They manage to convey all the right emotions without being bogged down by on-the-nose dialogue. DeBlois and Sanders also bring some of the same irreverent humor exemplified by a gag in which Stoick presents his son with matching Viking helmets made from their late mother’s breastplates.
Wonderfully animated, How to Train Your Dragon is worth catching in the theaters.
Rating: ***1/2
No comments:
Post a Comment