Wednesday 9 March 2011

How To Train Your Dragon (2010)

Family Funnies - 4/5
So I saw this film about three weeks ago called 'How To Train Your Dragon'. Now, as you can imagine, after being told of a film that it's the best film somebody has ever seen, you inevitably go in with high hopes. I was not disappointed. Perhaps it wasn't the best film I'd ever seen but it couldn't fail to be bordering on such realms. It could have been the magical, heart-felt storyline or the humor elements of the film that swayed me in this direction. It had everything a top notch family film needed and more. The story, I would imagine, would have been a difficult one to grasp during the early stages of the making of the movie. What it needed to bring it all together was a host of stars and awesome animation. We got enough of that alright. Stars like Gerard Butler and Jonah Hill lent their skills, and lead man Jay Baruchel, known for small roles in such films as 'Knocked Up' and 'Tropic Thunder', was extremely effective as the nervous and wimpish main character Hiccup. Did he go on to make a good hero towards the end? I'm bordering on the side of yes.
Although I would love to say this film amazed me, it wasn't quite all I hoped it would be. It just lacked something. I don't know what it is and I will not pretend to. I just came away with a feeling that something was missing. Despite this however, I don't agree on the Best Animated Film Oscar being given to 'Toy Story 3' over this. The 'Toy Story' franchise has received a huge amount of acclaim as it is so why is an Oscar going to the worst of the three? 'How To Train Your Dragon' surely has to rate higher than that.
Despite whatever I felt was missing, DreamWorks certainly know how to make a family favourite with humor that appeals to the more aged film fanatic. For this you cannot help but applaud this film.
Would I recommend it? Of course I would.

1 comments:

michael said...

This has become quite the family favourite in our house. I hadn't heard much about it until I took my 4yr old to see it at a £1 Saturday morning screening. He loved it. I loved it even more and it proved that companies other than Pixar can make genuinely brilliant digital animation. Pixar seem like thy might lose their place at the top soon. Looks like they're going to be quite reliant on sequels in the near future, which is a shame. One of the things I liked best about Pixar was the constant creation of fresh, new and charming charcaters.
Having said that there may be more of these Dragon films as I believe it is based on a series of books. - Nice blog, I like your snappy approach to reviews. I can't do that; I end up rambling on for ages.
Twitter: @destroyapathy

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