How to Train Your Dragon

Review by Jason Donner

Regardless of how much or how little I enjoyed How to Train Your Dragon, this movie will forever hold a place in my heart as the first movie I took my new family to.  I paid about ninety dollars for tickets, drinks, and snacks.  One fell asleep twenty minutes in and the baby threw up on me.

The fact that I didn't run to the bathroom to clean said puke off of me speaks volumes for this movie.  That and the baby puke was made mostly out of Reeses Pieces and so the smell of it was somewhat pleasant.  Yes, it's true... I braved baby barf for over an hour watching this completely enjoyable tale of a young Viking boy named Hiccup befriending an injured dragon who is supposed to be his sworn enemy.  Despite the fact that I had all but completely dismissed this film out of the gate, How to Train Your Dragon won me over with its charm, its humor, and its genuine magic.  This is one movie that was an absolute joy to sit through and witness.

I am very much enjoying the fact that celebrity voices appear to be on the downward slope in animated movies.  First, The Princess and the Frog has the audacity to hit theaters without a big expensive actor supplying a character with voice and now How to Train Your Dragon does almost the same thing.  Sure, it's got Gerald Butler and Colin Ferguson in it, but they're background characters and completely vanish into their parts.  This celebrity-lite movie sucks you in and makes you believe in the characters and not just Robin Williams or Megan Fox as a character.

I'm not against big name celebrities in animated movies, but let's face it... it's led to some terrible movies in the past.  After all, we can pretty much single-handedly thank Will Smith for that soul-crushingly awful Shark Tale movie.

Characters in How to Train Your Dragon feel three dimensional and real.  Hiccup's mentor, who could have been written as a flat comic relief character becomes thoughtful and well rounded.  Even Hiccup's disapproving father is given new life thanks to great writing -- he's not just a rough and tough Viking leader, he's also a concerned dad.

Even the main dragon character, Toothless, has a personality despite the fact (wisely chosen by the filmmakers) that he doesn't talk.  Instead, he uses facial expressions and animalistic poses to get his point across.  Think Stitch, but with the ability to breathe fire.

I just loved the hell out of this movie.  It's a beautiful tale with great characters and some incredible flight sequences.  The 3-D is a waste of money as none of it seemed very effective, but the film grabs you at the beginning and never lets you go.  This is just a great movie through and through.

I loved it more than I wanted to get baby puke off of me.  That should tell you a lot.