Reviewed
by Lamar Kukuk
4/9/10
The
movies and I seem to be aging in opposite directions. Yeah, I'm getting
older, but good movies seem to be getting younger. Four films on
my 2009 Ten Best List were animated and another
was an adaptation of a classic children's book. What this says about
the films being pitched at adults these days is a separate matter, but
there's no question that we've entered a Golden Age of animated features,
helped along by the rise of new 3D technology for which they're ideally
suited. Today's animation incorporates a lot more grown-up themes
around the edges while staging the kind of action spectacle for the whole
family that used to be the domain of live-action blockbusters before ethics
you'd want your kids to emulate became “quaint”. How to Train
Your Dragon, the latest Dreamworks 3D spectacular, takes an old-fashioned
boy-and-his-dog story, substitutes Vikings for farmers and dragons for
puppies, and then sends the whole lot of them against biggest, meanest
movie monster this side of the Kraken. Chock full of heart and excitement,
the movie is buoyed by wonderful vocal performances by Jay Baruchel and
Gerard Butler and 3D effects that are genuinely worth donning (and paying
for) the glasses to see.
Hiccup
(Jay Baruchel) is the son of mighty Viking Stoick (Gerard Butler), but
can't come close to living up to his legend. Their settlement is
under relentless siege by dragons, and little Hiccup dreams of proving
himself to the others by killing one. He thinks one of his inventions
has brought one out of the sky and follows the trail to find a wounded
dragon he names Toothless. Of course, naming something you're trying
to kill is a good sign you're not cut out for dragon killing, and Hiccup
can't bring himself to murder the adorable creature. Slowly, he befriends
Toothless and learns from him that the dragons are not quite the soulless
killing machines he'd imagined. But by this time, his father has
enrolled him in dragon hunting school under the instruction of Gobber (Craig
Ferguson). Hiccup is mocked by the more traditional Viking students
like Astrid (America Ferrera), but he quickly uses the things he's learned
from Toothless to subdue one dragon after another without actually hurting
it. But it's only a matter of time before the jealous Astrid discovers
his secret, and the two of them discover the bigger secret that lurks in
the dragons' nest. And I do mean BIG.
Since
Toy Story, it's been a popular animation cliché
to generate laughs by making every kind of animal, alien and fantasy creature
a clock-punching human in creature's clothing. So it seems more novel
than it might necessarily be to have a movie like How to Train Your
Dragon actually treat animals like animals. The dragons Hiccup's
people battle aren't the evil monsters they imagine, but they're not “just
like you an me” either. Rather, they're no more or less than animals:
the nice ones are loving and loyal, the mean ones vicious and deadly.
The relationship that forms between Hiccup and Toothless is quite well
done: you can really feel them bond, and as much as Hiccup is a good
and courageous person, so too is Toothless a lovable and adorable pet in
addition to having cool dragon powers. The story wisely takes its
time on things like the dragon learning to trust his friend to give him
food and having the two of them learn to fly together with a makeshift
tail Hiccup builds to replace the one he shot off.
In
general, the movie's relationships feel surprisingly legitimate for an
animated film, with the awkward father-son dynamic between Hiccup and Stoick
and the mentor-student connection between he and Gobber getting emotional
heft from the good work of the actors. In general, the movie benefits
from applying Baruchel's nerdy cool to Hiccup, and the other dragon fighting
students, played by assorted familiar faces like Jonah Hill, Christopher
Mintz-Plasse and Kristen Wiig, are amusing without being so nasty we can't
root for them when it's time for everyone to join forces. While Butler's
in his tough-guy wheelhouse, Ferguson and Ferrera have surprising luck
embracing their inner Vikings.
Writer/directors
Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders (fugitives from Disney, where they co-wrote
Mulan and wrote and directed Lilo and Stitch) show a deft
hand at just about everything they attempt, from bonding kids and pets
and kids and Dads to laying out a convincing make-believe science to their
dragons that pays off both when it's time to make friends and time to kick
butt. As for that butt kicking, the movie's action is really strong,
and the climax delivers major dragon vs. dragon value for your money, enhanced
all the more by the way we've bonded with the characters by then.
As the MPAA awkwardly cautions, the level of violence and peril at the
end is kinda intense, but we are talking about battling dragons here, so
it's hard to imagine the kid who won't be glad he was there when the smoke
clears.
Dreamworks
animation head Jeffrey Katzenberg has long been Hollywood's biggest 3D
backer, and his studio's movies really put it the technology to use.
How to Train Your Dragon plays out in a truly 3D world where the
screen seems to have opened to reveal three dimensional characters moving
about a world with true depth. The flying effects are solid and the
water is really well-done, particularly a great shot of Toothless catching
a fish shot from underwater. Animation of all kinds has a leg up
on live action in the 3D department, but this is the crispest-looking 3D
movie I've seen since last winter's Coraline.
The various dragon species are creative and delightful and given distinctive
personalities by the animators.
How
to Train Your Dragon (based upon a book series by Cressida Cowell)
feels brisk and complete even as a massive credit crawl pads it out to
98 minutes. It's funny and action-packed enough to entertain adults
and should absolutely enchant kids (especially boys) who'll feel a kinship
with Hiccup and go ga-ga over the dragons. You'll be hard-pressed
to find a live-action adventure that hits its setups and payoff and general
sense of characterization as smoothly as this cartoon, but then that's
the way things are going these days. Take your great stories where
you can get them. |
