Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Book to Movie Review: How to Train Your Dragon

MOVIE: How to Train Your Dragon
SOME OF THE ACTORS (voices in this case): Gerard Butler, America Ferrara
GENRE: animated, fantasy, adventure
PREMISE: Hiccup is a hopeless viking in every way imaginable (even his father is embarressed by him). Then he somehow manages to befriend a dragon and discovers there's more to these creatures that his tribe has been fighting then they all think.
MY REVIEW: Okay, confession. I've never read the book. But in my defense I totally plan too and honestly had never even HEARD of this book till now. I don't have kids so it's not a surprise that I'm not as in the know about children's fiction. But that didn't stop me from wanting to see this because a) It's Dreamworks and they do awesome movies (usually), and b) DRAGONS. I have a weakness for dragons I admit. Plus it just looked fun.
I was not disappointed. I actually will go as far to say this movie is a contender for best animated film of the year (especially if those dumb looking animated films that were previewed are anything to go by...) assuming that Toy Story 3 is actually not every bit as awesome as it looks (doubtful ;bows to Pixar;) and that Rapunzel sucks storyline wise (I've only seen the concept art and while it looks gorgeous I'm not sure about the story because seriously Rapunzel=most boring princess in my book so I'm not sure how Disney is going to manage making that work). But anyway, this movie is awesome.
The animation is GORGEOUS. I saw the non-3D version too, just to give you an idea. The story is great too. Yes, it's a little of the same spiel in fantasy: average kid not good at anything finds his place yadda yadda. But still, Dreamworks made it different and sweet. The thing that made this for me was Hiccup though. He was ADORABLE. I adored his sarcasm and basically his whole character. Then the scenes with him and Toothless just added to that. Toothless was a character in himself too, despite never having one word of dialogue. Although oddly enough, he kept reminding me of my cat...The supporting characters were also a hoot. I loved the twins. Don't know why, just did. Oh, and soundtrack junkies: GET THE SOUNDTRACK. The music is just as gorgeous as the movie. It's another one I'm nominating for Oscar season.
So all in all, a fantastic movie. Encourage everyone to see. Will definitely be adding this one to the dvd collection ;)
WHO SHOULD SEE: everyone
MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five dragons

1 comment:

  1. I want to see this movie too and I'll bring my kids too but to listen to Gerard butler would make my day. I agree Toy story 3 looks awesome and I bow down to them too.

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