|
How
to Train Your Dragon
is one of the
coolest animated
adventures that I’ve
seen in a long time.
Dreamworks movies
are almost always
excellent- filled
with laughs, action,
lessons, and
heartfelt moments.
The latest
Dreamworks release
to come out on
Blu-ray and DVD is
no exception. The
studio has made some
great movies over
the past decade, and
How
to Train Your Dragon
is in
the upper echelon of
those movies.
The movie follows
Hiccup, a teenager
in a small Viking
village. We’ve seen
movies like this
before… Hiccup is
viewed as a joke by
everybody in the
village. He can’t do
anything right and
when he tries to
accomplish
something, things
usually go horribly
wrong. It would be
one thing if the
village just had to
deal with Hiccup’s
antics, but at
nighttime they have
to deal with a
terrible pest
problem… dragons.
The dragons swoop in
and attack all the
time and steal their
livestock. Point is,
Hiccup is an outcast
and he’s supposed to
be capable enough to
help the village
when they’re under
attack.
After a big assault,
Hiccup walks through
the woods only to
stumble upon a
grounded/injured
dragon. Hiccup has
the opportunity to
slay the dragon and
become a hero… only
he couldn’t bring
himself to do it.
The dragon remains
grounded and the two
garner up a
friendship with
Hiccup deeming the
creature Toothless.
Toothless and Hiccup
learn to understand
each other, but the
problem is getting
the rest of the
village to open
their eyes to what’s
going on around
them.
How
to Train Your Dragon
was a great movie.
I’m a Jay Baruchel
fan, even from
I’m
Reed Fish.
He does an awesome
job as Hiccup and
with Gerard Butler,
Craig Ferguson,
America Ferrera, and
Jonah Hill rounding
out an excellent
voice cast- there’s
no shortage of
talent. The concept
of the flick was
outstanding with the
dragon/Viking
dynamic; it was a
cool concept that we
haven’t seen in an
animated movie
before. The most
important part of
the movie though,
was animating and
designing the
dragons. They had to
be scary enough to
be frightened of
early in the movie
and they had to look
nice enough to
realize they might
not be all bad. This
had to be a
difficult process,
but Dreamworks did a
nice job of doing
it. It’s true that
How
to Train Your Dragon
is another zero to
hero story, but who
doesn’t like that?
What’s the problem
with rooting for the
underdog?
The
Dragon Double DVD
Pack on
How
to Train Your Dragon
is the most promoted
release due to an
extra 19 minute
feature on an
additional disc
called
Legend of the
Boneknapper Dragon.
It’s a release
that’s good enough-
and the 19 minute
feature is almost as
good as the movie.
It’s definitely
funny and it’s worth
checking out. The
bonus DVD generally
holds all of the
bonus content for
the feature- there’s
a Dreamworks Jukebox
with various music
videos from
different movies and
then there are some
other decent dragon
features on the
bonus DVD, but the
main DVD only has a
two bonus features
and for the large
part is void of
extra content. It’s
not a bad release
but a more expansive
one with games and
different features
would have been
better.
How
to Train Your Dragon
is an excellent
feature and the
Dragon Double DVD
Pack is a good
pickup for your
family. Not only is
the movie itself
outstanding, but the
bonus 19 minute
Boneknapper show is
hilarious.
|