Mar. 24, 2010 - Issue #753: Zion I

Film Capsules

How to Train Your Dragon

In Hiccup's world, Viking-era Scotland, you're not much of a citizen unless you can slay a dragon, and you're a standout citizen if you can purge the beast's guts on the earth for all to admire. But teenager Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) is too skinny to fit in. Too scared, too sarcastic and too smart to live up to the expectations of his dad (Gerard Butler), the village leader. So like so many children's stories, 3-D or not, based upon a best-selling British book series or not, the alien child finds acceptance in an alien friend.

Like E.T. or Lilo and Stitch (the latter was written and directed by the makers of this), How to Train Your Dragon follows that sweet, principled, tried-and-tested formula. In this case, Hiccup, only child in a single-parent household (what's with kids movies and one dead parent, anyway?), befriends a dragon of the Nightfury species, the most elusive and dangerous in their Viking folklore. Although the friendship starts roughly, with Hiccup trying to kill Toothless (it's just a name) to bring his remains to the village, once the dragon's personality comes out, he's more kitten than reptilian fire breather.

Dreamworks' animation team did a stellar job characterizing Toothless through blinks, purrs, moans and rollicking. Without barking an English syllable, the dragon becomes the second-most developed character, whose trials and triumphs are observable and felt. On the other hand, it's kind of a two-man show with Hiccup and Toothless. Despite a cast of stars providing the voices, including Jonah Hill and Craig Ferguson, the supporting characters don't as much support as provide quips and quirks, while America Ferrera's character, Astrid, lends just a modicum of romantic interest to Hiccup's journey.

But while it could use more meaningful characters and fewer one-liners delivered at moments of sentimentalism (a bother noticeable in most Dreamworks animations), the film does deliver. And it deserves credit for challenging its young audience with imperfect consequences, too.

There's never a dull moment in How to Train Your Dragon, a 3-D movie that doesn't rely on its protruding graphics to have its fun. Whether Hiccup is learning to tenderly scratch Toothless in his D-spot or comically trying to maintain his facade as an eager student of dragon slaying, or the Vikings are going into an all-out war, the big adventure thrills but never exhausts audiences.

How to Train Your Dragon
Written and directed by Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders
Starring Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Jonah Hill

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