Movie Review: How to Train Your Dragon

After Leann and I watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, someone (I can't remember if it was Leann's brother or one of her co-workers) told her that it had pretty much the same plot as How to Train Your Dragon. This is actually superficial—the only similarity between the two that I found was that they both deal with boys who have trouble connecting with their fathers for one reason or another but eventually manage to forge that bond. But, erroneous as it was, that declaration had a dampening effect on my enthusiasm to see this film. It's too bad, too, since…

My verdict: I really liked this movie. I'm eager to see the sequels (though I'm baffled why the first one isn't coming out until 2014). They adeptly handled the juggling of action, drama, romance, and comedy. The animation is excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed the varieties of dragons with their unique physiologies and abilities. It's funny, though, that Toothless looks a lot like the eponymous alien of Disney's Lilo & Stitch.[1] My only real complaint is the voice actor for Hiccup, Jay Baruchel. Besides my previous complaints about him [2], he just sounded to old for the character. It was even more disconcerting than having Jesse Eisenberg voice the parrot on Rio.[3]

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Notes:

[1] Perhaps because it's by the same directors: Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois.

[2] Read my review of his performance in The Sorceror's Apprentice here.

[3] Read my review here.

Image attributions:

Red Dragon is by LittleDrakon, available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:D&D red dragon1.jpg.