R/R: How to Train Your Dragon

[arii]

A hapless young Viking who aspires to hunt dragons becomes the unlikely owner of a young dragon himself, and learns there may be more to the creatures than he assumed.

I've gotta say, after seeing Monsters vs. Aliens about this time last year - really for its amazing voice cast and pretty awesome premise - and the complete and utter shitfest that it was, I was DONE with DreamWorks.

But the 97% on RottenTomatoes - one of the highest rated movies of 2010 there thus far - and the fact that it's Chris Sanders (and you can definitely see Stitch in Toothless), I figured I'd give it a shot.

And at this point I'll tell you that if I suddenly completely cut off in this post, it's because my completely incoherent fangirling got the best of me because HOLY FUCKING GOD WOW.

I might be overstating it a tad right now. Miiiiight. But it's been three hours or so since I finished watching it and I'm STILL incredibly giddy and have an incredibly strong desire to just run back out there and go see it again as soon as possible, which is a little ridiculous, but I really really really really really really really really really really really loved this one.

Because it's DreamWorks this deserves a prominent mention: THERE WASN'T A SINGLE POPULAR CULTURE REFERENCE IN THIS MOVIE. Not ONE. And if there was one, then it damn well completely flew over my head and I totally missed it. But I'm pretty sure there weren't any. Man.

I was - so, so focused, and completely invested and immersed within the movie and its world. Everything - every damn little thing. The characters were fantastic, the plot was excellent, the visuals - good god, the visuals - it was all so perfectly, beautifully engrossing.

I'd never read the book before (and even though it's more of a tween audience I kind of really really want to now), so I can't necessarily comment on how well it was adapted or anything like that, but... nnngh.

So really, this movie was beautiful. So, so, so pretty. The animation was so much fun and the dragons all have really great designs (as do the rest of the characters, really. Perfectly complimenting their personalities and Hiccup's is a little cliche and expected, but it sets him apart from everyone else pretty well). It's so rich in colour and the world was so vibrant... The fire's great and just, man, it's BEAUTIFUL. Caught it in IMAX with 3D and... man. It's worth it. I'd compare the 3D more to Pixar's take on it, actually, in that it enhances the animation without being horribly blatant or gimmicky. And that one flight sequence - you'll know what I mean when you see it, but I could have pretty much watched that forever.

Right from the beginning I was just hooked in and... the film never really slipped up. I was expecting something initially but no... it develops itself pretty damn well. The pacing is fantastic. It doesn't waste time in getting into the story but the passage of time is still well-communicated and fully appropriate and... ah. It was just so fucking well developed and kept me completely in it.

It was pretty funny (the kids are all great) and the voice acting was really fantastic but what drew me in so, so, so strongly was the characters and all of the heart and behind this one. The emotional core is so, so strong. Scenes between Hiccup and Toothless in particular were... just beautiful and perfect and I got so, so invested in just those two. There was a lot going on in there even though one of them can't talk but it was really easy to relate to their relationship. And I'm basically trying to be as general here as possible because even I'm not a big enough of a dick to go without spoiler tags in the first post of a thread but I don't really feel like putting those in, so...

The one complaint I have - one - is that it got a little too cliche at the climax, along the lines of it being AN INCREDIBLY MASSIVE HUGE FUCKING DEAL, which threw me out of it a little bit because everything honestly felt really natural up until that point - but that was okay. I would've preferred something a little more subtle but there was really quite a lot of that sort of atmosphere earlier in the movie, and that's probably what made it so jarring, but it still worked well enough and it's not like the movie turned awful at that point. It didn't hurt it that there was an event that was a HUGE FUCKING DEAL and it still developed pretty well. It needed closure at some point and I guess it helped it along.

And the end - man, man, man the end. Just perfect. Perfect perfect perfect.

Iiiiiiii'm gonna stop right here, this is getting a touch long and I'm basically just rambling off a bunch of blanket statements in a really fangirly way and I'm genuinely surprised I haven't hit uncontrollable keyboard-smashing levels in this post yet, so this seems like a good place to, uh, stop. At least until someone else sees it so I'm not just rambling like a loon to myself. Aaah.

Because, uh. I went in shocked at the fact that DreamWorks pulled off a 97% movie and not really knowing how much I'd agree - and came out IN FUCKING LOVE.

Seriously you guys this movie is awesome you should watch it.

[kupomog]

I'm pretty glad to hear this because this is a movie I really wanted to see. I wasn't into the voice of the boy during the trailers, has that tired/bored slurs-everything voice that I really hate, but everything else was very, very interesting to me. Post makes me happy, I'm thinking about seeing this for sure now.

[Ryan]

when I saw the trailer, I was super unimpressed. seemed typical and cliche, despite sanders' involvement. but people all over the net seem to be having a gigantic circlejerk to this movie, way moreso than they did for kung fu panda. not to mention the 97% RT rating. arii, your comments just sealed it: I'm seeing this shit asap.

[Mt. Doom]

Meh, not a fan of Dreamworks. AT ALL. But I might check it out now. Not sure if I can sit through 90 minutes of Hiccup's nasally teenage voice, though

[BartSimpsonfan17]

Wow, this movie sounds good.
I'm going to have to see it.

[Semaj]

I'm thinking about seeing it, only because Chris Sanders has a hand in it.

[Ryan]

Meh, not a fan of Dreamworks. AT ALL. But I might check it out now. Not sure if I can sit through 90 minutes of Hiccup's nasally teenage voice, though

well then prepare for on an onslaught of being annoyed because apparently jay baruchel is the next seth rogen if the last month is any indication.

[arii]

hahaha

He does stand out quite a lot, really (especially when you take Gerard Butler and Craig Ferguson's voices into account), but he didn't really bug me throughout the movie. Though I wasn't really thinking about it or annoyed to begin with, so.

(I stated this in my original post but having sobered sliiiightly this morning, I take no responsibility for having completely overhyped this for anyone.

... It really is a good movie though and seriously, I hate DreamWorks as much as the next person. Possibly more so.)

[Mt. Doom]

Well if Craig Ferguson's in it, that'll probably compensate for any annoyance whatsoever

[Jye]

I also really enjoyed this. It was far better than I was expecting. I thought the "boy befriends "so called evil" dragon" was going to be pretty boring and cliche but they actually pulled it off quite well. Besides, the animation alone is really good here. 4/5.

[Disgruntled Goat]

I haven't seen this, but how can you rag on Monsters vs. Aliens?! I thought it was one of the best Dreamworks movies they've ever done.

It would have been incredible if Pixar did it

[Mt. Doom]

^No, Pixar is a dignified studio. They'd be smarter than that

[Ryan]

just returned from seeing this. very solid, on the levels of kung fu panda, if not stronger. like panda, there's cliches to be expected (this is not pixar-level story-writing, but who else can ape them?), but again like KFP, it's executed smoothly and without any bumps in the road. not only that, but it's emotionally strong, something that is greatly lacking in many other dreamworks productions.

like arii said, the 3D is well-done, and the animation is just flawless. many of the flying scenes are great fun and one in particular is breathtaking. the characters are decent, and hiccup is especially well-done which makes up for some of the other characters. besides stoick and astrid, everyone else is more there for support (yes, even craig ferguson's character), but thankfully nobody was a gimmicky comic relief (I'm looking at you, seth rogen). the film is also surprisingly light on laughs (though the jokes that are there definitely work), but this is much more of an action adventure fantasy film than a comedy, and setting that tone works well for the film overall. (edit: one thing I forgot to mention earlier is that I liked the reality of hiccup losing his leg, which also adds to his relationship with toothless in that they each have lost a part of their body)

I guess the one flaw in "how to train your dragon" might be the mishandling of stoick's arc in the climax (it's just too fast of a turn IMO), but it's a minor one at best. easily among dreamworks' top two films, and I'm glad I went out and saw it. you should, too, because from what I can see, it's the last time we might be saying that about a dreamworks film for a long ass time. (judging from the megamind trailer, there's just no way in hell unless they pull a miracle)

5/5

btw: barely any laughs at toy story 3 trailer, HUGE laughs at shrek forever after trailer. goddamn it, america, don't let this half-full faux IMAX audience be a microcosm of theatergoers across the country. I've said it before: shrek 4 beats TS3 in the box office, somebody's gonna die, because somebody's gotta pay for that brutal injustice. nobody wants to die now, do they? that's what I thought.

[Mira]

OMFG.

I saw this earlier tonight without knowing a single thing about it. Not even haven seen a commercial or synopsis. My friends came over and said they were seeing some movie that got 97% percent on rottentomatoes.com, so I tagged along based on that. I too was pretty skeptical because with the exception of Antz and Kung Fu Panda; I haven't really been impressed by anything Dreamworks has put out. I'm glad to say I was completely surprised by how amazing this movie was. In fact, I'd easily rank this among my top 5 animated films of all time. Not a single character or scene was out of place or unneeded. All the characters were great; even the minor/ extra ones and every single scene helped to move the plot forward. Also it was RIDICULOUSLY EPIC. So, yeah, pretty much a perfect movie. My favorite since Inglorious Basterds. 5/5

[D DEBBS]

Was watching the Rotten Tomatoes Show on Current TV last night-they gave it 97%.

[Steve]

This didn't really look good to me, but based on what I've heard I may have to check it out. Haven't been to the movies in a while; last thing I saw was Avatar. That's not like me to go months without seeing a movie But that changes soon.

[Capt Hammer]

Oh. My. God.

That was incredible! Easily the best cinema-going experience I've had this year, This movie was outstanding, best Dreamworks animation movie ever. To follow up on what arii said: I didn't see a pop culture reference either and after seeing things like "Shark Tale," "Bee Movie" and "Monsters vs. Aliens" from dreamworks i began to wonder if it was a contest to see how many references they could fit in to a movie, but this one was great with keeping them out.

And I have to give a HUGE round of applause to the animators who worked on this because, well, to say it was a masterpiece is an understatement. It might be because I haven't seen another animated movie in 3-D before, but the fantastic animation combined with the awesome 3-D was phenominal. Seriously, it was beautiful. I could watch the movie a million times again just for the animation. The animation (and the score, everyone has to know that it was like oscar-worthy and really made the movie even better) that made the climax great, the climax was a little cliche but the animation was kind of incredible and i think it's because of the animation. Little off-topic but the 3-D really got to me, I, foolishly, tried to wipe the dust away during the climax. facepalm.

One way to show that you can be a brilliant writer is to have the audience relate to viking characters that live with dragons. I was astonished how you could relate to all the characters, feeling what they were feeling when they were totally different to modern day humans. All there actions felt really realistic. Hiccup was one of the greatest pre-teen/early teen characters in recent cinema IMO.

The Cast was outstanding, each brought something great to their character, and well you get the drift.

I could go on and on about the movie but I think you all get where I'm coming from. See the movie. You'll love it. 5/5.

Also totally off topic but:

btw: barely any laughs at toy story 3 trailer, HUGE laughs at shrek forever after trailer. goddamn it, america

Wasn't true for my theatre. Glad to see some people aren't messed up in the head.

[Gatorgod]

I really liked this movie! I cant believe it opened with less then expect box office results,.. What do people want? Kung Fu Pander is still my all time fav, but this entertained me very well.
I liked the art work, the 3D, and I liked how only the adults spoke with heavy "Smorgy-Borgy" Nordic accents,.. and all of the kids in the film spoke normally??.... I guess its something they'll grow into eventually? 5/5

[Kiyosuki]

I agree this was a really cool movie, leagues