"But you just gestured to all of me..."

I haven’t watched movies in ages but I managed to catch Dreamwork’s How to Train a Dragon (in 3D!) twice last week :P I hadn’t planned on watching it twice but the circumstances somehow led me to it. I didn’t mind since it was quite a good movie, which is quite surprising considering my ever increasing cynicism towards English animated movies released by studios other than Pixar. The story is about Hiccup, a boy trying to prove himself worthy in a village where dragons are considered pests and dragon hunting is the main occupation of its villagers. It doesn’t help when his father is not only a dragon slayer, but is the village head as well. During a dragon attack one day, Hiccup manages to catch Night Fury, the deadliest dragon of all but discovers that killing it may not necessarily be the solution his people have practiced for the past hundreds of years.

So what did I like about the movie? First of all, I liked the unusual Viking setting the story is set in. When I first saw the poster I thought it was set in modern times. The seaside Viking island was not exactly something new but something we haven't seen in recent major animated films.
The voice actors behind the characters played their role very well. Hiccup, the underdog protagonist voiced by Jay Baruchel, has an annoying nasally voice but he reaches out to you somehow with his clever lines and determination. His father, voiced by Gerard Butler, did an amazing job as a Viking with the weight of his village on his shoulders. Craig Ferguson was funny in his role as dragon trainer/Hiccup’s baby sitter Gobber.

While I thought that the Night Fury resembled a Digimon character too much, it grew on me. Named Toothless by Hiccup because it appeared to have no teeth at first, it is not as dangerous as humans made it out to be and is in fact cute, especially when compared to the other dragons. Yes, in a movie about dragons, dragons in all its shapes and form make an appearance. Some don’t actually look like the dragons we’re used to seeing or reading in fantasy books or mythological tales, so they might not appeal to dragon purists, if there are any out there. I like them though, whether its the stout Gronckle or the very lizard-like Deadly Nadder.

The story was a simple coming of age story well-crafted by Dreamworks and the animation just blew me away. It’s like the technological advancement in animation leaped by few decades (maybe it did because, like I said, I haven’t watched movies in a long time) or perhaps it’s just the magic of 3D. You can see the hairs on the hands of the characters, see the textures of the different fabrics worn by the Vikings and the ocean looked so real. The flying parts were breathtaking and you begin to understand why they wanted to make a 3D movie featuring dragons.

As a fan of the fantasy genre, I’m glad to see there are other good fantasy movies out there besides The Lord of The Rings trilogy and Stardust :D