How to Train Your Dragon teaser

The latest computer-animated (or 3D animation) film from DreamWorks Animation, How to Train Your Dragon, really does reach new heights.  This story about a boy and his dragon will take the viewer soaring across the sky through cloud banks and far into the atmosphere.  The audience will follow the two as they streak across the ocean and over, around, and through islands and outcroppings.  For over a century, cinema has shown us humans riding into the sky on winged horses, magic carpets, giant birds, etc., but never has movie flight felt so thrilling as it does here on the back on a young dragon.

How to Train Your Dragon is set on the island of Berk, a Viking settlement where the Vikings have been fighting dragons since the settlers arrived on Berk.  The story’s hero is a Viking teenager named Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), the son of Viking chieftain, Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler).  Hiccup’s smarts and offbeat sense of humor don’t sit too well with his tribe or his father because fighting dragons is their way of life – not humor.

The beanpole-thin Hiccup is not strong, nor is he built like other Vikings, but still he is included in Dragon Training with the other Viking teens.  Hiccup sees this as his chance to prove he has what it takes to be a fighter.  When he encounters an injured dragon, one of the dreaded breed know as the Night Fury, Hiccup’s world is flipped upside down.  He eventually befriends the dragon, whom he names “Toothless,” and helps the creature when he discovers that half of Toothless’ tail wing has been ripped off, grounding him.  What started out as Hiccup’s one shot to prove himself as a Viking dragon slayer turns into an opportunity to set a new course for the future of Hiccup’s entire tribe.

Please visit Negromancer for a longer version of this review.