Plot: What’s it about?
Ever since the inception of the computer-generated movie, it’s somewhat ignited (or re-ignited) the genre. Now the genre I’m referring to is traditional animation, of course as you can’t re-ignite something that never existed before. Pixar is obviously the front runner when it comes to these types of movies, but other studios like Dreamworks and Fox have hopped on board with their own films. “Shrek” is perhaps the most-well known “non” Pixar movie, but after seeing “How to Train Your Dragon” I think there might be some competition in that department. All of these films are targeted at children, naturally, but what makes them work is that there’s something in it for adults as well. This is what made the “Harry Potter” books and movies so successful – the audience is simply so vast and most anyone can find something that they can relate to. Nevertheless “How to Train Your Dragon” opened last spring to both critical and commercial acclaim, raking in over $200 million at the box office.
The plot is simple enough…on the Island of Berk they’ve got a problem – dragons. The townsfolk, under the leadership of Stoick (voiced by Gerard Butler), wage a seemingly never ending battle with the dragons as they attack the town. By the narrator’s own admission “the town is old, but all the buildings are new.” This is the way it’s been and it would seem that’s the way it’ll always be. Enter Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), son of Stoick and let’s just say that he’s got a ways to go physically, to look like the other Vikings in his town. Hiccup is your typical “nerd” for lack of a better word and he decides that he wants to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a dragon slayer. During a battle, Hiccup manages to cripple the most elusive of all the dragons, the Night Fury. Hiccup wants the credit for slaying the dragon, but when push comes to shove, can’t bring himself to do it. Instead the two form an unusual bond and through the dragon, Hiccup manages to learn more about dragons than the town has in the past several hundred years. Does the town even need to slay the dragons or will the knowledge garnered by Hiccup be enough to finally give the town the edge on the winged, fire-breathing foes?
“How to Train Your Dragon” has a very simple message and it’s not the most original out there: don’t judge a book by its cover. Still, the movie is well thought-out and presented in a way that’s both entertaining and endearing at the same time. The ensemble cast is fairly impressive as well with Gerard Butler, America Ferrera, Kristen Wiig, Jonah Hill and Christopher Mintz-Plasse to name just a few. Dreamworks has put together a good movie here and I’d be surprised if we didn’t see a sequel in the near future. One minor complaint that I had was that a majority of the adults in the film seem to speak with a thick Scottish accent (namely Gerard Butler and Craig Ferguson), while the rest of the cast has a decidedly American accent. I know not of how the Vikings spoke or if this is really even an issue, but it did seem somewhat inconsistent. Then again we’re dealing with a movie about dragons, which never existed, so maybe I need to get my priorities straight. This is animation at its finest and something that I’ll find myself watching again, I’m sure of it.
Video: How does it look?
The movie was shown in both 2-D and 3-D when it hit theaters and there was a bit of controversy in that Paramount dictated that theaters make room for the 3-D version, else they would be unable to show the 2-D version. I’m not sure I understand this logic or maybe it’s just a pushy way to get the word about 3-D out there, but it obviously didn’t affect the box office. That being said, the 2.39:1 AVC HD transfer is simply perfect in every way. Very few things in life are certain, but when putting a Blu-ray of a computer animated movie in your player and expecting a pristine image is one of them. Colors are strikingly bold and very vibrant. One thing that really stuck out was the texture, particularly on the dragon. You can make out each scale. While the human faces seem devoid of such texture, the beard on Stoic is amazing in that you can make out each individual hair. This kind of detail lends itself to a stellar transfer and I wasn’t let down in the least.
Audio: How does it sound?
The Dolby TrueHD soundtrack is again something that knew would sound great and I wasn’t let down. The fire breathing dragons have an “oomph” associated with the hit (or miss) of the fireball and the destruction of the town in a few scenes is among some of the best audio I’ve heard. Dialogue is rich and robust and if there was ever someone’s voice who was perfectly cast it’s that of Gerard Butler. The score adds to the film as well and we do get the surrounds coming in for some added depth at several instances during the movie. The LFE are very active as well, especially at the end of the film with the final encounter with the dragons. I’ve heard a few things better than this on Blu-ray, but not many – a fine effort here.
Supplements: What are the extras?
This two disc set comes to Blu-ray with a plethora of extras and we get started with a commentary track by director/writer Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders as well as the producer. It’s a pretty informative track this gives us some technical information as well as some back story on the film itself. There’s a picture-in-picture option as well, though we get a bit of different information and it’s intermittent. Going to the featurettes we begin with “Viking Size Cast” as we meet the cast and crew of the film and we see that the characters were actually modeled after the actors themselves (so Hiccup bears a striking resemblance to Jay Baruchel and so forth). “The Technical Artistry of ‘Dragon’ shows us the challenge of actually making a film like this and it’s a little more complicated that it would seem. Next up is “The Story Behind the Story” as we get a look at the book and its transition to the big screen. There are also a trio of deleted scenes as well as some “Winter-Themed” sports of adventures. I’m not really sure why this was included, but better to have than have not, eh? We get a look at how to draw the dragons in the movie (it’s easy if you’re an artist, by the way – I’m not) and you can become your own Viking after answering a series of questions. We also get a bonus 15 minute movie entitled “The BoneKnapper Dragon” which is more of an extension of the film. Lastly we get a sampling of music from some of Dreamworks’ other animated films including “Shrek”, “Madagascar” and “Kung Fu Panda” to name but a few. There’s also a DVD of the film on the second disc.
