HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON tells a sweet story about Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), the sensitive, scrawny son of Stoick (Gerard Butler), a commanding Viking who rules a village by the sea. Hiccup, though imaginative and inventive...is a failure at all things Viking. He just doesn't have it in him to battle and destroy the dragons that constantly raid and destroy their village. As a result, the entire Viking village looks at Hiccup as a useless outcast. That is, until one of his crazy inventions actually ends up working. To his shock, Hiccup captures the impossible to see/catch/kill Night Fury dragon...whom Hiccup later names "Toothless." At first they are wary of each other...yet after Hiccup sets Toothless free from his trap, they become friends... slowly and carefully. As their friendship grows, so do their lives change...forever. Eventually Hiccup has to make a choice...either give in to the brutal, dragon-slaying mentality of the Vikings, or confront the village head on and show them how to treat and love dragons. Not helping matters is his stubborn father, as well as a determined young female warrior named Astrid (America Ferrera)...The fate of both the dragons, and the people from his village are in Hiccups hands...He must bring them together before they tear each other apart...Written and directed by the team that previously brought us Disney's LILO & STITCH...Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON is a great story, with a lot of heart. The messages are very positive: Be true to yourself. Don't try to be something you're not. Make love, not war, etc...The relationship between Hiccup and 'Toothless" is wonderful, and feels very authentic. You end up caring about both of them very much...almost as much as they love each other. I also enjoyed the relationship between Hiccup and tough girl Astrid. The sequence where he wins her over was very well done...On the minus side, I had a hard time dealing with Jay Baruchel's pseudo Christian Slater meets Jack Nicholson-like voice. I wish he could have toned it down a bit...or made some kind of effort to make his voice sound...less irreverent, and more sincere. In terms of the film as a whole, I kept wanting it to be funnier...and more clever in its execution...as compared to the best DreamWorks and Pixar animation of the past. That said, on its own merits HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON is still quite good...and children will most certainly love it.
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