How to Train Your Dragon

Eric Ippolito, Associate Writer

March 30, 2010

How to Train Your Dragon is a fun and exciting film about a particular village of vikings trying to survive a life among attacking dragons; and about a young boy named Hiccup who attempts to make a name for himself despite being different. In a world where being big, tough and able to swing an Axe is paramount, Hiccup struggles to become a positive contribution to his village. The movie starts off with the Viking village being under attack, and where Hiccup attempts to change his fortunes by killing a dragon. Hiccup tries to help out in the defense of the village, but a series of events eventually leaves him with an even weaker reputation among his people.

Things progressively get worse for Hiccup as he is forced into Dragon training despite losing the constitution for killing. Hiccup has to balance impressing his father, who happens to be the strongest Viking of the village, and coming up with ways to keep from appearing weak, and getting killed.

How to Train Your Dragon is an excellent film filled with adventure, danger and plenty of dynamics throughout the story. The movie has excellent characters and the voice acting is very well done despite the minimal cast. The musical score emphasizes the events in the story quite well, and does what every movie music should do; it enables the viewer to feel like one is right there with the characters. Above all of this, How to Train Your Dragon takes the struggles and dreams of the everyday person and transports them into a fictional story with great precision and imagination. Further, it is the fine-tuning features throughout the film that adds an artistic element to the identity of the movie, and concludes with a satisfying and earthly ending.

There aren't too many cons or negatives to speak of about this film. There are a couple of times when a mild curse word was used, but the movie should still appeal to all audiences.

How to Train Your Dragon pulls on all the right emotional strings as its creators weave a splendid film that has excellent post-theater purchase potential. As mentioned before, this movie should appeal to any age or demographic and is certainly worth the time and money checking it out.

Music.............8

Voice Acting..10

Characters......10

Plot.................9

Total Rating= 9.25

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