MESSAGE IN THE MOVIES

How to Train Your Dragon Rated PG

Directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois.  Animated Feature.

Photo © Paramount/DWA
Movie Review by Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

Movie makers continue to turn to children’s books for good story ideas, and How to Train Your Dragon is based on a very clever and funny book by British author Cressida Cowell. 

The book envisions a Viking world in which the village is always threatened by destruction by dragons; most of the buildings are new because they are always being rebuilt. 

Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) is a young boy who works as an apprentice for Gobber (Craig Ferguson), a weapons maker and inventor.  When the Vikings go off to fight, Hiccup is told to stay home. 

During one dragon attack, Hiccup fires a cannon and sees a dragon fall to the ground.  He follows a path to where he saw the dragon land and discovers a beautiful black dragon that he names Toothless. 

As Hiccup nurses the dragon back to health, he also designs a prosthetic tale that will help the dragon get back into the air again.  And, yes, he trains the dragon. 

The weakest part of the film is the first ten minutes, which are frenetic and overly busy with Vikings going to battle.  Once the film settles in to tell its story, it is a nicely paced and often beautiful film, with a good sense of humor and an interesting variety of dragons. 

Hiccups friends are not given much character (except for Astrid (America Ferrara), a feisty girl), but the emphasis is on understanding what dragons are like.  And everything people think about dragons is wrong. 

The 3D is okay if you like to feel like you are flying, but if you want to save three or four bucks a ticket, the movie works fine in 2D. 

All in all, this is a good family film that is focused on story rather than cheap jokes.  I found the ending to be more than a little poignant, in a good way.  And that’s a good thing.

Pitchfork Rating: Three halos. (A positive message about tolerance and peace, told in an entertaining and visually rich fashion.)

One picthfork. For mild crude humor.

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