I rarely see kids’ movies, but How To Train Your Dragon from
2010, was beautiful and I loved it. It
was in 3D, and the flying sequences were just stunning. Also, the very simple story of Hiccup, the
head warrior of Berk’s son, befriending and then training a wild dragon was
touching and funny. In the first movie,
Hiccup finds Toothless, an injured Night Fury dragon. He nurses the dragon back to health, while
learning as much about it as possible, to quickly excel at his ‘dragon
fighting’ classes back in Berk. His
classmates are astounded, but quickly pick up on the skills, and his father is
finally proud of his son. I loved the
first movie.
This sequel is equally as beautiful, and picks up 5 years
after the first one. If you watched the
cartoon that was on (I did) Saturday mornings, you know that the Dragonriders
of Berk have been having all kinds of adventures.
Hiccup has grown into a young man, and his
father, Stoick, is ready to name him as successor. Gobber is still coordinating the riders,
including Snotlout, Fishlegs, and the twins: Ruffnut and Tuffnut. Hiccup and Astrid are in a very serious
relationship and Hiccup spends his days riding with Toothless, developing his
own flight suit, and mapping out new lands.
On one of his treks, he encounters dragon hunters led by Eret (son of
Eret), who claim they are bringing dragons to Drago Bloodfist, who is building
an army of dragons. Hiccup relays this
information to his father, who insists the clan get ready for war. Hiccup however, is convinced he can negotiate
with Drago, and stop the war from happening.
This goes very poorly, but in the process, Hiccup encounters a
mysterious dragon rider. It’s his long
lost mother, who apparently was not eaten by dragons years ago, and has been
living with and riding them for years in a secret ice cave, built by their
Alpha dragon, who can control the others.
The story fairly quickly skips over the part where Hiccup should be
outraged that his mother never came back, and she has a wonderful reunion with
Stoick. Just as quickly, however, Drago attacks,
reveals he has an alpha of his own, and things get worse from there. It does have a happy ending – so hang on
through the tough bits.
The voices are all the same from the first movie with a few
new additions:
- Canadian stand up Jay Baruchel plays Hiccup again, and it was very interesting to see how they aged and matured his animated character. Baruchel’s distinctive voice gives Hiccup a wonderful charming quality, and his hopefulness that he can avoid war with negotiation is sweet; perhaps unfounded, but sweet.
- Cate Blanchett joins the cast to play Valka, Hiccup’s long lost mother. She has been living with dragons so long, she is slightly off. Like I said, I think there probably would have been a whole sequence of anger for her having stayed away for so long, but hey – it’s a kids movie, so that gets skipped.
- Gerard Butler plays Stoick in your typical loud Scottish Viking way.
- Stoick is usually paired with Gobber, who trained the kids in the first movie, and corrals the dragons in this movie. He’s voiced by Craig Ferguson who is equally loud and Scottish as Butler.
- America Ferrera plays Astrid, and she very quickly establishes that she is staying by Hiccup’s side, no matter what.
- Jonah Hill plays Snotlout again – who is fighting with Fishlegs for the affections of Ruffnut.
- Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays Fishlegs, and he still has his flashcards of dragon breeds in this movie, which was one of my favorite parts of the first movie – all the different kinds of dragons.
- T. J. Miller and Kristen Wiig play Tuffnut and Ruffnut respectively – I enjoy that they ride a two headed dragon.
- I also enjoyed Ruffnut’s obsession with Eret, son of Eret, played by Kit Harrington – and his biceps.
- Djimon Hounsou plays Drago Bloodfist – a villain who seems to be a villain for the sake of being a villain. As he is building his dragon army, he becomes more and more horrible. I’m not entirely sure what happens to him during the final battle – did he get killed? They didn’t really show it. I sure hope so, I wouldn’t want them to have to deal with that maniac again.
Overall, it’s beautiful, wonderful – but see the first one
first – just in case you haven’t. I
loved it, but not as much as I loved the first one.
8 out of 10 – Gained points for the alpha fight, but lost
points for the result of that fight.
Gained points for Valka’s cool dragon riding outfit, Lost points for not
really showing the demise of Drago – seriously, I need to know that dude got
his comeuppance.
Bonus Video 1: The
animated series – pretty awesome.
Bonus Video 2: Reign
of Fire – a better dragon movie with Gerard Butler
Bonus Video 3: Cast
Interviews
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