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| How to Train Your Dragon (2010) |
Visually, this film is on another level. The animation is gorgeous, and the environments are beautiful. The characters are all very expressive, and it's weird to say, but they're sort of... inviting. With their facial expressions, even when they're not being super expressive, you can tell exactly what they're thinking. They're probably not the best looking animated humans I've ever seen, but they're definitely close, and among the best expressive animated people I've seen. The most impressive part of the visuals by far is the way it animates movement. There's never movement for movement's sake, and especially in the flying scenes, the movement sucks you in and really makes it feel like you're right there with the characters. The movement in the three key flying scenes is all very different and equally effective. The first flying scene with Toothless and Hiccup is triumphant yet nervous, and the way the scene is 'shot' reflects this, with a lot of closeups and long-panning shots, until he gets his act together and the camera-work also gets more confident. The next flying scene with Hiccup and Astrid is erratic and frightening, and we get a lot of crazy camera movement and fast pans to make us feel the same thing. The next flying scene immediately afterward is calm and peaceful, with a lot of still camerawork and wide shots. This film is a masterpiece in how to 'shoot' an animated movie.
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| Toothless and Jay Baruchel as Hiccup |
The perfect companion to the camerawork is the 10/10 soundtrack. I love this music. John Powell pulled out all the stops with this score, and it has basically everything I look for in a soundtrack. It's nice and quiet in the moments that need to be, but booming and loud when it needs to be as well. The orchestration is beautiful to listen to, and feels like butter on the ears. The soothing violins, the calming flutes, the pounding drums, they all work with each other perfectly while also getting their own moments to shine. But the absolute best thing about this soundtrack is the way it uses its leitmotifs. I'm a huge fan of when recurring melodies play throughout multiple music tracks, and this film has that in spades. It's the kind of thing you don't notice until you listen to the soundtrack on its own. It's all well and good to just play the same melody over and over, but it's the way they're used that makes it so effective. The way Test Flight takes over the score more triumphant than ever when Toothless and Hiccup are ready to enter the final battle. Romantic Flight playing softly during conversations between Hiccup and Astrid before getting its moment in the sun during the flight scene. This is Berk playing during the dragon training scenes. They're all used to evoke memories or emotions from when those tracks were originally used, and every single time, without fail, it achieves the desired effect. This is a soundtrack that I have listened to over and over again, has set the bar for what a soundtrack should do for me, and is one I will never get tired of.
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| America Ferrara as Astrid |
The characters and their relationships are without question the best thing about this movie. Usually I would point out specific characters and which ones were the most likeable, which were the funniest, which had the best chemistry, but the answer to all of these is 'all of the above'. Every character is likeable, every character has their moment of comedy (Gobber moreso than others), all the voice actors are incredible and were perfectly cast for their roles. The relationships and the way they bounce off each other is far and away the best thing this film has going for it. Of course, the Toothless/Hiccup friendship is the best, and it has a nice build throughout the film, and it naturally helps that Toothless is a wonderful character of his own right, but the other relationships are solid too. Hiccup and Astrid are well established, and the way they interact feels very natural, there's a nice camaraderie and respect between Stoik and Gobber, even the kids all bounce off each other really well. The one that surprised me was Hiccup and Stoik. From the beginning, you think it's going to go one way and... well, it does, but the way they do it, it just feels really fresh and genuine. I think the reason for that is when something happens in the story, they actually take the time to show how it affects people. And the characters are so well established that not only does it feel incredibly natural when they do react the way they do, but you completely understand their point of view. It's the kind of movie where the story doesn't drive the characters, the characters drive the story, and those are always the best.
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| Gerard Butler as Stoik |
The dragons themselves are also really well-defined. A lot of thought clearly went into the designs of these things. Not only do they all look super unique and have a lot of unique attributes, but they all have unique personalities as well. That is, except for the giant dragon at the end. Don't get me wrong, I love this final fight scene, but it really does feel like this dragon was just thrown in there so they could have this big climax. Compared to everything else in the movie, this definitely feels the least fleshed out, and even to this day, I still don't think I properly understand what the lore behind it is and why it's there and why the other dragons don't just leave it behind immediately. I'm sure there is an answer, and I have seen answers online, but the film itself doesn't do a fantastic job of explaining it. It does an okay job, but I feel like one or two extra lines would have gone a long way here. That's only something that comes to my attention afterwards, however, as in the moment, while I'm watching the movie, it's just too damn entertaining for me to care.
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| Craig Ferguson as Gobber |
How to Train Your Dragon (2010) is a brilliant movie, and certainly ranks up their among Dreamworks' finest. I do plan to get to the rest of the Dreamworks movies eventually, but for obvious reasons, I'm starting here. 9/10.
Next, it's How to Train Your Dragon 2.
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