I was comparing Dragon to Ratatouille and Cloudy in the theater, which is a bad sign. Telling a story that’s not wholly original isn’t a sin, but if it’s not told well or uniquely, it fails.
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Though I won’t lie that there are solid moments in How to Train Your Dragon, and that it’s DreamWorks’ best animated film (again, not really very high praise), I found too many flaws, from the nitpicky (why did Hiccup and the other kids have American accents when the adults had Scottish ones?) to the more general (the main drama between Hiccup and the other human characters was a mishmash of, most recently, Ratatouille and Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs). Of course, all ends up very well, as you know. “They’re going to kill Rex? They can’t do that!” This was my thought process Pixar had reverted me to a childlike state of terror. So, when Rex took the first tumble towards the pit of fire, I let out a gasp. I rationally knew that the filmmakers wouldn’t be dumb enough to kill one of the toys…but then, Bo Peep had vanished between films, given away at a garage sale. In the climactic sequence set inside a landfill incinerator in Toy Story 3, though, I was genuinely freaked out. Even the first time through, I never thought that Toothless or Hiccup would get seriously hurt that meant I was surprised that Hiccup lost a leg, but I never thought either was in mortal danger. At the very least, having just rewatched both films, I should be more emotional with How to Train Your Dragon.įor one reason or another, I felt no true suspense or danger when watching How to Train Your Dragon either time. I’m not blind to the latter quality I’ve got three cats, and recently lost one to a long illness. However, How to Train Your Dragon tells a story that’s so rote and basic that its most notable qualities are the aforementioned 3D animation and its relationship between a pet and its master. Potato Head, and Jessie are almost automatically iconic simply for being Disney characters.
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While How to Train Your Dragon is based on a series of books for children, Toy Story 3 is the third film in one of the most successful and popular franchises ever. Toy Story 3, granted, has the advantage of familiarity. Where the two films diverge is in the characters and emotions. Toy Story 3 doesn’t really go crazy with 3-D effects, but its heightened depth is not as notable or flashy, so I’ll give this to Dragon. I’ll also say that How to Train Your Dragon does an excellent job with utilizing the 3-D format the flying scenes are genuinely breathtaking, partly because you kind of feel like you’re flying.
What does this make How to Train Your Dragon? A movie, not a grab bag of references. But Dragon, unlike most DreamWorks movies, has no huge celebrity voices, no pop culture humor, and an actual story. This year alone has been mixed, as they jump from Dragon to the fourth Shrek film to Megamind.
Is it as good as or better than Toy Story 3? Don’t make me laugh.įirst, I feel like some people have gone out of their way to throw metaphorical flowers in this movie’s path because it’s from DreamWorks Animation, a studio not typically known for churning out quality films. Is it as great as some critics have said? No. Is How To Train Your Dragon a good movie? Sure. However, I do feel like this quote is applicable to the nearly unanimous critical praise for the film. He hits his point (and the point the film’s writer/director, Brad Bird, is trying to make) when he says, “They keep creating new ways to celebrate mediocrity.” I don’t mean to implicitly call How To Train Your Dragon mediocre it’s not. There’s a great moment in The Incredibles, the Pixar superhero film from 2004, in which the main character, Bob Parr, has a heated argument with his wife and fellow superhero, Helen, that he doesn’t understand the point of an elementary school having a graduation ceremony. How to Train Your Dragon By Josh Spiegel and David Mumpower November 11, 2010