Movie Review: "How to Train Your Dragon"

I'm going to say right now, this was the surprise hit of the summer for me, movie wise. I'm kinda iffy about Dreamworks animated movies. Other than the Shrek series and Kung Fu Panda, none of their movies have been a hit with me. And then when you compare them with Pixar's movies, they just fall flat. The animation is hit or miss (sometimes it's awesome, other times extremely fake) and the same goes with the writing. For some reason, Dreamworks movies seem to be more childish than Pixar's. Also, during the Olympics this movie was featured like 30 times EACH night during the games to the point where I was sick of it. I had no desire at all to see this movie. Until my sister went to it and came back from it saying that she had cried. Well, that peaked my interest since we cry pretty much at the same movies.

By the time, I finally decided I wanted to see the movie, it had already gone out of the first run theaters. So, two of my fellow interns from the Smithsonian and I headed to the second run theater in town where we saw this movie for a cool price of only $3. First off, I'd like to say that the quality of the theater was fantastic. I've been in several second run theaters where the sound system and the seats are awful. I was pleasantly surprised at how well kept this theater was and that sound was fantastic.

Well let me say, just like the theater, my expectations of this movie were totally caught of guard. I really enjoyed it! The story was wonderful with the underdog theme running throughout. However the story takes on a different twist as it involves dragons! Who knew Vikings were so witty? Let me say now that Night Fury is the CUTEST THING EVER!!!!! He reminded me of our pug! And I'm sure anyone else that owns a dog could totally relate to how Hiccup felt about Night Fury.

There's A LOT of humor and action in the movie. A lot of the humor comes from Hiccup's relationship with Night Fury as the two learn to trust each other and learn from one another. It's seriously the cutest relationship ever. I also loved how Astrid goes from tough girl to finally caring for Hiccup. The scenes with the dragons was intense especially that last battle. I still have no idea how everything really got resolved. It seemed like nothing was going to save them from the imminent danger they were in. There is also a good story between the relationship between parents and children. Both sides need to listen to each other and learn to be able to confide and trust to one another. A lot could have been avoided if Hiccup and his dad had had a better relationship.

Overall, this was a great movie. It was funny, suspenseful, adventurous, had good animation and a wonderful story line. It had all the wonderful elements of a really good movie. Families will enjoy it. Adults without kids will really like all the humor that's in the movie. By the way is it wrong for me to think that Hiccup is pretty cute and has really awesome hair? I didn't see this movie in 3D but I bet that it was wonderful to watch. This movie should be coming out on DVD soon but if it's still in the second run theaters near you and you haven't seen it, I would definitely go out and see it. It was a pleasant surprise and wonderful to watch.