9/10

Rating: 9/10 (26 September 2014)

9/10 One of the best animated movies I have ever seen. How to Train Your Dragon (the first one) ranks up as one of my top 50 favourite MOVIES of all time. I don't know yet but this film might be just as good. It will require multiple viewings to decide, but for now I can safely say I left the theater utterly satisfied, with a wide smile on my face. I think that what makes ultimately succeed this movie (and its predecessor), on the top off all the good things I will say afterwards, is the fact that animation here is brought to its most extreme levels and used in such a way that it manages to achieve sequences and shots that we all dream of seeing realized, but cannot hope to see in a live action movie. I'm not talking about technology because nowadays the technology to achieve these type of complicated and breathtaking scenes is there for live action, but it would simply not fit in it (eg: see why "Maleficient" failed for me). This is why animation here, self-conscious of its limits and potential, brings the perfect amount of visual flare I love to see. The flying sequences are truly something special, other than being very involving they are truly beautifully animated and really manage to bring the whole idea of the cinema experience, the ordeal of "being taken to another place" to the next level, from the moment you sit in the theater to the last frame you are truly carried away in another place and even during the whole duration of the film I didn't realize how much I was stuck to the screen and I wasn't paying attention to absolutely anything else. When a movie manages to make you forget you are sitting in a chair something really special is going on. And I have to give a shout out to a long battle shot (who has seen the movie knows what I'm talking about), from the moment it kicks in and starts spinning around I was gasping for breath, shivers were sent down my spine and I was honestly begging it not to cut.Take that plus a fascinating mythology upon which the movie builds on, some really funny moments, characters that feel real, for whom you truly want to and actually care for, who also happen to be very relatable, a far from clichéd or traditional narrative that has the balls to stick to itself proudly, a nearly flawless pacing and most importantly a score, an epic score that I actually think has a shot at winning the Oscar, that's just how amazingly good it is. The movies does have some very minor inconsistencies or conveniences and the villain isn't as strong as the movie thinks it is, yet still a better one than more than half of the ones you see in a year. But I really couldn't bring myself to care too much about these problems in the mist of such a wonderful journey full of heart and emotion to the point that I was genuinely moved to a couple of tears in multiple moments. I do wish they had expanded some more on the romantic relationship of Hiccup because there is lots of chemistry there, yet I can't really blame the DeBlois for not concentrating on this because the other story lines he went for were just as interesting, shout out to the dragons here because other than looking amazing they are just as fascinating as the human characters. This movie was one of the best theater experiences of the year, I'm really looking forward to rewatching this one.