Flyin' high

Rating: 8/10 (16 March 2015)

How to Train Your Dragon 2 is a decent follow up, for an animated sequel, and kids and other fans of the original should be happy with it. In it, our former Viking nebbish Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) is now the hero of the town of Berk, which is still ruled by his dad, Stoick (Gerard Butler). Peace reigns in Berk; instead of endless fighting and pillaging on the part of the marauding Vikes, dragons and men are friends of a sort. Even the most hardened of savages favors the flying reptiles.
Hiccup knows that his dad wants very badly to be the next chief of their Viking tribe, but he himself doesn't want to follow in those large footsteps. While scouting with his own dragon, Toothless, Hiccup discovers an island that's part land, part ice - in that there are huge shards of ice skewering the island and the domiciles. Then he - and his gal pal Astrid (America Ferrera) and her dragon - are trapped, partly so that Hiccup can find out more about this new place. And it quickly comes out that the band of men on the island have been attacked several times by dragons and that they themselves are, in fact, dragon trappers. They're catching dragons to serve in a dragon army ruled by Drago (Djimon Hounsou), who's naturally out to rule the world.
The Dreamworks animation is fine - as good as in the previous movie, anyway - but more importantly the voice characterizations are great. In one fun scene, Astrid pokes fun at Hiccup's speech mannerisms, which of course mimic those of the real-life Jay Baruchel: a lot of shrugging and hand-waving. Jack Black, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jonah Hill, and Kristen Wiig voice Hiccup's friends, and Kit Harrington (Jon Snow on Game of Thrones, who knows nothing) plays a duplicitous dragon trapper. Oh yeah, and Cate Blanchett's there as well.
The movie and its predecessor are based on a series of books by Cressida Crowell, and there are plans to make a third film. No surprise there - the sequel did great box office and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature. And while the effects and action make for a wholly entertaining movie, there's some beautiful, quieter moments, between parent and son, girl and boy, boy and dragon. A fine offset to the comic-book mayhem surrounding it.