The first was good, this one is great

Rating: 8/10 (2 January 2016)

In 2010, there was an Oscar-nominated, animated movie called "How to Train Your Dragon". 4 years later, they made made a sequel after several short films and a television series had come out as well. This sequel went into Oscar night being the favorite in its category, but lost out nonetheless. In the first film, Hiccup and the gang had to understand dragons and it was not really about a true antagonist, even if there was one, a pretty big evil dragon that exploited other dragons. The only thing that one has similar with this film here is the gigantic dragon and in here there is even 2 and they are even bigger. But there is also a real antagonist this time. A scar-faced tough guy who treats dragons badly and wants to kill the tribe of our heroes. Luckily for them, there is also a new character that is a much more pleasant addition to the franchise. This character brings some true emotions to this film and I loved her scene with Hiccup's dad.
Talking about Hiccup's dad, he is certainly one of the main players again this time and the most significant scene of the film is all about him too. I will not go further into detail here. But I can say that I enjoyed the animation, the characters and the story in this one a lot. There is lots of drama, more than usual in animated films, but there is also lots of humour. The other young Berk inhabitants are pretty funny with their interactions. And so are their dragons frequently. The baby dragons playing around in the big one's face were really fun to watch. And there were many more hilarious scenes in this 100-minute movie. It runs slightly longer than the first, but only by a couple minutes. Both films include basically the same cast of voice actors with the exception of Djimon Hounsou, who voices the villain in this film here. No really big superstars, but some fairly decent names that have been prolific and experienced also in terms of live action movies and shows.
This was the second time I watched this film already. First time was in a theater briefly after it was released. The dragon flying sequences are certainly something you want to experience on the bis screen, but even if you do not have the opportunity to do so, these are truly mesmerizing. I saw that they already planned a third, but they are keeping the 4-year-break apparently, so it will not be released until over 2 years from now, in 2018. Writer and director will be Dean DeBlois again, who also made films 1 and 2. Will the Academy appreciate his efforts then finally? We shall see. Until then, make sure you have watched films 1 and 2. I am not the greatest dragons fan and I do not have great interest to watch the series (although maybe I will at some point), but I definitely had a great time with these two films, especially the sequel, which I highly recommend. Do not miss out on it.