If you feel that Toy Story and Shreck are missing SOMETHING IMPORTANT - this movie is for you

Rating: 10/10 (12 September 2012)

It's far better then all those Shrecks, Toy stories, Ratatoulies, Puss in boots, Mega-minds and other "renewing" concepts. Why? It's simple and honest. This movie doesn't TRY to be funny, modern, super-wise, and "for all". It's not one of those "hey-let's-make-a-movie-about-cat-who-is-a-super-spy" concepts. This movie JUST tells the simple yet very good story in the most proper way.
I have seen a lot of 3D animated movies - American, European, Asian. This one hits 10 in my opinion, because it's by far the most complete vision enclosed in a 3D animated form. But - in addition - it's a pure fairy tale in the core. And I mean PURE - from the cores of fairy-telling, which is the most polite, elegant way of TEACHING important stuff. I think that 3D movie is not only craftsmanship behind creating artificial environment, animating believably, lighting sets with care, etc., etc. Like any other movie - it should be a well told story, which will left you ...CHANGED a bit (that's what fairy tales do, right?) Only those kind of stories will matter in your life. Rest is just "fun".
'How to train your dragon' is a modern fairy tale. It's modern because - like other mainstream 3D movies - it's excellently crafted. We have here great animation (Toothless, the dragon is "made of life", so to speak - you actually just want to HAVE one), lighting and cinematography (splendid flight scenes, which take your breath away, and make you climb your chair), effects, etc.... But it's a fairy tale because - above all that - we have here a master degree directing by Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders too. All those decisions made by them - from very basic (like the look of Toothless and other characters, or editing), to more important (like balancing the amounts of fear, sadness, seriousness and fun tones in the story) are marks of wisdom. And those decisions made a difference between this movie and "the rest". Those decisions crafted a SOUL in it. And achieving this "soul level" should be a goal of every director.
Summing up: great movie in at least two aspects. Technically (character design, animation, cinematography, editing) and emotionally (great simple story with surprisingly 'non-hollywoodish' wise moral, fantastic heart-touching score by John Powell, and mature directing which guide you to be changed a bit after watching).
Best achievement in 3D storytelling since Euclide :)