Exceptional, often delightful animated fare

Rating: 8/10 (18 April 2010)

How To Train Your Dragon is another delightful addition to the library of CGI films, which almost always seem to receive more attention in the plot and story phase of development than live action films. Blame Pixar for raising the bar in this genre. Although it is from Dreamworks and not Pixar, HTTYD is definitely in range of Pixar's best work.
Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) is the equivalent of Flick from Pixar's A Bug's Life in this film. Kind and creative, he wants to do well, but he just doesn't fit in as a dragon-battling Viking. Against the better instincts of his father, the Viking chieftain, he is allowed to enroll in a dragon-killing class with the other young vikings, including teen beauty Astrid (America Ferrera). Hiccup's fate is changed when he comes across a downed night-fury dragon, Toothless (who isn't really toothless), whom he brought down with his own strange weapon. Rather than slay Toothless he befriends him, and begins to learn the secret of dragons, where they come from, and why they raid the Viking village. As it turns out, it's not really their fault.
Without giving too much more away, HTTYD is delightful and beautifully rendered. I recommend it with little qualification, even if I felt the third act was forced and some of the scenes of bonding with the other Viking teens were perfunctory. However I do have one major beef with this movie: The Shrek Effect.
Every adult viking in this movie speaks with a Scottish brogue. Were the Vikings Scottish? I don't think so. It would have made more sense if they had said things like 'yumpin yiminy' or 'bork bork bork' rather than with Craig Ferguson's rich, melodious accent. However the whole Scots thing stands out even more due to the fact that NONE OF THE VIKING TEENS SPEAK WITH Scottish ACCENTS - they are all voiced with American accents. Is there some ginormous generation gap in this Viko-Scottsky village? Do they only get American television and music for the youth? I blame Shrek. Since Mike Myers' famed voicing of the ogre, adult characters in these things always seem to have been fed through some kind of Shrekalyzer to remind us they aren't Americans, they're furriners, but they're still good guys. Except their kids. Because kids never speak with a Scottish accent.
Rant over. HTTYD is great. Take your child. The one that's not Scottish.