Basic Fair Turned into an Great Meal

Rating: 9/10 (29 January 2011)

First, something I've said in the past. It's the script, stupid. This script is brilliant in such a way that most of the reviewers here utterly miss it. Let me explain.
You have a complicated fantasy world, with its own spin on Vikings and all different kinds of dragons. Each kind of dragon has important strengths and weaknesses that are at times critical to the story. The movie almost seamlessly gives you a lecture in Dragons 101 and the life of these Vikings, without being irritating or boring. If you cannot understand the dragon side of the movie, you never should have watched it because you were determined to be bored anyway. Plus the initial voice-over explaining all of this ties into action, and visuals, that both kick-start the narrative in high gear and mixes it with action sequences that both show what's being explained, and keep it fascinating and funny. I wish my workplace training videos had 1/10th the effort put into them.
The story is fairly basic, but it's been claimed there are only seven main plots in literature (depending on whom you read, of course). The fun is how you get there. Yes, you have the outsider kid who is not interested in what all the other kids are into. He makes good, and becomes the hero. There's a girl involved too but anything else would be a plot spoiler - however, since you see her in her armor with skull decorations (small) in her first scene, I can safely reveal that she's definitely no shrinking violet. There is the plot line of maybe looking at why the other side is doing what it is doing, and the main character's (named Hiccup) questioning that is what provides for the story and much of the conflict. Contrary to some other people's spin on it, there is a truly evil nemesis, and no amount of understanding is going to change this bad guy. Understanding gains allies who had been adversaries, and the chance to win the final conflict. But final conflict there is, and boy it's a doozy.
I wish I'd seen it in 3-D. We saw it at home on blu-ray, and the video quality and sound-track are superb. My seven year old daughter has declared it her favorite movie, and both my wife and I, who often take 20 minutes to agree on a movie, both love it and will watch it again. Instead of trying to be pseudo-realistic the animation revels in being just that, and the movie is the better for it. I am happy I do not have to vote on best Animated Film this year. The three nominees we've caught, Toy Story 3, Tangled, and How to Train Your Dragon are all so different, and so well done, that I would have trouble choosing, Luckily, I can watch all three on Blu-ray.