A cute, thrilling and occasionally humorous film with a lovable dragon, Toothless

Rating: Null/10 (27 April 2010)

I've now seen this about five times, so to me, it is a film that has a lot of replay value.
Voice Acting: Despite the obvious starry cast, the majority of them delivered. I was pleasantly surprised by Butler, who actually made me cry after the climatic part when his voice wavered due to emotion.
The rest are pretty good - Fergerson is genial as Gobber, Ferrera's defiant as the tough girl, Astrid. Only do I feel for, I guess, what's supposed to be young teens, casting twenty-somethings to voice them just sounds incongruous. There's the discrepancy between the Scottish accents of the adults and the American accents of the teens, but seeing as this is aimed a Western audience and is probably done for comedic effect, I can sort of understand it.
Plot: It follows the underdog triumphing story in a pretty generic fashion but well, in that it gives the audience what they expect while throwing in a few unexpected and commendable surprises (especially Hiccup's outcome from the climax). So, baby steps as other countries are sometimes far darker with their family animation but at least progress is being made.
There's occasional laughs (usually from a dryly humorous Hiccup: 'Thanks you for nothing, you useless reptile'), good dialogue and characterisation and essentially heart. I felt an emotional connection to Toothless.
I have to say the flying scenes were exhilarating and genuinely made me believe that's near to what it would be like to fly a dragon.
Animation: Very good. The aforementioned flying scenes are very good, the characters are brought successfully to life and the action really delivers. As far as the 3D goes, I still prefer 2D, but if you want 3D, by all means as the time spent has paid off. I just wish I didn't get a headache and watery eyes after watching it in 3D as I get the same soaring, excited feeling after watching it in 2D anyway.
An earthy palette, cute and cartoony dragon design (Toothless looks intentionally like Stitch) and expressive eyes all make this really accessible and family friendly.
Score: Powell's score is very fitting and memorable (the leitmotifs will be in my head for a long time). What can I add to what has already been said much more eloquently than myself? Coming Back Around, Forbidden Friendship, Romantic Flight and the end credits song Sticks and Stones by the lead singer from Icelandic band Siguar Ros (of Hoppipola fame as heard in the Planet Earth trailers) are my faves but everything is lovely. It's the epitome of a solid score.
Overall: A Dreamworks film that doesn't feel like a Dreamworks film but more like the film Disney could've made (back in their 90s heyday).
It does follow golden narrative rules, but it still offers surprises and is very engaging on an emotional level. The romance aspect could've been better developed and I'd loved to see more of life in Berk, being a Viking but for the wide audience it's aiming at and how it executes what it sets out to do, it accomplishes it pretty well. Easily best animated film of the year so far, unless Toy Story 3 has something even better up it's sleeve *fingers crossed* This marks a step in the right direction for animated films from Hollywood - 7.5/10