A truly moving CGI animated epic from such a great animation company!

Rating: 10/10 (11 June 2012)

Seeing as how Dreamworks Animation continues to become #5 of the animation companies and has worked on both traditional animated features along with computer animated ones. Some of them (Prince of Egypt, Road to El Dorado, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Shrek 1, 2 and 4, Kung Fu Panda 1-2, Monsters VS Aliens, Madagascar 1-2) are my favorites and some of them aren't my favorites and were quite weak for the company (Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Shark Tale, Bee Movie), although Megamind was pretty good even though it wasn't a masterpiece. Before and after those films, they made their very first take on a story the fantasy genre two years ago: A tale of vikings fighting against dragons, but only one person can make the difference to make peace with them. How To Train Your Dragon, directed by Disney animator Chris Sanders, is that story and upon it's release, it was hugely praised by the critics and had almost gained an 100%.
First off, before I would review what I thought about this movie, I would like to say that I wasn't into the books or the first installment this movie was based on, but seeing the trailers really got me interested and have been wanting to see it perhaps during spring break of summer of 2010, the year this was released. My decision to see that movie was during the summer... only in a 3-D version with the glasses that I wore and saw the movie with much anticipation. Then, after the movie, I walked out of the theater, saying to myself, "That... was... EPIC!!!" Never, and I mean, never have I seen a CGI animated feature film so breathtakingly epic and I think that it's one of Dreamwork's best since Shrek and Kung Fu Panda.
The story is so original and is really quite simple: One of the worst vikings in history captures a dragon, during a battle between vikings and dragons, and instead of killing it, he befriends it. While he makes a bond with the dragon, he gains not only the reputation of the whole viking village in Berk, but his own girlfriend. Later, he realizes that everything he and the other vikings know about the dragons is wrong (according to the trailer) and has to make a difference to make peace between dragons and vikings and battle the most deadliest dragon in history. I really liked that idea as it did justice to the book it was based on (I read it later and I thought it was extremely good) with witty and smart dialog, some heartwarming moments, some hilarious moments and some dramatic, not to mention epic, moments while teaching a moral lesson for the children ages +8-12.
Then, there's the action sequences with the vikings and the dragons and boy were they so epic. The opening was so dark and intense and I really liked it, especially the other scenes with the dragons and the final battle where Hiccup and Toothless battle against the Green Death (changed from the named Red Dragon in the book). OK, I really hate to make two sentences about why I think the action was great so short, but I'm just going to have to keep going right now.
The strongest aspects goes to two things of the entire movie. First, there's the animation. It's so beautiful with a wonderfully detailed look of the viking village, the forest, and the dragon cave where the Green Death eats one of the dragons alive and the character animation is so stunning and very realistic with facial expressions on them. The best aspect of the animation goes to the character animations on the dragons with an excellent look. Then, there's the music from the great John Powell and given the fact that he did some good music from other animated films including Shrek, Robots, Ice Age 2, Kung Fu Panda, Bolt, and Ice Age 3, this is one of his best music ever made in a movie for kids. It has the Scottish and Irish tones to it and it successfully fits well with the moments in the movie which makes it's soundtrack so memorable to listen to. I also liked the song "Sticks and Stones from Jonsi and I wish to listen to it every day in every month.
The voice acting is excellent. Jay Baruchel did great as Hiccup, Gerald Butler (Phantom of the Opera) did great as Stoick, Hiccup's father, Craig Ferguson was so hilarious as Goober, America Ferrera did very good as Astrid, Hiccup's love interest, and others including, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jonah Hill, T.J. Miller and Kristen Wiig did excellent as the other vikings.
Overall, How To Train Your Dragon is by no means a masterpiece of computer animation and I would love to see the sequel which will come out in about two more years. Thumbs up from me!