The best 2010 release I've seen so far – and one of the best animated films to hit theaters in a very long time

Rating: 10/10 (27 March 2010)

I remember watching the adorable Disney flick Lilo & Stitch at the theater back in the summer of 2002, after a truly exhausting week. The film - which tells the story of a small girl that befriends a wacky alien she mistakes for a dog - managed to put an enormous smile on my face, and made me forget of all my other worries for a while.
While watching Dreamwork's new masterpiece, How to Train Your Dragon, I couldn't help but think about the similarities between both it and the aforementioned Lilo & Stitch. Toothless, the lead dragon character from the new film resembles the alien Stitch in shape as well as in behavior. Hiccup, the main human character which befriends Toothless despite warnings from his fellow Vikings, is a semi middle-age teenage version of the character Lilo. A trip visit to IMDb cleared things up for me - Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders, the same people who directed the 2002 wonder (L & S) are behind the new and awesome How to Train Your Dragon.
Fortunately enough, the similarities end here, and this is not a carbon copy of that film - even though the bottom line (tolerance toward people who are different, etc.) is the same. However, this new film takes place in the middle ages, in a small village which is repeatedly attacked by seemingly vicious dragons. Stoick (voiced by the almighty Gerard Butler) is the head of the village, a pumped up manly Viking who leads the counter-attacks against the fierce dragons. His teenage son, Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), however, doesn't quite fit in. Unlike the older Vikings, who speak in an Irish accent, he sounds like your average American teenager. He's also skinny and small and not exactly the material Viking warriors are made of.
After a nightly battle between Vikings and dragons, Hiccup discovers Toothless, a supposedly lethal dragon, which has lost its ability to fly after being injured in the fight. Without anyone knowing, Hiccup slowly gains Toothless' confidence, and the two gradually learn to know each other. After the primal fears disappear, they realize they actually have a great deal to learn about one another – and that friendship is always better than hostility. Soon enough, Hiccup trains Toothless and learns how to approach dragons in general, something that doesn't quite fit in with his father, friends, and the society he lives in in general. But when a greater threat reveals itself, the Vikings and the dragons discover their only hope is to put aside their prejudice thoughts and fight together – with Hiccup and Toothless being their best hope for victory.
Bottom line – How to Train Your Dragon is a major victory for the guys at Dreamworks. The film is truly inspiring, with a story that feels self-contained and complete, one that doesn't need to rely on pop culture references to succeed (unlike many of their other products). After a long period of mediocre products (in my opinion) that pale next to their Pixar counterparts, Dreamworks Animation finally came out with the winning formula – which contains just the right amount of relatable characters and true emotions, stunning visuals (including Nordic landscapes and various species of beautiful dragons) and a 3-D element (that uses InTru technology) that really works for a change.
Despite the similarities to Lilo & Stitch, I came out feeling that Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders actually managed to improve on their winning hit, and create the best 2010 release I've seen so far – and one of the best animated films to hit theaters in a long long time.