I feel high after watching this, in more than one sense

Rating: 10/10 (8 January 2011)

A brilliant film, even if it's not that true to the book. It's charming, funny, predictable and realistic. An impressive feat for something involving dragons. I want to watch this movie in 4D! Or in a simulator of some form.
Hiccup for starters is awesome, you can't help but laugh at his voice overs and it's clear from the start he seems to be the only viking in the village with any sense. Speaking of the starting, what a scene! It's a brilliant summary of Derk and shows everything in just a few minutes.
Toothless the dragon immediately made me think first of Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch) and then bearded dragons (a cool lizard, look it up on Google images to see what I mean), that reptile and almost alien feel is reflected whenever you see it. Yet it still retains the cuteness of a puppy with it's perky ears and big round eyes. If anything I was disappointed that it wasn't more scary for being the fearsome Night Fury. The animators have done a great job on all of the dragons, I love their specified abilities, the fire effects and just generally how real they seem. From what I've read of the book I now know they even included the points for each dragon quality like top trumps cards as they are displayed in the book.
As for the plot, it couldn't have been more predictable but I do not look at that as a disadvantage. The atmospheric charm of the skies catches you if nothing else does, it is something to look at, not something to be over-analysed (I suppose I'm hardly one to talk). However I do like the slight twist at the end, Hiccup loses his leg! You see characters go in and out of fires, huge explosions and god knows what else in all the cheesy movies (excepting occasional good ones that don't get by on impressive effects) yet they don't lose anything! Maybe a few relatives, but in the really cheesy movies not even that! Hiccup loses his leg. Now that's realistic. Half of the villagers in Derk have a certain lack of limbs, just because he's the hero doesn't excuse him. YAY!