Crowd-pleasing animation that doesn't pull off the kind of sentimentalism of other animated hits.

Rating: Null/10 (7 January 2015)

It was a matter of time before an animated film centered around fire-breathing dragons. What's to blame? Everybody loves dragons! Sadly, Dreamworks animation fails to create any source of beautiful animation and keeps giving off cheap laughs to entertain kids and families. A hapless young Viking who aspires to hunt dragons becomes the unlikely friend of a young dragon himself, and learns there may be more to the creatures than he assumed. Oh boy, never heard of that one before. The recycled elements of family-encoded fun feel tired and unoriginal in "How to Train Your Dragon." The dragons are well-done for animation, but the rest of the film looks very awkward and has no ounce of creativity. Pixar and other forms of heartfelt animation have got everything on Dreamworks. The feel-good quality is moving if your a parent or under-appreciated child, but for the most part you'll be able to see all the humor and plot twists coming in every direction. Why be hard on an animated kids film? Because this genre has created some of the greatest films to date. In recent years, "Up," "Fantastic Mr.Fox," "Finding Nemo," and the "Toy Story" films have not only made audiences laugh and cry, but has the ability to consume the finds and have the stories stick with you forever. A big budget, popular voices including Gerard Butler, and a gigantic studio behind it, "How to Train Your Dragon" has no excuse for cheap animation. There's just nothing interesting or visually mesmerizing about this. Hell, the 3D looks like it was used just for one scene to try and compete with "Avatar." I'm sure almost everyone who see's it will love this film. Too bad we couldn't have audiences feel the same about a different movie that was actually good!