A Surprisingly Great Effort from DreamWorks

Rating: Null/10 (24 October 2010)

This is a DreamWorks film? Wow, impressive. "How to Train Your Dragon" is a real shocker, it's a film that was made by DreamWorks Animation but it didn't really feel like a DreamWorks animated film. It felt like it was more in line with a good Disney film or any of Pixar's films. I've always had my doubts about DreamWorks after "Shrek 2", as they began sinking into a formula that is now annoying and irritating. "How to Train Your Dragon" is a refreshing effort that tries its hardest to break free from the formula.
Based on Cressida Cowell's children's book of the same name, "How to Train Your Dragon" is a satisfying action-adventure that mostly fires on all cylinders. The characters are likable, and you can root for them, unlike most DreamWorks films where the characters are obnoxious or annoying. The dragon, Toothless, is easily the best character despite being a non-speaking character. Like the most appealing animated characters, he's instantly likable. Hiccup and Toothless' friendship is believable and not contrived. It's a winning effort.
Aside from the storytelling, the animation was really good. The art direction and character animation were fabulous, more in line with Pixar's visuals than anything else DreamWorks has done. Prior to "Dragon", DreamWorks' films were questionable in terms of character animation. "Dragon"'s art direction is great, from high seas to detailed forests to the elusive dragons' nest. The crew working on this film knocked themselves out, and it puts everything else from DreamWorks (with the slight exceptions of "Shrek" and some of their traditional hand-drawn efforts) to shame.
The screenplay wasn't great, but it was certainly much better than the obnoxious DreamWorks films before it. It's not constant pop culture jokes and toilet humor being shot at you. However, the writing was still a little weak because of the modern-slang slant to it. Otherwise, it was not cringe-worthy or anything. I also thought that some of the dramatic moments were a little downplayed, but it was nice to see moments like that in a DW film. The film was also devoid of using some pop song in the middle of the film.
So DreamWorks scored a near-home run. It feels more sincere than the other films, it isn't the usual sitcom-dialogue, pop culture joke-laden romp from DreamWorks. It was a fine adventure story with some knock-out moments and easily DreamWorks' most appealing creation, Toothless. Maybe it was great because Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois directed it, being the two behind Disney's "Lilo & Stitch", and of course Toothless somewhat resembles Stitch and Sanders' drawing style.
A real winner. Highly recommended. 8.5 out of 10.