An exciting and amusing animation

Rating: 9/10 (7 January 2013)

Hiccup; Is a young Viking living on the island of Berk; he dreams of fighting dragons like the other Vikings; unfortunately he isn't muscular or talented in that field much to his father's disappointment. One day during a dragon attack he tries to join in with a home made device. He claims to have hit a dreaded night-fury dragon but nobody believes him why would they; nobody has ever killed or even clearly seen a night-fury. The next day he goes out and finds the downed night-fury; he intended to kill it but when he can't as the dragon doesn't appear to be dangerous. He dubs the creature Toothless and gradually befriends it. When he attends dragon fighting school he uses the skills he has learnt dealing with Toothless to come top of the class. While showing Toothless to classmate Astrid they go on a flight that takes them to the dragons' nest where a huge dragon resides. When Hiccup's father learns this he takes Toothless captive and uses him to find the nest unfortunately he has bitten off more than he can chew and he will have to rely on Hiccup and his class to save the day using Hiccup's new dragon-friendly techniques.
Dreamworks' animations have a reputation for being over-filled with pop culture references and jokes that are aimed squarely at the older viewer; thankfully that isn't the case here; there are one or two moments that could have been nods to other films but nothing that requires the viewer to have a knowledge of other films to enjoy this. The story is enjoyably and the characters are a lot of fun. The animation looked good and in the action scenes it was quite spectacular as Hiccup and Toothless swoop through sea stacks and when the huge dragon appears to set the sky ablaze. Some of the action may be a little scary for younger children but I'm sure older children will really enjoy this and plenty of adults will too.