Wildly Cluttered But Saved by Visuals

Rating: 8/10 (27 November 2010)

How to Train Your Dragon is a fun but somewhat empty animated film. The film's premise is very inventive: a Viking's son who is reluctant to kill dragons befriends one and tames it as his own. The Viking's son is our narrator for the film. He is a plucky, very clumsy boy; one cliché to start with. When he discovers the dragon he thought he killed in a field alive, he panics but eventually decides to train it. The movie is filled with visual splendor. The flight scenes of the protagonist riding the dragon Hiccup are so beautiful, brilliant, and amazing. However, the story itself is very thin. This film is a perfect example of style and visuals over substance; kind of like an animated version of Avatar. The first half of the film is wildly uneven and cluttered that you wonder how the screenplay wasn't edited. The second half is a vast improvement, especially with its epic climax and last emotional five minutes. As a whole, How to Train Your Dragon is more of a entertaining diversion than something totally memorable.