How To Train Your Dragon 2
Who says Pixar have a monopoly on emotionally compelling, exciting and memorable animated films? No one who's seen the Iron Giant. But much like the Iron Giant this film is very good, and much like the Iron Giant this film is brilliant, and much like the Iron Giant I love this film (I re-watched the Iron Giant recently, that's a seriously great film). Sorry lost my train of thought.
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (I'm going to cut it down to HTTYD 2, to let people know I'm hip and can acronymise things) is one of those few films that pretty much flawlessly tightropes along the lines of enjoyable/soul crushing for kids as well as being a perfectly brilliant watch for adult kids, especially dragon aficionados. This is due in part to the scope of the film, well rounded characters, beautiful animation and dragons. Although it could have been improved by a splash of Iron Giants.
The film follows on from the previous film where (spoilers from that one) all the viking people in the town have their own pet dragons and happily co-exist. As opposed to taking Hiccup back to square one, he is now a much respected member of the community owing to his efforts to get people dragoning (dragonning?) in the last film. This gives the film a base where they can deal with his decision making and not have it being clumsy, the hero starts off as a hero essentially. This gives the film interesting reign where the self inflated ego and where all that has come before can be built off to show the pitfalls of hubris, kind of.
The plot is relatively simplistic in terms of there being a major bad guy, a few massive dragons, a lot of pretty big dragons and some itty bitty dragons, and a main big bad fella who is using some as an army (I'll talk about him in a sec). But it's more about the characters' individual choices that lead up to the plot points that make this film stand out. I won't go into detail about them here for fear of treading in spoilers in my most expensive pair of proverbial review shoes, but rest assured, they're reet good.
Now an animated adventure film is nothing without it's main bad fella and this bad fella is good at being a bad fella because he is a bad fella. Voiced by the impossible to spell Djimon Hounsou (yes I google'd that one) his voice is perfectly deep and gravely to create an imposing villain who relies on his immense strength over others. And he really is a proper bad guy, his motivations are questionable, his methods dark but on the plus side he's got the best dreadlocks in all the land, so if possible t Damian Marley should redub (get it dub, reggae jokes) his lines to get a more authentic character.
The subject matter and developments later on in the film may get a bit dark for the smaller kideroons, but the levity and relative upbeat tone should make up for it, allowing them to laugh through their tears all the way to therapy later in life. The director-man stated that with this film he was making his Empire Strikes Back, i.e. building the world out, developing the pre-established characters and having the heroes face nigh impossible odds. Anything that is compared favourably to the Empire Strikes Back gets a metaphorical pat on the back and sensual massage in my book so 9 out of 10. Plus it's less than 2 hours so it doesn't really Dragon.... I'm sorry.
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (I'm going to cut it down to HTTYD 2, to let people know I'm hip and can acronymise things) is one of those few films that pretty much flawlessly tightropes along the lines of enjoyable/soul crushing for kids as well as being a perfectly brilliant watch for adult kids, especially dragon aficionados. This is due in part to the scope of the film, well rounded characters, beautiful animation and dragons. Although it could have been improved by a splash of Iron Giants.
The film follows on from the previous film where (spoilers from that one) all the viking people in the town have their own pet dragons and happily co-exist. As opposed to taking Hiccup back to square one, he is now a much respected member of the community owing to his efforts to get people dragoning (dragonning?) in the last film. This gives the film a base where they can deal with his decision making and not have it being clumsy, the hero starts off as a hero essentially. This gives the film interesting reign where the self inflated ego and where all that has come before can be built off to show the pitfalls of hubris, kind of.
The plot is relatively simplistic in terms of there being a major bad guy, a few massive dragons, a lot of pretty big dragons and some itty bitty dragons, and a main big bad fella who is using some as an army (I'll talk about him in a sec). But it's more about the characters' individual choices that lead up to the plot points that make this film stand out. I won't go into detail about them here for fear of treading in spoilers in my most expensive pair of proverbial review shoes, but rest assured, they're reet good.
Now an animated adventure film is nothing without it's main bad fella and this bad fella is good at being a bad fella because he is a bad fella. Voiced by the impossible to spell Djimon Hounsou (yes I google'd that one) his voice is perfectly deep and gravely to create an imposing villain who relies on his immense strength over others. And he really is a proper bad guy, his motivations are questionable, his methods dark but on the plus side he's got the best dreadlocks in all the land, so if possible t Damian Marley should redub (get it dub, reggae jokes) his lines to get a more authentic character.
The subject matter and developments later on in the film may get a bit dark for the smaller kideroons, but the levity and relative upbeat tone should make up for it, allowing them to laugh through their tears all the way to therapy later in life. The director-man stated that with this film he was making his Empire Strikes Back, i.e. building the world out, developing the pre-established characters and having the heroes face nigh impossible odds. Anything that is compared favourably to the Empire Strikes Back gets a metaphorical pat on the back and sensual massage in my book so 9 out of 10. Plus it's less than 2 hours so it doesn't really Dragon.... I'm sorry.