Starring the voices of: Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson & America Ferrera
Directed By Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0892769/
"How to Train Your Dragon" is yet another animated movie taking its cues from the "Star Wars"/"Harry Potter" story frame -- you know, "motherless boy finds his special destiny during a hero's quest full of fantastic creatures and sassy tomboys."
The big difference between "Dragon" and so many other mainstream family movies plotted along those lines is that "Dragon" also happens to be terrific. It's charming, funny, exceedingly well-made and features enough comically thrilling flying-lizard mayhem to cause your child's head to lightly explode.
Set in a Viking village infested with sporadic Scottish accents and livestock-stealing dragons, the movie follows the education of Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) -- a whelp who questions his desire to become a dragonslayer after he secretly befriends a fire-breathing lizard he wounded.
The filmmakers have clearly digested their "Potter" and their "E.T.," but they've digested it rather well. The animation is sharply staged. The voice talent (which includes America Ferrera, Gerard Butler and Craig Ferguson) does more than simply regurgitate pop-culture references (and given that this is a Dreamworks joint, that's a minor miracle). The sheer variety of dragon creature designs is a riot, and Hiccup's vaguely Pokémon-looking dragon pal ends up being subtly expressive to the degree that the boy-dragon relationship becomes a little moving. That's a nice surprise, given the preponderance of bug-eyed cartoon Norsemen of varying accents.
Take your kids and start saving up for the DVD, because I suspect they'll be asking you to buy it as soon as they leave the theater.
-Mr. What?-
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