Movie o' the day: How to Train Your Dragon

Slow day at work, an early show of a new, animated film, you know I'll be there. Today, How to Train Your Dragon sucked me in.

It's a pretty straightforward story, which I'll outline in broad strokes: smart Viking lad constantly gets into trouble trying too hard to prove himself as much a Viking as anybody else in the village, which is constantly raided by dragons; he discovers dragons aren't just rapacious raiding machines, ends up (somewhat) taming a dragon in secret; when he tries to demonstrate what he's learned to his village, they assume he's turned his back on the Viking way, taking the side of the dragons instead; hasty words set up a 'final battle' situation, the Vikings get in over their heads, the lad and his friends save the day, and an imperfectly happy ending wraps the whole thing up.

I'm not going to go into any more detail than that... I'll just say that the story isn't quite as grim as the broad strokes would suggest, and the imperfection of the happy ending actually serves the story quite well. My only quibble with the film is the hero himself... as a "smart wannabe Viking", they cast him as excessively sarcastic, and almost world-weary when things are going wrong for him, which I can't see the Vikings putting up with without a few well-placed cuffs, chief's son or no.

So, my verdict... I liked it, and wasn't sorry to shell out $7 to see it in 2D... but then, I'm an animation fan. If you're on the whole 3D kick, I can see how this could be a good one to watch that way on the big screen... otherwise, unless you're a fan like me, or are looking for a film to take older, grade-school children to (I did hear an anguished "NO!" from a young child towards the end of the film, thanks to the lead-up to the imperfectly happy ending, so if your child still takes movies excessively seriously, be warned), you might want to hold off for a matinee, or even wait for the DVD. Still, I'd say it's worth seeing.