Movie Review: How to Train Your Dragon

Verdict: Dreamworks has successfully overtaken Disney's role as the 'family cartoon' creator

I started to think about memorable animation/cartoon releases by the two above-mentioned film creators- in the past two years

Disney has only one: Princess and the Frog
Dreamworks has two: Kungfu Panda & this one - How to Train Your Dragon

Even for Disney's - I'd say it's more for the kids - I like it cos it brings back the nostalgic feel of those Disney's classics.

Kungfu Panda was action packed and did a very good job of making a Chinese-feel animation - more like a fusion of Eastern and Western - and equally meaningful, too.

Now let's talk about this movie.

This is a fantasy movie, talking about dragons living in the Vikings era.

It is action packed - with loads of witty one line that's able to make both adults and kids laugh.

It is fun to watch - seeing different dragons with different 'functions' (a la Pokemon)

It gives positive/educational message - learn to understand a person(here it means dragon) before you determine that they are bad, learn to persevere, learn to accept that no one is perfect.

While being educational, this movie isn't cheesy (but the movie title is)

It gives room for imagination - a bit similar like Avatar but it's quite different (and ya, I started to think Avatar is more like a movie that's only visually stunning with cheesy love elements)

I enjoyed this movie even though it's slightly shorter than "Alice in Wonderland", which feels much draggier.

My only complain - the 3D isn't as good as Disney's (maybe Disney is going towards the 'effect' direction) and it feels way too easy for the boy to beat all the dragons (even though it showed how he learned those skills)

But well, it's the most exciting cartoon I've watched from Dreamworks since Kungfu Panda - I hope the next installment will be as good :)

P/S: I was surprised that Jónsi sang for the closing credit - it's good music

Rating: 9.5/10