Rawwwrrr.

How to Train Your Dragon: my really simplistic and half-assed review.

This movie delightfully surprises, but doesn't underwhelm nor overwhelm with its message and moral. Despite it's unique core story, it doesn't quite match up to the emotional intricacies of a Pixar movie, but with its increasing awareness of detail and storytelling, it may just catch up.

The story starts with a voice-over and a swooping view over an island inhabited by Vikings. Their pests are dragons that steal their food, and the age old tradition is this continuing war between Vikings and dragons. Hiccup is the boy behind the weapons department, and his dad is the man behind the army. The story goes from there. You can imagine it yourself with these somewhat stock characters. Add an animal, and there you go. Charming story. The highlights of this movie isn't this base story, but the interactions between Hiccup and the dragons. This includes his lessons with the man who looks over him, Gobber, and the other younglings of the island. However, it also brings some downfalls of the writing of the story. It uses cliche dialogue between cliche characters. It uses old comedic jokes and lines. Of course the dragon that he catches is the only cute dragon. The others are funny looking. The graphics are really great though. It doesn't hold out in any of the scenes that it does, and the flow of the story I enjoyed. The overall logic is nicely executed, even with the other plot deficiencies.

I give it 3 out of 4.

Other notes by me: Gerard Butler's voice is distracting. How come all the kids don't have accents? We're missing some female characters! Breast plates.