How to Train Your Dragon

The third of the nominees for Best Animated Feature that I've seen is How to Train Your Dragon (the others are Toy Story 3 and The Illusionist). All three films are excellent examples of animation, with this one hewing the closest to the traditional storytelling methods. It's a fine adventure, but what truly sets it apart is its technical qualities.

Set somewhere in Scandinavia a long, long time ago, How to Train Your Dragon tells the story of Hiccup, a spindly youth and the son of the village chief. His town is beset by dragons, which comes in all shapes and sizes and steal the livestock and burn down buildings. Hiccup desperately wants to kill a dragon, and goes off to try to down a Night Fury, the most dangerous kind of dragon. He succeeds, but no one believes him. He sets out to find it, and discovers he's only wounded it.

The dragon, whom Hiccup names Toothless, can't fly. He and the boy come to an understanding, and eventually Hiccup equips him with a harness that enables him to fly, but only if Hiccup is aboard him. Thus we get the first message of the film--sometimes you just need to rely on someone else.

The second message comes when Hiccup, who is now being trained to fight dragons, realizes that the creatures are misunderstood, and that they may have a common enemy. Of course, this type of talk amongst the Vikings is heresy, especially to the girl Hiccup likes, and most of all to his father.

The best thing about this film, which I saw on DVD and thus in 2-D, was its depiction of flying. When Hiccup is riding Toothless and soaring through the air, the majesty is brilliantly captured. The climax, in which everyone comes together to fight a humongous dragon, is also expertly done.

I was also intrigued by the design of Toothless. Most dragons are depicted as reptilian, with scales. This one, though, is more mammalian, with feline eyes and puppy-dog ears. It's an interesting choice, and it works, as the creature displays real personality.

I was also interested to learn that Roger Deakins, the great cinematographer, was a consultant on this film, and it shows, as the lighting is more sophisticated than the usual animated fare.

Aside from all that, the story is somewhat predictable. When the film was released some saw parallels to the blind hatred of Muslims in the U.S., and that does provide interesting subtext. There's also some routine physical comedy with a group of Hiccup's fellow teens.

Almost all of the major characters are voiced by well-known actors: Jay Baruchel is Hiccup, Gerard Butler is his father, America Ferrera is Astrid (Craig Ferguson voices another character, which makes me wonder why Vikings have Scottish accents). This brings up an eternal question I have, since I recognized none of these voices while the movie was on, and only learned about them during the closing credits: why use famous actors for voice-overs, when you could get actors just as good for far less money?