Computer animated 'Dino' might
Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) and Toothless, his somewhat tamed night stalker dino. (Paramount Pictures)
How to Train Your Dragon
Running time: 98 minutes
MPAA rating: PG (sequences of intense action and some scary images, brief mild profanity)
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"How to Train Your Dragon" isn't one of the truly great animated comic adventures like "Up" or "Shrek" or the first "Toy Story," which rollicked across movie screens way back in 1995.
It's packed with vibrant entertainment value, though. And parents aren't likely to doze off or be disgusted by this rambunctious adventure set in the long-ago fantasy world of plus-sized Vikings and fire-breathing dragons.
Young kids today probably have no inkling that animated films of their generation are no longer harnessed by technical limitations. The sky really is the imagination limit these days. Within a minute or two of opening -- even before, perhaps, the 3-D glasses are settled properly onto ears and noses -- the sky fills with angry, marauding dinosaurs-on-the-hunt.
A scrawny teen-age Viking named Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) is at the center of what appears to be a series of maelstroms dating back 300 years, when the Vikings first landed on the fictional Isle of Berk.
If brawn, not brains were all that mattered in this survival-of-the-fittest yarn, Hiccup would probably appear briefly, as the name implies. Writer-directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, who brought "Lilo & Stitch" (a 2002 animated tale I really liked) to the screen, instead mold this unlikely leading boy-man into the easy-to-like anti-hero.
Hiccup's dad Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler) is the tribal chief. Frankly, he's a little ashamed of his thin wisp of a son. When inventive Hiccup brings down a dreaded Night Fury dinosaur, however, things change drastically. He's sent to dragon slayer school and Stoick the Vast's chest, which is already puffed way out, puffs out more.
For a while, I had a decent time marveling at the technical artistry the directors bring to the screen from the 2003 children's book by Cressida Cowell. It soon becomes obvious, though, that "How to Train a Dragon" bears striking similarities to James Cameron's futuristic sci-fi marvel "Avatar."
Hiccup befriends the wild breast Night Fury, which he eventually names Toothless. Together, they soar on a journey that might just bring together two very different tribes (human and beast), just like in "Avatar."
The vocal talent soars right along with the visuals. In addition to Baruchel and Butler, late-night TV talk show host Craig Ferguson belts his lines with style as Gobber, the village blacksmith and dragon trainer.
And America Ferrera ("Ugly Betty" on TV) might just melt a few young male hearts as Astrid, the Tom Boy Viking girl who becomes entangled with both Hiccup and his black dino stallion.
It's packed with vibrant entertainment value, though. And parents aren't likely to doze off or be disgusted by this rambunctious adventure set in the long-ago fantasy world of plus-sized Vikings and fire-breathing dragons.
Young kids today probably have no inkling that animated films of their generation are no longer harnessed by technical limitations. The sky really is the imagination limit these days. Within a minute or two of opening -- even before, perhaps, the 3-D glasses are settled properly onto ears and noses -- the sky fills with angry, marauding dinosaurs-on-the-hunt.
A scrawny teen-age Viking named Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) is at the center of what appears to be a series of maelstroms dating back 300 years, when the Vikings first landed on the fictional Isle of Berk.
If brawn, not brains were all that mattered in this survival-of-the-fittest yarn, Hiccup would probably appear briefly, as the name implies. Writer-directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, who brought "Lilo & Stitch" (a 2002 animated tale I really liked) to the screen, instead mold this unlikely leading boy-man into the easy-to-like anti-hero.
Hiccup's dad Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler) is the tribal chief. Frankly, he's a little ashamed of his thin wisp of a son. When inventive Hiccup brings down a dreaded Night Fury dinosaur, however, things change drastically. He's sent to dragon slayer school and Stoick the Vast's chest, which is already puffed way out, puffs out more.
For a while, I had a decent time marveling at the technical artistry the directors bring to the screen from the 2003 children's book by Cressida Cowell. It soon becomes obvious, though, that "How to Train a Dragon" bears striking similarities to James Cameron's futuristic sci-fi marvel "Avatar."
Hiccup befriends the wild breast Night Fury, which he eventually names Toothless. Together, they soar on a journey that might just bring together two very different tribes (human and beast), just like in "Avatar."
The vocal talent soars right along with the visuals. In addition to Baruchel and Butler, late-night TV talk show host Craig Ferguson belts his lines with style as Gobber, the village blacksmith and dragon trainer.
And America Ferrera ("Ugly Betty" on TV) might just melt a few young male hearts as Astrid, the Tom Boy Viking girl who becomes entangled with both Hiccup and his black dino stallion.
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