Merrick Thinks You Should Learn HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON!!

Merrick here...
…with a look at HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, based on a series of books by Cressida Cowell (available HERE). If you're a regular reader of this site, you know that I tend to not write too many reviews . But, every once in a while, a title comes along that I think deserves a bit more attention than it's been getting. In this case, it's the story of a boy named Hiccup, the ostensibly evil dragon he knocks from the sky, and his society's escalating campaign against dragons as Hiccup comes to realize that the true enemy they're facing isn't the creatures themselves…but sheer presumption and ignorance. When I first saw trailers for this film, I…wasn't convinced. The dragon looked like a big, black salamander cat and this felt like the kind of movie in which songs from All American Rejects or Green Day would show-up when you least wanted them. Neither is the case: the dragon, presented here with an amalgam of animal characteristics, works quite well (he sounds like a Cylon fighter from Ron Moore's BATTLESTAR GALACTICA when he whizzes by), and there are no rock songs until the movie's closing credits. Both of which illustrate my assertion that the most surprisingly quality of HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON is what it isn't, and I mean this in the best possible way. The movie is being strategically (and understandably) positioned as coming "from the creators of SHREK and KUNG FU PANDA" - a notion which immediately breeds many pre-conceptions: anachronistic rock songs and sight gags, modern sensibilities and hipsterism peppered throughout its dialogue, etc. But you'll find precious few of these qualities here: DRAGON is very straight forward, fully embracing the immediacy of its time, setting, and concept - and it's self-assured enough not to distract with desperate gags and or jarring pop culture references. Put simply, directors Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders (who wrote the film alongside Adam F. Goldberg and Peter Tolan) believe in their material. As a result, we believe in their film. Part of this acceptance rises from the film's willingness/commitment to actually be about something. When I say "about" something, I'm not referring to storyline, but substance. DRAGON's thematics are headier, and truer, than the noncommittal fluff we'd find many animated projects these days. As with the best allegories, DRAGON's conceits of understanding our enemy, and not instantly accepting authorities' determinations of who and what is 'bad', manage to directly apply to our real world without ever specifically evoking it. There's not a great deal of preaching here, but these messages are there, and their intent is unmistakable. Production Design Kathy Altieri (PRINCE OF EGYPT) and Art Direction by Pierre-Olivier Vincent (FLUSHED AWAY) are atmospheric, surprisingly detailed, and remarkably immersive. John Powell's driving score is among his best work to date - always supportive, never overbearing, and roundly indispensable. The overall use of 3D here is exemplary - whoever ends up directing the next SUPERMAN film could learn a few things from this film's flight sequences, which range from elegant and beautiful to adrenalized and dizzying. With all of this said, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON is not a perfect film. In general, its storyline is agreeably propulsive, but pacing does dip from time to time. And, strangely, many of DRAGON's Viking characters are imbued with a variety of odd accents - some of the Norsemen in this film sound like they're voiced by the slightly tipsy denizens of a remote UK pub. But such distractions and inconsistencies are minor compared to the overall effectiveness of this picture. HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON is the real thing, accessible to kids, imminently embraceable by adults, with a small plot point at the end which might make you gasp a little. No bullshit to cut through here, no self-conscious cuteness that dilutes our willingness to invest in the film. Apropos of the thematics driving this movie, you may very likely find that DRAGON is more than you expect it to be, and more than you thought it could be.
--- Follow Merrick on Twitter! ---