How to Train Your Dragon –
movie review by Kate

How to Train Your Dragon – movie reviews by Kate

Reel reviews for real people

Rating: PG for sequences of intense action and some scary images, and brief mild language.

Genre: Family

Starring: Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, America Ferrera, Craig Ferguson

Plot: From the studio that brought you “Shrek,” “Madagascar” and “Kung Fu Panda” comes “How to Train Your Dragon.” Set in the mythical world of burly Vikings and wild dragons, and based on the book by… From the studio that brought you “Shrek,” “Madagascar” and “Kung Fu Panda” comes “How to Train Your Dragon.” Set in the mythical world of burly Vikings and wild dragons, and based on the book by Cressida Cowell, the action comedy tells the story of Hiccup, a Viking teenager who doesn’t exactly fit in with his tribe’s longstanding tradition of heroic dragon slayers. Hiccup’s world is turned upside down when he encounters a dragon that challenges he and his fellow Vikings to see the world from an entirely different point of view. –© Dreamworks

Director: Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders

Running Time: 1:38

Ebert says – 3 stars “How to Train Your Dragon” … devotes a great deal of time to aerial battles between tamed dragons and evil ones, and not much to character or story development. But it’s bright, good-looking and has high energy. The aerial battle scenes are storyboarded like a World War I dogfight, with swoops, climbs and narrowly missed collisions with craggy peaks and other dragons. For my taste, these went on way too long, but then I must teach myself that I do not have a 6-year-old’s taste.“ (Read full review)

Roger Moore (Orlando Sentinel) says – 3 stars “It’s more coming-of-age dramedy or “everything about your world view is wrong” message movie than it is a comedy. And that seems like a waste of a funny book, some very funny actors and some darned witty animation. But as sweet as it is, there’s not enough heart or farcical action (dragon slaying training) to make up for the lack of ready laughs. No matter how adorably Stitch-like the Night Fury is (rolling on his back like a dog, making those big Disney eyes), I wanted more Viking jokes, more bluster from Butler, more zingers from Ferguson (the late-night host voices a peg-legged blacksmith).” (Read full review)

Michael Phillips (Chicago Tribune) says – 3 1/2 stars “The swoops and dives of the exuberant 3-D DreamWorks Animation feature “How to Train Your Dragon,” in which the teenage hero breaks all the Viking rules and befriends the winged enemy, should prove as addicting to its target audience as similar scenes have in a little something called “Avatar.” (Read full review)

Peter Travers (Rolling Stone) says – 3 stars “Kid stuff? Maybe. But How to Train Your Dragon, from the book by Cressida Cowell, works enough miracles of 3-D animation to charm your socks off.  Writer-directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois (Lilo & Stitch) make funny, touching, sublime entertainment out of it.” (Read full review)

Rotten Tomatoes says – 91% “Consensus: Boasting dazzling animation, a script with surprising dramatic depth, and thrilling 3-D sequences, How to Train Your Dragon soars.”

Other Movie Reviews by Kate