While Wall-E, The Lion King, and the Toy Story trilogy are my five favorite animated movies, there is only one movie outside of Pixar and Disney Animated that I love unquestionably and that is How to Train Your Dragon. There is so much to love in this film. One of them is that DreamWorks doesn’t try and sell the film based on voice-talent alone *cough-Kung-Fu-Panda-cough*. The studio sells it because they believe they have a great product, and they really do. This film is art, not simply a fun film to takes your kids. If only all animated films were made in this way, the genre will do so much better.
I have always believed that animated films outside of Pixar, and certain Disney films, were made specifically for kids and appealed only to kids or adults who like childish films (not in a bad way, however). I just am not a child at heart and films with the wistful humor and easy laughs aren’t as much fun for me to watch. Shrek, The Prince of Egypt, and The Road to El Dorado might have been the CLOSEST that I have seen outside of the two previously mentioned studios that I liked. Then I saw this film and I now have hope that there might be a change, but then Megamind came out and my hope went out the door (but that’s another story). I truly hope that in the future this genre will do better.
Now, why did I like the movie? It has such visually stunning animation that looked beautiful and crafted (Pixar is the best example; watch Wall-E) and something was quickly put together in a few months even though it wasn’t. The flying sequences were almost reminiscent to the space scenes in Wall-E with its elegant color schemes and majestic camera angles. The lighting looked real, and in fact, the hired one of the greatest directors of photography to work on the lighting for this film to make it look as real as possible, which I enjoyed. Lighting is key in animated movies and can add more depth to the picture.
Another major plus in the film is John Powell’s music in which he was the first man to be nominated for a best score outside of Pixar and Disney Animated films and it was his first nomination as well. Everything in this score has a point; every second needs to be there. Powell composed the greatest theme of the past year and quite possibly one of the greatest I have ever heard in many years. It is emotional, moving, tragic, comedic, and uplifting. No electronic sounds are added into this piece which would have destroyed the atmosphere it creates. Listen to it on youtube, it is worth the listen.
Then the voice talent is also truly exceptional. There were only three voice actors that I knew in the film, but I didn’t recognize anyone else. Jay Baruchel and Gerard Butler were fantastic and believable as Hiccup and his father. And America Ferrara was descent as the love interest, Astrid. It’s soothing and peaceful to not hear all of these famous actors every second. It’s good to hear other people to talk and not have thirty celebrities’ voices being jammed down my ears for only two or three lines each *cough-Kung-Fu-Panda-cough*.
Over all, a great story that actually looked real even though it had fantastical element and that sounded real with not so famous voices and with music that was both epic and still tame.
Thank you, DreamWorks Animation SKG. I love it.
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