Day 114: "You're many things Hiccup, but a dragon killer is not one of them."

As CGI movies that are not made by Pixar go, How to Train Your Dragon is top notch.  Had I not known this was not a Pixar film, I probably would have assumed it was.  The story is fun, the characters are well written, the animation is some of the best I've seen, and, most importantly, the dragons do not have speaking roles.  This could have easily skewed to the goofy, but the writers decided to keep the dragons quiet and let the animators handle the acting.  Great call.  The story itself is about a small Viking village that has to deal with constant raids from a band of dragons.  Hiccup, the disappointing son of the village leader and top dragon slayer, manages to disable one of the most feared dragons, and is able to train it.  Through the process of getting it trained, he discovers a lot more about the dragons, as a race, and realizes that they are not what they appear to be.  From there, the usual, thinly veiled life lessons are put on display for the audience, and the story resolves itself.  I have to say, this movie played out in, what looks like the usual, family way, but was extremely satisfying and a blast to watch.  The camera work, specifically, was spectacular.  The filmmakers obviously did a lot of research with areal stunt, and dogfight footage, because the scenes of the dragons in flight were amazing. 

Quite a few established actors lent their voice talents to this film: Gerard Butler, Jay Baruchel, Craig Ferguson, Jonah Hill, America Ferrera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and "The Doctor", David Tennant are just some of the cast.  It was funny to listen to the voices, as the adults all seemed to be Scottish Vikings, but the kids were American Vikings.

This was up against some serious competition for the "Best Animated Feature" Academy Award in 2010, and had it not been up against Pixar's Toy Story 3, it should have won easily.  It is a great movie for both kids and adults, just a ton of fun to watch.  It was also, unfortunately, released in 3D, but the usual grab bag of 3D tricks were not obvious, and it does not feel like a 3D specific movie, happily.  Check this out, it's a blast for everyone.  8.75/10.

See you tomorrow, and GO WATCH A MOVIE!!