The Vikings on the island of Berk have this pest problem — dragons. They’re dogged by dragons of every shape, size and description — the Thunder Drum variety and the “Scaldrons,” who won’t burn you with fire, but with scalding hot water. Whispering Death is a particular nuisance.
Worst of all is the Night Fury. You can’t even see that dragon when it plunges out of the darkness to snatch people and livestock, burn barns and homes, and generally lower property values.
But the burly Vikings of Berk fight fire with fire, and dragons with burrs — Scottish burrs. They all sound like Gerard Butler and Craig Ferguson, you see. Or the adult ones do.
Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) is a scrawny kid who longs to do his part because “killing a dragon is everything around here.” But he’ll have to do it with inventions. He’s plainly not tough enough to handle a broadsword or battleaxe to the satisfaction of his dad, the stoic chieftain Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler).
Hiccup’s lack of a killer instinct and inability to impress his dad come to a head when he captures a Night Fury. Because once he sees how gentle dragons can be (he can ride them, just like in Avatar), Dad will no longer be upset that Hiccup can’t killed them.
Hiccup learns How to Train Your Dragon. Won’t the Vikings be pleased? Or at least shocked?
Dreamworks hired the directors of Lilo & Stitch to turn Cressida Cowell’s romp of a novel into an animated film and can’t be too surprised that they made, in essence, Hiccup and Stitch. It’s a cuddly cartoon character comedy that emphasizes heart over one-liners, message over laughs. Casting funny folks like Jonah Hill and Kristin Wiig in supporting roles to little effect, they emphasize the father-son, boy-community dynamic, with Hiccup as a reluctant dragon slayer among manly hack-first, ask questions later Vikings.
“It’s only fun if you get pain out of it!”“
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). “Oh, Thor almighty” doesn’t cut it.
Casting Baruchel as the lead ensures that this will be the wimpiest Viking movie ever, which may be the point. This harks back to that 1980s movie and TV series, The Reluctant Dragon. 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.
See for Yourself
How to Train Your Dragon
Two and a half stars out of four
Cast: The voices of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, America Ferrera, Craig Ferguson
Directors: Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois
Running time: 1 hour, 38 minutes
Industry rating: PG for sequences of intense action and some scary images, and brief mild language
You rated the film on how well it compares to your expectations of what it should have been given its source material and voice cast? Your name may be Roger but you’re no Ebert.
(RM: Am I? When you cast Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, Craig Ferguson, Kristen Wiig and other COMIC actors, and then can’t find the laughs, that strikes me as disappointing expectations.)
Posted by: nonprophet | Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 1:27 PM
It’s Dreamworks, not Pixar. What do you expect?
Posted by: Howard Shubs | Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 4:46 PM
That’s funny…this is the first bad review I’ve read for the movie…so I’m going to go ahead and say you’re wrong.
(RM: Yeah, I guess actually reading the review and not just the squishy green “rotten” tomato is a bit too much trouble. Or actually seeing the movie. It’s not exactly a pan, just on the low end of the endorsed scale. Go here to see a more wide range of good to “bad” reviews. http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/howtotrainyourdragon
Posted by: Hilary | Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 10:43 PM
Disney’s The Reluctant Dragon came out in 1941, and was never a TV series.
(RM: So that ear-bug theme song, “He’s the most reluc-tant Dra-gon, that the world has ever seen, just a very mild mannered dragon, who’s reluctant to be mean” is just a hallucination? No. It was an 80s TV show.
Look it up. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120005/)
Posted by: DailyRich | Friday, March 26, 2010 at 10:45 AM
I checked Wikipedia, didn’t see a mention of the series. Regardless, the 80s versions owe their existence to the 1941 short, and the original book.
(RM: Which is why. I mentioned. Them both.Onward!)
Posted by: DailyRich | Friday, March 26, 2010 at 11:39 AM
So I went to your recommended metacritic website. Your review is 5th from the bottom out of 29. 24 of your peers gave it at least a 70. Typically, when it comes to your reviews, when you pan a movie, it ends up being a good movie. Granted, many reviewers can be wrong. Owen’s reviews for EW occasionally miss their mark. He did recently write an article about the D he gave \Pretty Woman.\ You, however, consistently poorly review films. I have hated your reviews for years, but stayed silent. I find your defensiveness in the majority of these comments as unprofessional. Furthermore, by recommending that website, you’ve pretty much shown yourself for the poor reviewer you are. You are a waste of money to the Sentinel.
Posted by: Worst Critic Ever | Friday, March 26, 2010 at 3:38 PM
Roger,
I saw the movie last night and agree with many of your points. However, I thought the movie was much funnier than you imply. It was a bit “weird” that only the adults spoke with a Scottish brogue, but I thought maybe that too much Scottish might have overwhelmed American audiences, particularly young ones. But we all agree (four adults and a 14-year old) that it was a good movie and that we got our money’s worth. Glad I didn’t waste that money to go see Cop Out.
(RM: Comedy is utterly subjective. So you laughed, I didn’t. I wanted more SCOTS, arrrrrgh. That’s me. Plenty of heart, not a bad movie. But not great, either.)
Posted by: Christy | Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 10:33 AM
My family saw this on Saturday, and thought it was fantastic. That’s two adults and a 13 year old. The animation sets a new high bar for spectacular animation effects. For folks going to it, look at the flying sequences for details and sheer joy of flight. For me, it was too light on the Ferguson, but the work of Jay Baruchel (besides having a dead on Christian Slater voice), was a good counter to the figure of his father. I loved how he discovered how to work with, rather than kill, each type of dragon.
All in all, a very sweet movie.
Posted by: Steverman | Monday, March 29, 2010 at 9:44 AM