How to Train Your Dragon

Welcome to the formulaic world of animation films – where the protagonist is always the non-conformist fellow, who faces ridicule initially, but finally saves the day for everyone. And along the road, everyone learns an important lesson about enjoying life by celebrating our differences etc. However, as much as I crib about their formula based moviemaking, the zest for life and the vivacity of the animation movies keeps drawing me back to the movie halls where I spend two hours completely immersed in a wonderful world drawn by the animators.

How to Train Your Dragon follows a similar storyline, where a scrawny Viking teenager befriends an injured dragon – and discovers that dragons are much more than what they are made out to be. But ofcourse, before that, he has to endure taunts from his schoolmates and sighs of disappointment from his father. The action takes place in an imaginary island somewhere in the Nordic lands where a village is constantly raided by dragons for livestock and the fearless Vikings fight them off.

The dragons are cartoonized very nicely, and every few minutes, there is a sequence which will make you smile atleast. A movie that you will thoroughly enjoy, even though you can predict whats coming from a mile

The only reason why this movie isn’t a 4 star is because although it is made out to be a 3D movie, it really isn’t. Which is more than a little disappointing, because you keep expecting some cool 3D effects and there are multiple opportunities for doing it, but the 3D effects are just minor afterthoughts – blink-and-you-miss-it kind. And with all multiplexes starting to charge for 3D glasses, it becomes a bigger bummer

How to Train Your Dragon is a good animation movie – certainly worth your time. However, its predictability and scant 3D effects do not make it worthy of more than 3.5 stars (so don’t know why its in the IMDB top 250 movies of all time)