I finally watched How to Train Your Dragon after wanting to watch it in the cinemas when it was out but never having the time, and it slipped my mind until I ended up getting the DVD a while back. I had high hopes for this one since it got 98% on rottentomatoes!!! Very few movies manage to get such a high approval rating. However, by halfway, and by the time I finished watching it, I did not believe is deserved such a high rating. It's not bad, just that the story isn't that enriching. The love interest of Hiccup is shallow, and they way it was played out seemed like an afterthought, and more like that it was an obligatory thing. They story itself is okay, I wouldn't say it was original, yet it was refreshing enough to be interesting. The humour was so so, but nothing over the top, and I was actually bored for quite a few scenes in the movie.
The animation was top notch though, and some of the flying scenes were breath taking. I just wished sometimes they would stop reusing plot points that's been used to death in other movies, coz I could guess a few of the plot developments beforehand. Yes, I know this is aimed at a younger audience, but there are many animation movies that achieve this, and makes for a good watching for all ages. They way the story was told could be better, they seemed to have left a few things vague, things they could have expanded upon for a better experience. Overall, it's a movie worth watching, but I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it.
Among the special features were the short Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon, it was okay in a fifteen mins kind of way. If it was any longer, then it wouldn't be as nice to watch. It was fairly boring, and I didn't really like the transition to traditional animation, but it worked as a flashback effect. The story told by Gobber were hard to believe, yet, they are apparently true by the end of the short film. The boneknapper dragon itself is pretty cool, and then ending was good, it was a bit boring in the beginning, but overall, it is okay.
