How to Train Your Dragon 2 review by LM

Dear Dreamworks Animation, why can't all your movies be this good?

The first "How to Train Your Dragon" was a big jump for the studio in terms of great storytelling. Out of all their films "How to Train Your Dragon" should be their gold-standard, but the studio stills suggests that Shrek will forever be its North Star. Dreamworks, Shrek is done and in the past. At least, it should be. Look to the future. Look to this franchise.

The first one was great, and the second is even better. "How to Train Your Dragon 2" breaks the sequels-are-never-better-than-their-predecessor stereotype (which is starting to become a common theme for the year). In it, we find a story that not only stretches the universe of "How to Train Your Dragon", but stretches our hero Hiccup as well. Gotta love character development. Plus, the visuals have obviously been upgraded too. The scenery is really starting to look ridiculously real. The characters themselves still look cartoonish, but because of their proportions. The detail in the skin texture is really starting to push the envelope. Overall, if you love great visuals, you'll love this movie.

Movies are more than visuals of course. Story is important. "How to Train Your Dragon 2" sets us five years after the first movie. Berk has fully integrated dragons into its culture as pets, co-workers, and vehicles. The people love their dragons, much more than their sheep, because in opening action scene the sheep are used as balls in a racing game of theirs. Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) is older but still very much a young man struggling with growing up into the man his father Stoik (Gerard Butler) wants him to be. He has explored much outside of Berk and loves doing so, and in his exploration he discovers a new threat to the village in a man named Drago (Djimon Hounsou) who is wrangling an army of dragons. In his mind there is only one way to solve this, but his father disagrees.

Hiccup's friends Astrid (America Ferrera), Snotlout (Jonah Hill), Fishlegs (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), Ruffnut (T.J. Miller), and Tuffnut (Kristin Wiig) want to help him out, but he ends up separated from them. Tuffnut, by the way, is a complete scene stealer a couple times. She's hilarious. We do get the pleasure of meeting Hiccup's odd mother Valka (Cate Blanchett). The more we get to know her, the more we see where Hiccup gets his nature and personality from. Her introduction as Hiccup's mother is pretty abrupt at first, but as the movie moves forward we get to know more bit by bit. Most characters are very well voice-acted and play a good role in the story. I do wish Gobber (Craig Ferguson) would be given more to do though. He was a very important character in the first film. Now he just plays comic relief when he is on screen.

The story moves at a balanced pace except for maybe a span in the second act it gets briefly dull. That happening doesn't stop the movie at all from being great. It's all expository dialogue. It's needed to give things context. Kids will love it. Adults will love it too. It's definitely darker than the first film as this movie tackles the idea of working-with-nature vs. using-nature with more defined good and evil sides of the coin. I do love the struggle of the competing ideologies as it manifests itself in a good battle. I'm thankful that the eco-friendly message isn't as heavy-handed as what is presented in the movie "Avatar". I'm not blind. I hear about global-warming and man destroying nature on the news. You can stop trying to turn movies into nature exploitation films. (ok, I'm done ranting) The darker story was a risk, but it pays off. If you're not careful it will suck you in and might cause you to shed a tear or two.

Overall, great movie. I would be surprised if it doesn't win the Oscar for Best Animated Picture, especially since Pixar has nothing coming out this year. It's biggest rivals will probably be "The Lego Movie" and maybe "The Boxtrolls" from Laika. With its beautiful animation, good story, and great, loveable characters, "How to Train Your Dragon 2" proves it should be recognized with the other great animated movies of this generation.

Rating: 82/100