Above: Hiccup and Toothless, together again
Looking back on it, 2010’s “How to
Train Your Dragon” feels like part of a concentrated effort by DreamWorks
Animation to rebrand itself. Prior, the
studio was largely known as the company that mimicked Pixar, made obnoxious and
dated pop culture references, and whose trademark franchise was an extended
middle finger to the House of Mouse.
So, it came as a genuine surprise when
DreamWorks made something that was…well, genuine. In fact, “How to Train Your Dragon” was a
legitimately great film filled with richly-drawn characters, strong heart and
emotion, and stunning designs that made it one of the best animated movies of
the modern age. Which brings us to “How
to Train Your Dragon 2,” a sequel that doesn’t quite live up to the original,
but is still a fun and adventurous ride.
The new “Dragon” takes place five years
after the events of the first film, with the island of Berk now fully embracing
dragon/human cohabitation. There, the
heroic Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel), once a misfit inventor surrounded by
burly Viking warriors, has become a high-flying daredevil, sporting equipment
that makes him seem like a 10th Century Batman.
Hiccup would rather explore the
uncharted areas surrounding Berk than be groomed to inherit the mantle of chief
from his father Stoick (Gerard Butler). However,
his exploration puts him in the crosshairs of the dragon trapper Eret (Kit
Harrington) and his boss, warlord Drago Bludvist (Djimon Honsou). Fortunately, Hiccup finds an unexpected ally
in his mother, Valda (Cate Blanchet), who has become a sort of dragon whisperer
since her presumed demise twenty years prior.
Pretty much all of the things that made
the first movie great reappear here. The
voice cast? Strong all around, despite
the game of accent roulette that’s going on (the kids here have American
accents, the older generation are all Scottish, Eret is British and Drago
is…something. I couldn’t pin it. It’s a hodgepodge all around). The animation? Flawless; the scenes of flight and combat are
epic, while the dragon designs are unique and varied. The story? Surprisingly mature. Much like in the first movie, the main source
of emotional conflict in the sequel is the divide between the modern-thinking
Hiccup and his stuck-in-his-ways father. Fortunately, the movie has the smarts to not
paint either of them as entirely wrong in their disagreement over how best to
adapt to this dragon-populated world.
Ultimately, “How to Train Your Dragon
2” is rather smart by the standards of most movies, and especially by those of
children’s fare. Yet its villain falls
flat. In Movie 1, the enemy was one
tyrannical queen bee of a dragon, a wild animal largely exempt from needing
development or motivation; in Movie 2, we have Eret, who’s mostly just a
henchman, and Drago, who isn’t terribly interesting. Yes, his design is interesting, Mr. Honsou
goes for broke in his vocal performance, and there’s something to be said for
Drago acting as the dark reflection of Hiccup. But he’s still just an uninteresting,
single-minded conqueror.
Finally, the movie loses a lot of steam
in its second half when Hiccup’s emotional conflict has to share the spotlight
with an entire dragon war. But I’m still
giving “How to Train Your Dragon 2” a solid thumbs up. It’s not as consistently compelling as its
predecessor, but it’s still a strong sequel that builds and expands the series’
universe and makes for a memorable, fun movie.
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