How to Train Your Dragon 3D (2010)
Featuring the voices of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Kristen Wiig
Directed by Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders
It was not my intention to see this film. I came to theater thinking that I was going to see something else and when that fell through, this was the reluctant second option. Perhaps the lowered expectations helped matters, but I truly enjoyed How to Train Your Dragon which I think is Dreamworks' best film to date.
It's not a surprise that the co-directors of this also directed the heartfelt Lilo and Stitch as Dragon is certainly the most emotionally impactful flick from the closest competitor of Disney/Pixar. Teenage Viking Hicuup is ridiculed amongst his people because of his lack of dragon-fighting prowess. One evening, when his village is being attacked by dragons, Hiccup takes his homemade weapon and manages to take down the elusive dragon, Night Fury. No one believes young Hiccup, so the following day, he leaves the village to search for proof of his success and comes across the wounded dragon who has injured his tail, rendering him unable to fly. Initially intent on killing the beast, Hiccup soon becomes friends with the dragon, eventually forming a friendship.
While the story may be rather simple, the animation is quite the opposite. While the dragons themselves were fine (although nothing special), I was overly impressed that the filmmakers hired Roger Deakins, a cinematographer who has an incredible filmography (Revolutionary Road, Shawshank Redemption, Dead Man Walking, and ten Coen brothers movies), to help with lighting and framing shots. The wide shots and landscapes here were beautiful and lush and really added to the overall animated effect. The depth that 3D provides was certainly used to great effect.
Voice acting was very good with Craig Ferguson and Gerard Butler as, respectively, Hiccup's teacher and father faring the best. Jonah Hill and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, usually so annoying in "real life," proved to be quite humorous in animated form as Hiccup's classmates. Unfortunately, Hiccup himself is where my biggest fault with the film lies. Jay Baruchel has the "geeky" voice down to a tee, but I'm not sure it fit in with the Viking atmosphere. Yes, Hiccup is the class clown/nerd, but it didn't quite work for me. The character was not supposed to be annoying in the slightest, but at times I felt a tinge of aural irritation when he spoke.
Still, the film is Dreamworks' most touching to date. A solid effort that makes me cringe that their next effort is Shrek 4.
The RyMickey Rating: B+
Pixar also used Roger Deakins to help with Wall-e IIRC.
ReplyDeleteAlso, did you really complain about the nerdy dood sounding like a nerdy dood?
(haven't seen it so I don't know if it's a valid complaint)
I admit that Hiccup is a nerd. The "20th century" nerd-voice didn't sit right with me -- too modern, or something. The same could easily be said for his friends who also have 20th century personas, but they didn't bother me as much.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it's simply an issue with the dialog the character says. It's not really a problem, per se, but something about his voice in the role didn't fit with the look or the "feel/tone" of the character.
Not that it is a major issue, it's just didn't quite work...a minor quibble, if you will.
And I did see the Wall*E thing when I was looking up Deakins' work.
Dreamworks is terrible with voice actor selections, yes they get names but majority of the time they don't fit the character and its distracting and takes me out of the film. Hopefully when I see this it won't be the case.
ReplyDeleteDreamworks Animation is certainly the star-whore.
ReplyDeleteStill, it's not like Jay Baruchel is a "star." It was just a preference for the character that simply was a little off. Baruchel himself isn't bad, but I'm still not won over that it was the best for the part.