In 2010, How to Train Your Dragon was a massive success. A
refreshing step out of Dreamworks’ then typical comfort zone of movies driven
by humor and dry pop culture gags, it was a heartfelt and enchanting movie that
quickly set word of mouth on fire, leading it to become a consistent box office
success (including reaching number one at the box office, four weeks after its
original debut), cementing it as the sleeper hit of the year. I myself found
the movie irresistible, not only because of how touching and captivating it
was, but for the bold moves its filmmakers had made. It also doesn’t hurt that
it was the best 3D I had ever seen in a movie, and to this day, still is.
Obviously, with this kind of adoration, that’s putting a lot
of pressure on the inevitable sequel, How to Train Your Dragon 2, and believe
me, this type of movie was exactly what I needed. After last year’s weak slate
of animated features (I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again), it’s refreshing
that we are now leaps and bounds ahead of it in quality. As for how this film
stands, not only does it match the first film in quality, it goes even further…
It surpasses it in every conceivable aspect.
Set five years after the events of the original, Hiccup (Jay
Baruchel) spends many of his days charting the landscape of the new world with
his dragon companion Toothless, discovering new species of dragons, and trying
to deal with the expected responsibility of being Berk’s future chief,
something thrust upon him by his father, Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler).
However, during his adventures, he soon learns that a vicious Viking, Drago
Bludvist (Djimon Hounsou), intends to build an army of dragons for global
conquest, and tyrannical reign of all the dragons in the world. Adding to the
mix is when Hiccup meets his mother, Valka (Cate Blanchett), presumed dead for
years, and has been rescuing dragons in secret. With the aid of his family, and
his friends, including Astrid (America Ferrera), Hiccup intends to stop
Bludvist’s onslaught, and save humans and dragons alike.
Now under the sole direction of Dean DeBlois, the original
film’s co-director (alongside Chris Sanders, who now serves as an executive
producer this time around), How to Train Your Dragon 2 is a film that does what
any great sequel should, serving as a proper continuation and enhancement, and
not a rehash. Darkening up the tone of the first installment, this immediately
springs to mind classics such as The Empire Strikes Back. While not without
signature wisecracks and silliness, the film doesn’t pull punches when it wants
to be serious. Rather than succumb to the all too enticing “More, more, more”
mindset, the film instead opts to keep an intimate focus on its characters,
effectively toning down the grandiose tone when necessary. The stakes are higher
and more personal than ever before, friendships and other various relationships
are pushed to the limit, there are dire consequences for actions, testing your
emotions from beginning to end. I don’t want to get into great detail for fear of
spoiling anything substantial, but the film pulls very bold moves that pay off
well, and in fact, some of them so devastating, you’ll be begging for it to
pull a Deus Ex Machina.
Without doubt, the best thing about this film is the
multitude of great characters and their chemistry. They are brimming with so
much depth, so much memorable personality, and often in silence. As it should
be in any great animated feature, many of the best moments of the film are
those with minimal dialogue, where story is told through simple body language
and expressions. These are especially meaningful in bonding scenes featuring
the dragons, embracing a less is more mode of storytelling. This allows the
non-speaking dragons, even the most insignificant ones, so much room to develop
their characters and personalities, especially Toothless and fantastic newcomer
Cloudjumper. The humans are no less great. Hiccup continues to learn more as a
dragon rider, but also has to come to grips with the important responsibility
he’s expected to deliver on, a nervous realization I’m sure anyone can relate
to. His continuing relationship with Astrid provides some of the most charming
moments of the film (the way they work off each other is so irresistible), his relationship
with his father provides many of the movie’s most affecting moments, and his
back-and-forths with Gobber (Craig Ferguson) provide several of the film’s
biggest laughs. Even the group of Dragon riders, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut
and Tuffnut, all return, and while getting showcased more as a group than
individually, still don’t feel sidelined.
The film also features several new major characters, who all
mesh with the old ones perfectly. Valka,
Hiccup’s mother, is one of the film’s most genuine rays of joy, set up through
a fantastic back story, fearless and protective, educational and nurturing, and
even her slightest movements are just fascinating, as the years of living with
dragons have made her movements quite animalistic. In contrast to Valka’s
joyful demeanor, Drago Bludvist is a straight up, vile monster of a man. With
years of trauma and unforgiving rage fueling him, he is a terrorizing, menacing,
manipulative, and violent force to be reckoned with. One of the absolute best characters,
one not showcased much in the trailers, turns out to be dragon hunter Eret, voiced
by Game of Thrones mainstay Kit Harrington. His character arc is one of the
most interesting in the film, he’s deceitful and cocky at times, he’s
knowledgeable and cunning, he’s very no-nonsense, but they still manage to get
some good comedy out of him.
In the technical specs, the film is a jewel. The film’s
visuals, achieved with the consultancy of photography giant Roger Deakins, are a
product of such unabashed, unbridled imagination, none the least of which
include the designs of the new dragons (which the animators clearly had a lot
of fun coming up with). The animation truly gets to shine in the fabulously
realized new lands and heightened scope, and especially in those spectacular
flight sequences. Speaking of which, those scenes are hair-raising in 3D, which
I recommend is the way you see this film, and in IMAX if possible (though
admittedly, due to my local theater’s tacky scheduling, I was not able to
experience it that way). The sound is every bit as good, with Randy Thom’s
dragon vocalization’s boasting incredible creativity, and John Powell’s music
expanding and refining on the first film’s score (one of my favorite film scores of
all time) with a healthy, robust, superbly realized mixture of old and new
compositions.
To be honest, I have nothing to criticize this movie for.
Everything in this film has been taken to the next level, enhancing the
thematic development of the first, building upon its lore and scope, and giving
us what is simply a perfect movie. I mean, when a movie takes something as
deceptively mundane sounding as “facts about dragons”, and somehow manages to
make it entertaining, there’s something to be said for it. Honestly, it’s the best
animated feature I have seen in years, and certainly Dreamworks Animation's best effort to date. So, yeah, I think it’s even better than
the first, and with how much I adore the first, that’s not to be taken as faint
praise. This is, as far as I’m concerned, the best movie you are going to see
all summer. If you loved the first film, you WILL love this one.
***** / *****
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