How To Train Your Dragon

[Terastas]

Chances are very good that I'm going to see this in theaters. The fact that I'm part Norwegian and it hits theaters on my birthday is certainly a perk as well.

Trailer

Dragon Training

Viking Olympics (these had me rolling):
Snowboarding
Bobsledding
Speed Skating
The Ski Jump

[Berserker]

I hate the dragon, it looks and acts like stitch

[Terastas]

I hate the dragon, it looks and acts like stitch

The Night Fury? Well. . . Coincidentally, it is being directed by the two guys who handled Lilo & Stitch, but still, I think it looks great. It's got a nice blend of fierceness and sleekness in its form, but its mannerisms also allow it to be cute, especially in the way it tries to copy human behavior (copying Hiccup's smile in the previously posted trailer at 1:48 and copying human laughter in this one at 1:37). They could have gone in two very different (and both very cliche) ways with this: they could have gone the Dragonheart / Eragon route and made the dragon(s) perfectly sentient with just some strange urge to "bond" to make the union believable, or they could have made the dragon into a giant scaly puppydog. Instead it looks like they found a great middle ground between the two: anatomically feral, but intelligent and capable of expressing themselves without words.

It's a trait they apparently passed on to all the dragons. Every dragon in the featurette -- even the ones that look ridiculous -- has this brief moment where it looks like they could be thinking: "Heh. Stupid Viking." Something that really got me laughing was the scene in the featurette with the two-headed dragon (which is easily the dumbest looking dragon of the bunch); after each head grabs a viking in its mouth, they look at each other and grin.

The only complaint I have with it thus far is how remarkably lifelike some of the scenery looks even though many of the Vikings are often toony and exaggerated. It's not a serious drawback in my books -- just an odd contrast is all.

[Morkulv]

The fact that I'm part Norwegian and it hits theaters on my birthday is certainly a perk as well. :Dl]

Yeah, its a well-known fact that vikings fought dragons all the time...

The trailer doensn't look very special, but maybe I've just seen too many 3D-films over the past years.

[Terastas]

Yeah, its a well-known fact that vikings fought dragons all the time...

This is the third time somebody has commented to me about the "historical inaccuracy" of the movie.

Seriously, would someone please explain to me why so many people demand historical accuracy and realism from a cartoon about dragons?

[Berserker]

It's a well-known fact that dragons were a large part of viking life anyway. They carved ships and homes to resemble them, and they were depicted on shields and in leatherworking. Kings were buried with dragon carvings upon the tomb, and dragon trinkets therein. They are heavily featured in mythology and oral and written history (Beowulf and Das Nibelungenlied notwithstanding.)

In fact, one wonders why the Scandinavians--a spiritual but not fervently religious people prior to Christianity--so widely upheld a creature that apparently did not exist.

[Morkulv]

Yeah, its a well-known fact that vikings fought dragons all the time...

This is the third time somebody has commented to me about the "historical inaccuracy" of the movie.

Seriously, would someone please explain to me why so many people demand historical accuracy and realism from a cartoon about dragons?

Dude, it was a joke...

In fact, one wonders why the Scandinavians--a spiritual but not fervently religious people prior to Christianity--so widely upheld a creature that apparently did not exist.

I think its very interesting, and around that time there were a lot of pagan believes in Europe before christianity came along. Alot of Germanic tribes also had a very close bond with nature and animals.

[Terastas]

Just watched the review on Spill.com: Three "full price" scores from the three people that reviewed it.

Something that really surprised me, however, was that they compared the 3D effects to Avatar, stating that A) the flight scenes were just as cool as the one in Avatar, and B) that there are a lot more of them.

So with only Hot Tub Time Machine to compete with at the box office, I have a very good feeling that this movie is not only going to be #1 at the box office over the weekend, I think it's going to stay there for a while too.

[Berserker]

I saw this and loved it. Extremely tight storytelling, amazing score, charming and lovable character designs, 3-D that doesn't feel like a gimmick... I think it's an absolute travesty that this film earned less than half of what that polished turd Alice and Wonderland did.

Something about the way this movie was advertised must have made a lot of people pass on it this weekend. It was depicted as a straight-up comedy in the vein of Shrek, and with the highly Americanized and anachronistic kid actors, I can see where people got that impression. Honestly I almost passed up seeing it myself, thinking it would have no appeal to me as an adult. Boy was I wrong.

[Terastas]

I saw this and loved it. Extremely tight storytelling, amazing score, charming and lovable character designs, 3-D that doesn't feel like a gimmick... I think it's an absolute travesty that this film earned less than half of what that polished turd Alice and Wonderland did.

Something about the way this movie was advertised must have made a lot of people pass on it this weekend. It was depicted as a straight-up comedy in the vein of Shrek, and with the highly Americanized and anachronistic kid actors, I can see where people got that impression. Honestly I almost passed up seeing it myself, thinking it would have no appeal to me as an adult. Boy was I wrong.

It might just be poor timing. Alice In Wonderland came out three weeks ago and hasn't had any competition for the (still limited number of) 3D screens available until now. HTTYD, on the other hand, only has a week until Clash of the Titans comes out (which I expect will suck, but a lot of theaters will bump HTTYD off of the 3D screens to accommodate it, which will put a dent in their week 2 earnings).

I kind of see this movie following in the pattern of the first Madagascar movie. Madagascar hit theaters on the same day as Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, so it was never #1 at the box office. . . But it was #2 for a couple of months and raked in over five hundred million by the time it was done. With Clash of the Titans looking to be the best movie coming out for the entirety of April (Iron Man 2, Robin Hood and Shrek Forever After won't be out until May), I could see HTTYD sustaining #2 at the box office consistently and being a long-term success as well.

[Sheba]

I saw the movie today and loved it.
I love the fact that it has all types of dragons.
A great family movie.

[Berserker]

I decided this movie has my favorite film score from the past 10 years.

[Terastas]

I love it. According to IMDB, How To Train Your Dragon, which was released four weeks ago, was #1 at the box office with $20M. Kick-a**, which opened this weekend, was #2, and Clash of the Titans (with their blurry crap 3-D effects) dropped down to #5.

This is exactly what happened to Madagascar. HTTYD's release was poorly-timed, but it wouldn't have sustained this long if it wasn't the better movie.

This actually exceeded my expectations. I thought Kick-a** would be #1 this weekend and HTTYD would take the #2 spot again -- I can't believe it's the other way around. And if I've learned anything from crap movies like Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Transformers: ROTF (both of which were #1 for back to back weeks), it's that this can't be due to just Kick-a** looking like a total crap movie. It means HTTYD really is that good.

EDIT: I was wrong; IMDB changed its numbers with HTTYD as a close second. . . But considering this is its fourth week in theaters and it only lost the #1 spot by 0.2M, that's still pretty damn impressive if you ask me.

[Terastas]

Holy crap it's #1 for real this time!

IMDb's numbers (as of my posting this):
1) How to Train Your Dragon = $15M
2) The Back-up Plan = $12.2M
3) Date Night = $10.6M
4) The Losers = $9.61M
5) Kick-a** = $9.5M

There's a 2.8M gap in between the reported #1 and #2 this time, so this time I'm positive.
Five weeks in theaters and back at #1. I love it.

[Wingman]

I recently saw this, and I really liked it. Though I would have liked some more information on the queen dragon thing.

[fredriksam]

I have seen this great movie. The music in it is really awesome and dragons are cool. Love the scene when the dragon takes Astrid on a ride.

Our cinema are showing this on 3D on some dates and regular 2D on others. That way you can choose if ya want to see in 3D or not. Probably good for the younger kids.

[Berserker]

A sequel has been officially announced.

[nekocj]

I absolutely adore this movie and every second of film (Or 24 frames if we wanna get digitally technical lol). This movie fights me with Avatar as being my favorite film ever. And I agree. The flight scenes in HTTYD were every bit as good as Avatar but that is to be expected. As far as cartoons go Dreamworks is king of the crop in my opinion and Weta is king of the crop for film. Neither company takes entry level talent into their employ meaning every single bit of work done on either of their films is done by professionals with several years+ experience. If you haven't seen it yet it is still in theaters so I recommend you do yourselves a favor and go see it as soon as possible ;)

Neko