(3.5 out of 4 stars)“I’ll pack my undies!” How To Train Your Dragon is the story of a young boy, Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel), who lives in a village that is frequently being attacked by dragons. Hiccup’s father, Stoick (Gerard Butler), is the leader of the village and head dragon killer. Hiccup wishes to prove to his father that he can kill a dragon too but, unlike his father, he doesn’t have the skills to do so. When he thinks he’s shot down one of the most difficult and threatening dragons to kill he goes in search of the injured dragon.
Eventually he finds the dragon but realizes that he can’t kill the beast and lets it go free. He finds out that the dragon, which he later gives the nickname “Toothless”, can’t fly due to an injured tail. He ultimately befriends “Toothless” and uses his building skills to make a fake wing tail, along with a saddle and harness for him to ride his new found friend.
Back at home, many of the leaders decide they need to go in search for the dragon’s nest to fight them on their turf so that their village can be done with the dragons once and for all. While Stoick and other men are gone, Hiccup is reluctantly put into Warrior School where young villagers can learn to fight dragons. None of the other teens in the program like Hiccup and think he is a loser and that he’s going to get himself killed due to his lack of fighting skills. Fortunately Hiccup uses the knowledge he obtains from spending time with Toothless and other dragons to tame the dragons the kids are tested to fight. When the men return from their failed journey, Stoick learns that his son is the talk of the village.
Hiccup realizes that the dragons are not much different from his own people. They have families and want to live a free life. He finds out that the dragons themselves are terrorized by a much more ominous creature and that if the dragons don’t pay homage to this creature, the dragon colony will be in danger themselves.
How To Train Your Dragon is filled with everything you would want in an animated feature. There is humor for kids and adults, amazing animation, great action scenes and a good message for all of us to learn from. “Dragon” is one of those films that your kids will want to see more than once and most likely you will want to go back and see it with them as well without any hesitation. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie as did my kids. In fact, they are still quoting lines from the movie. I was only able to see this movie in 2D but I think if I would’ve seen it in 3D I would’ve given it 3.75 stars out of 4.
For the most part the film is pretty kid friendly. "All hell is going to break loose!” is the one and only swear word in the entire movie. There are a few other things that kids may not pick up if they’re not paying close attention. For example, one scene has Stoick give Hiccup a Viking helmet that was made out of his late wife’s breast plate. Hiccup replies, “Thanks for the breast hat.”
All in all it’s pretty family friendly, but make sure you don’t bring the really young ones or even kids that might be a little on the sensitive side due to the intense fight scenes and a few scenes where things jump out at you (especially in 3D). There were a few parts in 2D where I found myself startled a bit.
Rating of whether I would see the movie again:
1 = Definitely not!
2 = Probably not.
3 = Maybe.
4 = Probably.
5 = Absolutely!
Would I see the movie again in the theaters? 5
Will I rent it on DVD and watch it at home? 5 (If I don’t end up buying it)
Would I buy the movie? 5
(How To Train Your Dragon is rated PG for sequences of intense action, some scary images, and brief mild language)