Blu-ray Review: How to Train Your Dragon (2010)

After riding on Pixar's coattails for so long, finally, with How to Train Your Dragon, Dreamworks Animation can claim to belong in the same ballpark in terms of quality and heart. Unfortunately, it happened to be released the same year as Toy Story 3, which overshadowed its success at the box office as well as keeping that little gold man out of reach. Nevertheless, Dragon is a real treat: a fun-filled family adventure with laughs, wit and a whole lot of charm. Surely it's a film that John Lasseter would have been happy to release from his Disney/Pixar empire. Ironically, it has been shepherded to the screen by two directors he fired from Bolt when he took charge of Disney's animation division.

Dragon is the story of Hiccup, a Viking boy who's the shame of his village and his father, the chief. These are the sort of Vikings who are built like trees and fight dragons for a living. Hiccup, however, manages to befriend one dragon, and discovers they're not the killing machines he's been led to believe. In the meantime, though, his father forces him into training to be a dragon slayer, which rather contravenes his new understanding of the beasts.

Of the many things Dragon gets right, three stand out. The voice casting is impeccable, the directors not just simply picking a bunch of big names. Jay Baruchel (Tropic Thunder) is perfect as the geeky Hiccup, pitching his voice up slightly and adding a bit of pubescent squeakiness, while gruff Gerard Butler is his barrel-chested father, Stoick. Kristen Wiig, Jonah Hill and Christopher Mintz-Plasse are standouts in smaller roles. The real achievement in the voice casting is never once do you think that it's the actor, not the character, speaking, so ideal are their voices for the roles. Even the fact that all the adult Vikings are Scottish and the kids American doesn't matter, despite sounding awkward on paper.

Secondly, the music. John Powell, a Hans Zimmer alumnus, has written a few noteworthy scores in his career (the Bourne series being a highlight), but rarely has he been given such an opportunity to write a grand orchestral affair. He grabs the chance with both hands, producing a rousing, catchy, theme-driven assortment that propels the action and emotion to greater heights. It's a rare film nowadays that gives music room to breath between dialogue and sound design, but there are sequences here - such as Hiccup's first dragon flight - where the music gets to drive the whole scene, to thrilling effect. Powell's Oscar nomination was great to see, and rewarded a wonderful effort.

The third standout feature of Dragon, and the most important of all, is the handling of the dragons themselves. Clearly keen to distance them from previous film dragons, the designers have gone for a looks that is slightly goofy in still images, but in motion the animators give them all huge personality. The various different 'breeds' of dragon encountered are all distinctive and fully rounded creations. The hero dragon, whom Hiccup christens Toothless (since he can retract his teeth), is a cross between a cat's appearance (mainly its eyes) and a dog's behaviour and loyalty. The relationship between the pair is hugely endearing and often funny, with Toothless' face proving remarkably expressive. Wisely, these dragons can't talk, and there's no Eragon-style telepathy either.

The beats of the story may all be foreseeable and set in stone as soon as boy meets dragon, but it's executed with exhilarating panache. Perhaps it doesn't quite boast the depth or complexity of Pixar's best efforts. Few even of their films get the adrenaline pumping as much, though, or leave you on such a high.



Release Information
Country: UK / Region: Free (unconfirmed) / Version: N/A / Discs: 1 / Distributor: DreamWorks

Presentation
CG animation has come to be a byword for technical perfection on Blu-ray, and Dragon doesn't disappoint. The visuals may not be the most layered or as richly detailed as some, but their rendering here is faultless, with great contrast and colours. The soundtrack comes in Dolby TrueHD, and is brilliantly powerful in the action scenes, with great use of directionality and LFE when called for. My only quibble is that sometimes voices during action scenes, such as Hiccup's narration in the introduction, are drowned out by the effects.

Extras
Two featurettes of ten minutes each are lightweight morsels. Most of the meat is to be found in the commentary, featuring the two directors and the producer, and the "Animators' Corner", a picture-in-picture feature that runs alongside the whole film, comprising interviews, artwork, and behind the scenes footage. Occasionally snippets of the standard commentary are edited in to provide a seamless, pause-free experience.



Summary
How to Train Your Dragon is wholesome fun for all ages. It's the best thing DreamWorks Animation have done since Shrek, while going for more straightforward charm rather than the in-jokes and sly references that define that series.