You Must Learn How to Train Your Dragon

For years, Dreamworks Animation has lived in the critical shadow of Disney's Pixar studios - and for good reason.  Movies like Shrek, Madagascar, and Monsters vs. Aliens, while semi-entertaining in their own right, don't hold a candle to the power of Pixar's storytelling and the organic nature of their comedy.  The world doesn't need more fart jokes.

Congrats to the exec at Dreamworks that realized this and decided to make a film!

After slowly inching their way out of the pop culture-dumpster with Kung Fu Panda, Dreamworks goes full-on Pixar with How to Train Your Dragon, an adventurous boy and his dog (erm, dragon) story that manages to play your heartstrings like a Viking lyre.  Directors Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders (the hijacked Disney brains behind Lilo & Stitch) vividly realize the island of Berk and its inhabitants, a clan of Vikings bent on slaying the Dragons that have plagued their home for hundreds of years.

Dragon centers on Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), the alienated runt of Berk who'd rather tinker with dragon-catching inventions than wield an axe to battle beasts.  During one of the massacres on the town, Hiccup's catapult catches a stealthy Night Fury, the rarest of all dragon species, forcing him to either kill the salamander-like creature, or set it free.  Since it's a movie about principles and life lessons, Hiccup sets the Night Fury free, later named Toothless (even though he has teeth...), and begins a friendship that teach him the secrets of the dragon world that question the entire Viking belief system.  Plus he scores a kick-ass mode of transportation.

DeBlois and Sanders transform Dragon's simple moral tale into a full on action movie through massively scaled battle scenes (who doesn't love Vikings?) and several speedy dragon-flying sequences.  Here's where the 3D IMAX experience reaches new heights, creating an immersive flight experience by whipping clouds, trees, and ocean waves past you as you soar along with Hiccup.  This is easily one of the most impressive 3D sequences since the next-gen technology's inception.  Tag on John Powell's magnificent bagpipe and fiddle score, and you've got something close to epic.

But action alone does not a good movie make.  Along with stylish directing, Dragons takes the next step to showcase Hiccup's heartfelt bond with Toothless, and its impact on Hiccup's life at home.  It's emotional scenes like a five-minute, dialogue-free training sequence that will  have any pet owner tearing up.  While Dreamworks insistence on casting popular comedic talent (Dragons would have been near-perfect with riskier casting than Baruchel, or America Ferrara, Jonah Hill and Kristin Wiig as his fellow students), they nail the Viking machismo thanks to the unrecognizable Scottish brogues of Gerrard Butler as Hiccup's Father Stoick and talk show host Craig Ferguson as Gobber the Blacksmith.

How to Train Your Dragon isn't just the best animated film Dreamworks has ever made, it's just a great movie for kids and adults alike.

Now let's hope they don't f*ck it up with a sequel.