How to Train Your Dragon - 2010

Starring:
Gerard Butler (300), Jay Baruchel (Knocked Up) and America Ferrera (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants)

Rating:
PG for sequences of intense action and some scary images and brief language

Description:
Hiccup is a viking.  And when you hear the word viking you are probably not picturing in your head a scrawny boy who likes to invent things and usually causes more problems than solves.  Hiccup is a well known disgrace to his villiage for all his mess ups, and the fact that his father is the leader of the village just makes matters worse.  Can a close encounter with a legendary dragon help Hiccup become the viking the village is waiting for or will it change everything he thought he knew and help him find the courage he needs to be happy as himself?

Review:
I will admit straight away, and everyone who knows me can verify this, I love dragons, in fact I collect them.  So when the trailer came out I was immediately wanting to see it.   In a way being a fan of dragons makes me a harder critic as I know everything about them, but this movie was perfect.  The animation, storyline and characters were all done beautifully. 

The dragons were scary, funny and sometimes cute.  The action did not disappoint either, which was surprising for a children's movie but not for a dragon movie.  Some children may find the action sequences a little intense so I would recommend viewing it before just to see for yourself whether or not it would be suitable for your own kids.  My 5 year old daughter said it was a little scary towards the end, but she still loved it.  For this movie I would recommend seeing the 3D version as the flying scenes are amazing.  Without giving anything away the ending is good, however you may need to explain to younger children the situation as they may not understand.  Don't worry its nothing extremely rude or bad, it just may confuse some children. 

I did not realize until after seeing the movie that it was based on a book.  With the movie being as amazing as it was I will definately be purchasing the book and will post a review on it once I have read it.  This movie is definately one I will be owning when it comes out, I just hope the book is as good.

Overall I would recommend this movie to all dragon, fanstasy, action fans and children 5 +.  Romantics may like the boy likes girl portion of the movie, but as its a children's movie don't expect much more than that.  Sci-fi fans will want to miss this one unless they like dragons.

Thank you for reading,
Alison
Movie Buff