How to Train Your Dragon

Another great animated film that wasn’t pretentious and didn't try to fool me into believing that it had a deeper meaning (no, I'm not talking about Anomalisa). It did make me laugh and reminded me that we need to help each other, even between species. Both the animation and the story were great. The older I get, the more enjoy a good animated film. (16/08/2016)

I had to check my birth certificate after it was over to make sure I was as old as I was. That’s because I was convinced that I had clearly become slightly effeminate, as I longed, with a tear in my eye, to get my own black dragon, one that spits out the same cannonade as the "plasma gun" from "Doom III" and has such sad rendered eyes that it captured my heart for the entire runtime. It doesn't quite have the perfect animation or storyline, and in a two-dimensional world, it also drags the eyes too much to where the spectacle-wielding cinema-goers were sighing blissfully, but damn... it's got moments that kids won't pick up on, jokes galore, Powell's awesome music, and an apocalyptic finale like something out of a better RPG. 4 ½. (14/10/2010)

Even though I was sitting in that movie theatre surrounded by little kids (or their parents), I enjoyed it and didn't find it weird at all that the average age was around 12 because this film is for everyone and you just need to relax a bit and enjoy it. The big plus is that it didn't stop entertaining me even when I had a headache, and you know how it is with attention when something hurts... :-) Funny, the kawai dragon (which has the intelligence, the behavior of a cat and a dog and looks like a frog) and dispensed with the sappy speeches in honor for friendship, understanding, and I don't know what all. Just no pathos and that, when it's not in a US movie, is just awesome... X-D 4+ for sure and without hesitation. (30/04/2010)

A wonderful story about a special friendship that also has considerable resonance. Of course, it can be seen as a simple narrative where "the son, against his father's expectations, takes a path other than the predetermined one and actually opens everyone's eyes in the end." How to Train Your Dragon offers much more than that. It is, in fact, about a precipitous change in deeply ingrained thinking and beliefs. Here the means to achieve it is an extraordinary interspecies relationship that until now has been considered fundamentally unacceptable. I'm not afraid to say that this is truly one of the best animated films I've seen yet. And the cool thing about it is that it works for all ages. There's something for everyone that grabs them by the heart. (24/02/2019)

I was originally a bit scared of How to Train Your Dragon - I didn't like the dragons in the photos at all. And that includes the main character Toothless. But as soon as he first appeared in the film and I saw his movements and expressions, I fell in love with him. And the other dragons, too. That was the first big plus. Others include the amazing aerial scenes, Powell's music, the humor... Just about everything. Yet isn't it all cliché? So what? (19/02/2011)