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Movie audiences worldwide have been blessed in recent years with a string of excellent animated films, and I’m glad to report that DreamWorks’ How To Train Your Dragon 2 earns its place in the top tier.
Set five years after the events of the first film, the Vikings in the village of Berk are now living in harmony with the native dragon population. Working together to rebuild and expand while providing entertainment in the form of both companionship and sport (the movie’s opening dragon race sequence is a stand-out scene), the natives live a peaceful and untroubled life.
That all changes when our protagonist, Hiccup (Baruchel), who has taken to adventuring far beyond the reaches of Berk on cartography expeditions, runs into Eret (Harington), a dragon trapper who immediately identifies Hiccup’s dragon, Toothless, as an extremely rare breed and wants to capture it.
Despite managing to escape, Hiccup is again captured by a mysterious woman named Valka (Blanchett), who know a lot more about Hiccup than he realises.
She reveals that Eret works for an insane madman named Drago Bludvist, who is using his powers to control the captured dragons and use them as a powerful army to conquer the world.
As expected, it is up to Hiccup, Toothless and his gang of misfit buddies from Berk to stop Bludvist and save the world.
So often the bane of a sequel is trying too hard to top what’s gone before, but luckily How To Train Your Dragon 2 succeeds in this endeavour.
Bigger really is better as the scope of the world the characters inhabit is expanded upon as the movie progresses. While the first movie was centred on Berk, Hiccup’s curiosity takes him on adventures across lush green forests, vast rocky caverns, endless ocean and even a vast fortress made of ice.
All of this is achieved with some of the finest animation I’ve ever seen. The quality has improved markedly, even since the first movie, with the visuals extremely crisp, giving real colour and depth to the landscape and locales.
The characters, both human and dragon, display genuine emotion on their faces and draw the viewer into their feelings.
Accompanying the wonderful visuals is an excellent musical score. Knowing when to downplay the music and take a more subtle approach during important dialogue and when to reach a powerful crescendo during the action scenes, the soundtrack is one that many viewers will be itching to download when they get home.
The decision to set the film five years later was inspired too, meaning that our characters are now young adults instead of teens. It was a bold decision, but it pays dividends as it not only makes the film accessible to new viewers, but also the older ones who have grown up since the original in 2010.
It gives the story dramatic purpose too, as village chief and Hiccup’s father Stoick the Vast (Butler) is trying to groom his son to succeed him, which Hiccup is reluctant to do as he’d rather be adventuring with Toothless now he has more free reign as an adult.
The relationship between Hiccup and Toothless is one of the film’s brightest aspects, as you can really see the trust and friendship between the two. Their interactions also breed humour, providing lots of laugh-out-loud moments for kids and adults alike.
There aren’t too many negatives to mention, but there are a couple of areas where the film could have been stronger. The first is that Bludvist is ripped straight from the book of cartoon baddies, with a flimsy back-story and a menacing grin.
In a film with such rich characters and strong animation to draw real emotional weight, it’s disappointing to have a cookie-cutter ‘evil madman lusts for power’ villain.
Furthermore, while still a family movie at heart, the aging of the characters seems to be reflected in the subject matter. This movie has a darker tone than the first, and some scenes will scare, or possibly even upset, younger viewers.
Overall, this is a superb film that will rank as one of the best animated films of the year, never mind the summer. Better than its predecessor, you owe it to yourself (and your kids!) to see this movie.
