How to Train your Dragon was an amazing movie! I remember when it first came it out. That was back in 2010, unfortunately the time when I was still saying, "Animated movie's? Gay!".
Do you ever wander what it'd be like to go back in time and watch yourself say and do things from five or ten years ago? Well if I could go back in time and listen to myself talking about the animated movie's of my childhood, I'd punch myself in the face repeatedly, and very brutally. Then again, there's plenty of thing's in my past I'd go back in time to punch myself for. Things we won't be discussing.
Anyway, when I saw posters in the theatre's, I immediately thought it would be some lame rainbow coloured bullshit movie. So I never got to see it in theatre's. A decision I regret very much. Damn my 16 year-old self! I hate you!
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| Animated movie's ARE gay! You tool! |
Jesus, was I really that much of an asshole?!
But I have changed, and for the better. No longer do I discriminate against my beloved animated films. As a matter of fact, I've grown more fond of them than live action movie's over these last few years. Ironic that I appreciate them far more now than I ever did, even when I liked them as a kid. And never again, will I return to that dark, heinous era in between. However despite all this, I still had my doubts about How to Train your Dragon. I just couldn't get over my initial impression of it. So I still refused to see it.
But, luckily for me, I had a really awesome History teacher, who played the movie when we were studying Vikings. How fitting. However, my first impressions still held firm. So I felt like I was about to be forced to watch a movie I was sure I would hate, only for it to end up probably being one of my favourite movies of all time.
There's no doubt about it, I love How to Train your Dragon. I love the characters (especially Toothless), I love the story, John Powell's score was just downright breathtaking, and..... well, I've summed up my feelings pretty well in my video review of it. Check it out right here. So yeah, I adore the movie. And guess what, there's a sequel coming out! Though I think most of you reading this review already know that. I'm also pretty sure you've seen the Teaser Trailer and the new poster, but I'm going to show them here anyway because they're just too god damn awesome for me not to squeeze them in somewhere!
Holy nutballs! My jaw dropped in pure awe, shivers went down my spine, my eyes were nearly blinded by the earth shattering epicness, of that few minutes of footage. If this trailer, and that poster, is anything to go by, this is going to be one hell of a movie! And remember what I said about missing the first one in theatres? Well, I'm NOT missing this one! And if I do, someones gonna pay. I don't care who, but if I miss this movie on the big screen, someone is going to pay for it!
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| Yeah, he'll do. |
However, How to Train your Dragon 2 doesn't come out for another seven months yet! Seven freakin' months!! Oh god, it's gonna be a long wait, and one that'll probably kill me. Fortunately for me though, there's a little something Dreamworks made to make the wait more bearable. The TV series that takes place after the first movie and will lead into the second movie.
And now we get to the point of all this inane bantering: In eager anticipation of the coming sequel, I'm going to review all episodes of Dragons Riders of Berk and the still running second season, Defenders of Berk. It's basically a continuation of the movie. Well I love HTTYD, and any continuation is alright with me. As long as its good. Is this TV series good? Well, I've got seven months to kill, and a hungry appetite for more HTTYD, so let's start with the first episode, shall we?
So, the episode picks up where the movie left off. The Vikings have made peace with the dragons, and Hiccup has basically founded a dragon riding society. All seems well. Hiccup and the teens from the movie are lined up and seeing who can do the best dragon tricks. And I have to say it's pretty awesome that the producers of the show managed to get Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and TJ Miller on the show. But Jay Baruchel apparently loves his role from the film so much, that I honestly don't think he'd let anybody else take his beloved role from him.
So the kids are seeing who can do the best dragon tricks. Each of them shows off what they got, with varying degrees of success (though I think Fishlegs' trick was the best). Hiccup wins the contest, which is kind of a given seeing as he rides the most powerful dragon. Not much of a fair competition if you ask me.
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| Show off. |
And another note, the animation is actually pretty good for a TV series. It's of course nowhere near the movie's quality, and it does take some getting used to, but it's still pretty good animation.
Hiccup gets back to the village and the narration tells us that that although things are better now that there's peace with the dragons, dragons are still dragons. meaning they're completely running amok and causing all sorts of problems for the Islanders. So all is not so well after all. Right off the bat, the show presents us with a pretty realistic situation. I don't believe that the ending of the movie and the peace with the dragons would be all sugar and roses (if that's the expression). There's bound to be some problems, and the very first episode addresses that pretty well. It even addresses that not everyone is going to like having to live peacefully with dragons. And we're introduced to Mildew (voiced by Stephen Root), kinda like a Viking version of Ebenezer Scrooge.
He hates dragons to no end, and being forced to live with them doesn't sit well with him. But if that wasn't bad enough, now he has to deal with them sleeping on his roof and disrupting his sleep, and his whole cabbage field being eaten by them. Fed up with all this bullshit, he heads off to complain to Stoick and Gobber.
Unfortunately Gerard Butler and Craig Ferguson didn't come back for the show. However, Gobber's replacement voice actor is pretty good, and even manages to sound pretty close to Craig Ferguson. Stoick is voiced by Nolan North, who doesn't do a Scottish accent too well, but he's serviceable.
So Mildew complains about the dragons to Stoick, who is assumedly replacing raided food stocks. Mildew rally's the town against the Dragons. They demand the dragons be caged. Hiccup tries to reason with them saying that Dragons are still Dragons. The town insists that something better be done about the dragons, or heads will roll!
So Hiccup is now stuck with a dilemma, since his father is now considering Mildew's stance. He convinces his father to let him try to bring the dragons under control. But Hiccup is just one man, and there's a whole town of dragon's to control. Not only does he have to keep the dragons under control, he has to chase a flaming sheep, and he even gets shit on (low-brow humour for the win!). It's far more than he can handle.
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| The others just watching doesn't really help either. |
Hiccup tells Stoick that despite the setbacks, he's still got a plan. His plan to to renovate the old dragon killing arena in order to train dragons to become more well behaved. Hiccup begins by showing them how to get a dragon to drop food. Snotlout thinks he's being smart and tries the same thing with Hookfang, his Monstrous Nightmare. Only in the in his face way. The results are side splittingly hilarious, and somewhat disturbingly violent.
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| Wow, I love this show! |
However, things get worse when the dragons raid the food storage and eat all the village's winter reserves. Even Toothless joins in on the action. By this point the village is fed up with the Dragons and wants them caged. Mildew go a step further and wants the dragons banished from the Island. Which doesn't seem like a practical plan. I mean, how do you banish dragons? And even if you do manage that, how are you supposed to keep them away? As a matter of fact, as much as I like the plot with the dragons being troublesome, it does go too far, almost to the point where I wander why the Vikings haven't put all their heads on pikes by now.
Regardless, Stoick agrees to cage the dragons, then force them off the Island in the morning. The teens are of course not very happy with this, but whose gonna tell Stoic what's what? Well Hiccup ain't one to roll over like an old dog past his prime. But in comes Mildew to rub his victory in Hiccup's face.
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| Do it Toothless, Kill the Bastard! |
Mildew tells Hiccup that a Dragons is going to do what a Dragon's gonna do. It's their nature, and it'll always win them over. Toothless lights the fire that goes out to spite Mildew. This gives Hiccup an idea.
As the other teens are about to cage their dragons, Hiccup flies in and stops them. Astrid asks him if he changed his father's mind or if he's going behind his back. "One of those" says Hiccup. And he explains that his idea involves using the dragons nature to better ends. Using them to catch fish, drive boars and yak's to barracks, and even saving Mildew three months of work growing cabbage.
But, it doesn't please Mildew at all. He tells Stoick that the Dragons aren't caged yet and demands they be so. Nothing will make this old bag happy.
So it seems like the teens are about to be punished for doing the complete opposite of everything Stoick told them to do. Until Gobber spills the beans on letting them have the arena as a Dragon Training Academy. Stoick is bummed because he wanted to tell them the good news.
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| God dammit Gobber! I wanted to tell them, you ass! |
Stoic tells them he's very proud of them for training the dragons and using their nature for good. With that, Stoick gives them full control of the arena. The kids are reunited with their dragons, Mildew vows revenge on all dragons, the teens turn the arena into the Berk Dragon Training Academy and we get our ending narration telling us that dragons will always be dragons, but you learn to live with them. And Hiccup will learn all there is to know about dragons. Nothing we really didn't already know, but we gotta have some kinda moral at the end Dammit!
Summary
A pretty good start to the series. The animation is pretty good for TV, and they managed to get most of the actors from the movie back. The replacements for the most part are spot on as well. Nolan North is the only one that's a little off so far, but he'll get better as the series goes on.
There's also some great comedy, and as I mentioned before, it's pretty realistic that there's problems with having dragons around. As the Vikings are probably still getting used to having dragons around and there's still much to learn, and dragons aren't going to always behave the way the Vikings want them too. A lot like real domesticated animals.
However, it did go a little too far. You have to wander why the Vikings even tolerate their presence at all, and actually some of them don't even before they started causing trouble. Speaking of which, Mildew is an entertaining villain, but for now he's just a cankerous old man, he's nothing special so far.
A good start to the series. Nothing remarkable, but we'll get to the more meaty episodes in the future.
7/10
