Brief Story Line
In the Viking village called Berk, the villagers had to fight against continuous dragon attacks as they frequently stole their live stocks. Hiccup (Mason Thames - The Black Phone etc) the son of Berk's chief Stoick (Gerard Butler - Den of Thieves 2, Plane etc) was training under blacksmith Gobber (Nick Frost - The Nevers TV series, Hot Fuzz etc) since he was thought to be weak in nature, although he always wanted to kill dragons to make his father proud. During one of the night's attack by dragons, Hiccup was convinced he had shot the most dangerous and unknown dragon, Night Fury though no body trusted him.
After that latest attack, Hiccup was recommended to have dragon fighting training with other teens like the future leader Astrid (Nico Parker - Dumbo live version, The Third Day TV series etc), the twins Ruffnut (Bronwyn James - Wicked etc) & Tuffnut (Harry Trevaldwyn - Ten Percent TV series etc), the loud mouth Snotlout (Gabriel Howell - Bodies mini series etc) and Fishlegs (Julian Dennison - Godzilla vs. Kong etc) who had vast knowledge of dragons, while Stoick and most of the people were looking for the dragon's nest. However Hiccup's life was turned upside down when he found the Night Fury and later befriended the dragon & named him Toothless.
So what would happen to Hiccup and his friendship with Toothless as the Vikings always see dragons as their biggest enemies? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Now that was a very entertaining movie! I actually have seen the original animated trilogy of How to Train Your Dragon many years back, but I honestly could not remember the full plot of the first film as it was already 15 years ago (time really flies). Anyway all I could recollect was the friendship between Hiccup & Toothless and few of the teens who later became his close friends. So when my wife and I saw this one yesterday, we felt the excitement of looking at the "real-life" Toothless for the first time and the uncanny resemblance to all the characters.
Of course the film was not just good because of bringing everything to life, but also because of the wonderful story and the very good built up towards the awesome conclusion. The movie has got all the strong emotions from the funny Toothless & his attachment with Hiccup, the rather difficult relationship between Stoick and his Hiccup and the intensity during the final third. The emotional moments were pretty strong as well which obviously affected me and my wife (who got teary eyes several times).
Both of us were also very much in awe of the visual effects as the creation of so many dragons looked so realistic. I also admired the musical score & sound effect which added the entertainment value. It was a good thing that the studio we saw this had Dolby Atmos effects (which was a pleasant surprise for me as I was not aiming for that). Anyway the special effects team were so many as I could see during the closing credits that should not come as a surprise. After the credits finished, there was a very brief scene that you could wait to see if you are interested. The film itself was written & directed by Dean DeBlois who also made the original trilogy.
Oh in case you are not aware (which I highly doubt), the live action remake and the animation were based on the popular book series written by Cressida Cowell. I did try to find out the difference between both movie versions and found that the biggest was the longer & more emotional major fight scenes. The choice of the casting for me was really good especially in term of appearances and characterizing. Everybody seemed to be exactly as we remembered in the animated version, although only Gerard Butler who reprised his voice role. Aside from the names I mentioned above, there were additional cast in support role, i.e Peter Serafinowicz (The Bubble etc) as Snotlout's father Spitelout and Ruth Codd (The Midnight Club TV series etc) as one of the Kerg's villager Phlegma and few others in minor capacity.
Overall this was a really enjoyable movie. I was really entertained by this film while my wife had a great time, so much so that she immediately posted her views in her social media (something that I think she never did after seeing a movie in the cinema). We loved seeing this in the large screen and enjoyed ourselves due to its story telling, the special effects and of course Toothless' friendship and loyalty. So if you love the animated version, I am very sure you would not want to miss this live version remake. And no need to worry about the long duration of 125 minutes as you would not realize it due to all the excitements. OK, happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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