How to Train Your Dragon 2
Voices of: Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Cate Blanchett, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T.J. Miller, Kristen Wiig, Djimon Hounsou, Kit Harington
Directed by: Dean DeBlois
Rating: PG
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
2014
Times Seen:
Tim: 1
Summary: Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) and Toothless discover a new threat- an enemy is capturing dragons to build an army to conquer the world.
Review:
Tim: Even four years later, I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed How to Train Your Dragon. It wasn't just a great animated film, it was one of the best movies of 2010. I admit I was little concerned about the sequel. It didn't do as well at the box office as expected and I wondered if it was due to a drop in quality. I also wondered if the magic Dreamworks captured in the first film would have worn off. While How to Train Your Dragon 2 isn't quite as good as the first film, it's a worthy successor and a very enjoyable movie.
Having director Dean DeBlois return was a great move, as it gave the film a sense of continuity. It was great fun to be back in this colorful, exciting world. I loved that the story jumped ahead a few years, so the characters we met in the first film are now a little older. It would have been very easy to make this sequel immediately preceded by the first film, so the animators could do the exact same thing again. It took more effort, but it was wonderful to see the characters aged a bit. It really gave the film this sense of differentiation from the original, while still continuing the story.
The voice cast is good. Jay Baruchel once again does good work as Hiccup. His character arc wasn't quite as powerful as in the original, but it was still a journey worth taking. Gerard Butler was good in a smaller supporting role and I really liked the addition of Cate Blanchett. She did a very good job (as she does in just about everything she does). Djimon Hounsou made a very intimating villain. I'm a fan of "Game of Thrones", so I enjoyed hearing Kit Harington here. He's not a very charismatic actor, so it was nice to just listen to his voice and not expect him to show a range of facial expressions. The rest of the supporting cast was fine- Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kristen Wiig and the others all returned from the original. The voice cast was impressive.
The story was fairly strong and I enjoyed the separate but connected storylines. In one, we get to dig a little deeper into Hiccup's family. That was interesting and it really gave added depth and complexity to this fascinating animated character. I thoroughly enjoyed that exploration and it benefited his character development. The story of the villain assembling a dragon army was strong as well- it ratcheted up the scale of the story and resulted in a fairly epic dragon vs. dragon showdown at the end. Of course, this is just a chance to sit back and bask in the colorful, beautiful world created in this film.
I remember finishing the original film and just thinking, "Wow, that was such a great movie." I wasn't prepared for the experience and it left me stunned (in a good way). I went into this film with a little trepidation. At the end of the movie, I wasn't nearly as blown away, but I still had a lot of fun watching the movie and my thoughts were along the lines of, "That was still really, really good and I lot better than I expected!"
In a world where animated sequels are often disappointing, How to Train Your Dragon 2 bucks the trend and delivers the goods. Yes, it represents a slight drop in quality, but this is a franchise to be reckoned with. Let's go Dreamworks and make this a trilogy!
Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 7.5
If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, Shrek