Hello all!
A ways back I made a blog post about how good the Disney/Pixar movie UP was and that it needed to be a movie people showed to their children and hopefully your children's children and so forth. Well I have another one to add to UP and it's the Dreamworks Animated movie How To Train Your Dragon.
The movie, based upon the book by Cressida Cowell, tells the story of a young boy named Hiccup, played by Jay Baruchel, who desperately wants to become a viking in order to prove his worth to his father Stoick, played by Gerard Butler, who happens to be the leader of their band of vikings and a proud and headstrong warrior. In order to prove their worth, vikings must kill a dragon and Hiccup sets off to kill the rarest and fiercest dragon, the Nightfury. Using a special launcher he created, he is able to take down the elusive and powerful beast but when he treks through the forest to seek the downed Nightfury, and locates it, not everything is as simple as was made out to be.
The story is unbelievably well-written with intermittent moments of action, slapstick and situational comedy, romance, (think Aladdin's A Whole New World but Dragon-style and without the actual singing) and heart-wrenching moments with a small twist at the end that lends the movie a small element of tragedy. The cast is about as all-star as the pedigree of movies Dreamworks Animation churns out. Said cast, including Baruchel and Butler, also stars Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, TJ Miller and Kristen Wiig who all put on amazing performances and whose in-studio chemistry was amazing, stating in a special feature that the actors would often perform their lines in studio at the same time and give off of one another. Another little tidbit of trivia that may be of interest, also from said special features, is that the adaptation of Cowell's book to the big screen was in fact the choice of Gerard Butler himself.
The kicker for the movie might be the soundtrack, much like UP. The pedigree of composer John Powell is beyond impressive with his name associated with or leading the musical scores of most of Dreamworks' Animated movies including Kung Fu Panda, Ice Age 2 and Ice Age 3 and the 1st Shrek movie, as well as the heavily popular Bourne series of movies. (Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum) The varying scores composed for this movie, such as the one titled "Forbidden Friendship", are all immeasurably well-conceived and add to the overall effect of the scene perfectly. Here is an example of that work for those who have not heard it before - there is a space in between the .com and the / here in order to keep the full link broken.
www.youtube.com /watch?v=6CJ96LGGP6w
If you have not seen it before, much like UP, I would implore you to go and rent it, at the very least, and give it a watch. For those that have seen the movie, please tell me what you think about the movie. Was there any part of the movie that stood out to you as being particularly special? Would you show it to your children and their children, so on so forth? WHAT DO YOU THINK? 🙂
Until next time, take care everyone!
A ways back I made a blog post about how good the Disney/Pixar movie UP was and that it needed to be a movie people showed to their children and hopefully your children's children and so forth. Well I have another one to add to UP and it's the Dreamworks Animated movie How To Train Your Dragon.
The movie, based upon the book by Cressida Cowell, tells the story of a young boy named Hiccup, played by Jay Baruchel, who desperately wants to become a viking in order to prove his worth to his father Stoick, played by Gerard Butler, who happens to be the leader of their band of vikings and a proud and headstrong warrior. In order to prove their worth, vikings must kill a dragon and Hiccup sets off to kill the rarest and fiercest dragon, the Nightfury. Using a special launcher he created, he is able to take down the elusive and powerful beast but when he treks through the forest to seek the downed Nightfury, and locates it, not everything is as simple as was made out to be.
The story is unbelievably well-written with intermittent moments of action, slapstick and situational comedy, romance, (think Aladdin's A Whole New World but Dragon-style and without the actual singing) and heart-wrenching moments with a small twist at the end that lends the movie a small element of tragedy. The cast is about as all-star as the pedigree of movies Dreamworks Animation churns out. Said cast, including Baruchel and Butler, also stars Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, TJ Miller and Kristen Wiig who all put on amazing performances and whose in-studio chemistry was amazing, stating in a special feature that the actors would often perform their lines in studio at the same time and give off of one another. Another little tidbit of trivia that may be of interest, also from said special features, is that the adaptation of Cowell's book to the big screen was in fact the choice of Gerard Butler himself.
The kicker for the movie might be the soundtrack, much like UP. The pedigree of composer John Powell is beyond impressive with his name associated with or leading the musical scores of most of Dreamworks' Animated movies including Kung Fu Panda, Ice Age 2 and Ice Age 3 and the 1st Shrek movie, as well as the heavily popular Bourne series of movies. (Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum) The varying scores composed for this movie, such as the one titled "Forbidden Friendship", are all immeasurably well-conceived and add to the overall effect of the scene perfectly. Here is an example of that work for those who have not heard it before - there is a space in between the .com and the / here in order to keep the full link broken.
www.youtube.com /watch?v=6CJ96LGGP6w
If you have not seen it before, much like UP, I would implore you to go and rent it, at the very least, and give it a watch. For those that have seen the movie, please tell me what you think about the movie. Was there any part of the movie that stood out to you as being particularly special? Would you show it to your children and their children, so on so forth? WHAT DO YOU THINK? 🙂
Until next time, take care everyone!
