Dreamworks Animation’s ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ is one of three animated films the company released in 2010, but it’s the only one of the three I’ve seen (‘Shrek Forever After’ and ‘Megamind’ were the other two). According to word-of-mouth, ‘Dragon’ rivals that of Pixar’s greatest films, which is quite a high standard. Dreamworks is pretty flip-flop when it comes to their animated films – some may be extremely good, like the first ‘Shrek’ film, but some may be “meh,” like ‘Bee Movie.’ ‘Dragon’, however, is an excellent breath of fresh air in a genre generally ruled by Pixar.

‘How to Train Your Dragon’ is a coming-of-age story that follows Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III (voiced by Jay Baruchel of ‘She’s Out of My League’ & ‘Tropic Thunder‘), a young viking in a land plagued by ferocious and dangerous dragons. Apparently the vikings and dragons have been at conflict for years and years, and oddly enough the vikings are able to hold their own against these gigantic dragons with just swords and shields. This could be due to the fact that the vikings seem like they’re all on extreme steroids with their massive, bulking muscles. Hiccup, however, is not like the others. He isn’t tough and strong, so Hiccup compensates this by inventing gadgets to aid him in dragon-fighting.

One of the gadgets he builds ends up wounding a Night Fury, the fastest and most dangerous dragon the vikings know. The vikings have been taught that dragons are dangerous, man-killing creatures all their lives, but Hiccup discovers that this isn’t true when he befriends the Night Fury, whom he ends up naming Toothless. Hiccup learns that dragons, for the most part, can be friendly and domesticated.

We learn more about the nature of dragons through plenty of quick sequences of Hiccup bonding with Toothless. Hiccup demonstrates that dragons are playful and love being scratched under their chins, patted on their heads, etc. The similarity between the behavior of the dragons to real-life domesticated dogs is an obvious one, and can possibly be attributed to the fact that the co-directors of the film, Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, both co-directed Disney’s ‘Lilo & Stitch’. Toothless is an adorable dragon with the same cuteness as the alien pet, Stitch.

The aerial sequences include some of the best scenes in the film, resembling that of the aerial scenes from ‘Avatar‘. They’re breath-taking and exciting, with big and graceful swooshes to-and-fro. The visuals of the sunset, clouds, mountains, and sea all packed into the aerial scenes combine together to form truly beautiful moments in the film. Add in the film’s amazing soundtrack and it makes the sequences even better. All of this is probably be due to the fact that the cinematographer is Roger Deakins, who has worked on many films by the Coen Brothers.

I applaud the film for packing some good surprises, though. The reveal of the true reason why most of the dragons attack and steal from the viking clan is pretty shocking, and the discovery is somewhat frightening. The fate of Hiccup by the end of the film is also a nice little surprise, though I won’t ruin this minor detail as well.

‘How to Train Your Dragon’ is a visual delight and action-packed. The film boasts good morals that include the acceptance of others after misunderstandings, and the bonding of man and animal. However, an important moral point of the film includes the non-killing of dragons after the discovery that they’re not purely dangerous, and ironically the climax of the film depends on the main characters fighting and killing an antagonist dragon. Hmm…