How To Train Your Dragon 2

Unless it's a blatant standalone story (a la Pixar's Up) the one guaranteed thing that a money spinning animated film will bring is the inevitable follow up a few years later down the line. So Dreamworks' 2010 success How To Train Your Dragon begats 2014's How To Train Your Dragon 2: Train Harder. I've made that strap-line up by the way, but the fact Dreamworks couldn't be bothered with a sub-heading just shows that they already know they have the audience in the palm of their hands following the first film's success. The good news is they haven't been complacent with the final production though. Dean DeBlois, co-director of the first film, takes the reigns all on his own this time out whilst also penning the screenplay as well. He can be pleased with his efforts. A simple summation of the plot has a now older Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) meeting his long lost mother and the villagers under attack from a big bad who can control dragons at whim. The film is a success as it builds on the first outing, developing the overall story and doesn't revert to rehashing the same jokes. Despite a number of great laughs (including arguably the most adult (and funniest) gag regarding homosexuality in an animated film for quite some time) the tone here is also a lot darker, with a third act that has an emotional and hard edge that comes as quite a shock. Visuals wise this is the first Dreamworks film made using "scalable multi-core processing", so there's one for you if you're ever struggling for a chat up line. Joking aside, such is the quality of virtually all animated films these days I think you'd have to watch the two films back to back to see if your peepers can spot the difference. Something that isn't quality is the bete noire of modern day cinema: 3D. I hate it at the best of times, but its calibre here is very suspect, affecting the (visual) focus of the film on numerous occasions, particularly during the first 10 minutes. Other downers are the surprising (considering the rest of the film) lack of thought that has gone into Djimon Hounsou's villainous Drago (he looks like he was drawn up over a sandwich at lunchtime and bears a resemblance to a Gene Simmons / Al Pacino love child) and some members of the audience might find the script a bit too heavy on the family dynamic when there's battles that could be fought instead (on that note, look for a neat twist on the fire from the nostrils standard). Whether this leaves you yearning for more or not, you'll be unsurprised to hear that How To Train Your Dragon 3: Train Hard With A Vengeance is already in the pipeline. Rating: 7/10.