The sequel to 2010's How to Train Your Dragon is finally in theatres, and it's worth the wait.
How to Train Your Dragon 2 is a particularly ambitious sequel. It's a full-blown fantasy epic rendered in a gorgeous CG world, and it's a surprisingly ambitious project. I wasn't expecting the sheer scale on display here when I was going in to the movie, but I'm certainly glad it's there.
Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) enjoys exploring the islands outside of his homeland of Berk with his dragon Toothless. However, he's uneasy after his father, Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler), decides to hand down the title of chieftain. That news is put on hold when he comes across some trappers, who's leader poses a threat to the new peace between Vikings and Dragons.
As mentioned, How to Train Your Dragon 2 is very large and ambitious in scale. An unparalleled sense of adventure elevates the film with beautiful views of the lovingly created worlds and immense quests to save the world. Speaking of which, the world itself is built upon in this film. A number of new locations are discovered and explored, and this Viking world is more expansive than ever. Battles are ever-growing in size, with huge armies and enormous dragons. All of this comes together in a way that feels genuinely epic, and lends the film an expansive scale.
Of course, being a family movie, there's plenty of humour to be found as well. Most of it lands, and a lot of it is genuinely clever, but there is one or two jokes that fall a bit flat due to the atmosphere and scale distracting from them. In addition, there is one running gag about how one Viking girl finds one of the trappers attractive that is a bit trite, but the execution makes it funny nontheless.
The script is also filled with some huge, emotionally resonant moments. There's reunions, deaths, betrayals, and many more strong moments that give How to Train Your Dragon 2 a very firm emotional base. The script gives these moments a deserved solemnity, and these are indeed the most memorable moments of the film.
What's a bigger issue is how stretched out much of the movie seems. Some scenes have such slow pacing that it almost seemed that Hiccup was distracted from the more pressing conflicts in the movie. There are also a number of times where the movie seems to be moving towards a climax, but is continued because of a plot twist. This makes the film seem overlong, but thankfully the rest of the length is high-quality enough to make up for that. In addition at one point there are a lot of things going on, to the point that whenever the movie focused on one of its plotlines, it forgot about another. This didn't last very long, though, so it wasn't especially crippling.
The computer graphics in this film are absolutely brilliant. Textures look very nice, and little details like the hair on Hiccup's face or the graying strands in Stoick's beard are especially impressive. The virtual camera always provides a wonderful view of the environment and the action, and each scene shines with visual brilliance. The world is beautifully rendered, and a great many shots in the film allow you to take in the splendour of the art design. It's just an absolutely gorgeous movie.
The soundtrack is brilliant as well. There is one point where what resembles a licensed song is played, but for the most part How to Train Your Dragon 2 has a fantastic original score that complements the scale of the movie and makes for some very pleasing audio. Action scenes are made all the more impressive by the score underpinning the moment with soaring melodies, and when the camera moves over the gorgeous world the music takes a fittingly adventurous tone.
This is a really good year for animated films. Both of the major animated features to be released this year are excellent, and independent efforts like "Ernest and Celestine" are also greatly acclaimed. There's a lot of promise in this year for animation fans, even if the likes of "Planes: Fire & Rescue" are coming out alongside these gems. How to Train Your Dragon 2 is a very impressive technical accomplishment accompanying a very good movie, and it deserves a watch.
9/10
Extended thoughts [Warning: Spoilers]
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