How to Train Your Dragon

I am usually repelled by cute animation films with kids and supernatural animals in the main roles, but this one was great. The story has no surprises, but the animation is captivating and the dialogues are like out of a good sitcom. I laughed more often than with most comedies. I’m giving it 9/10 and wonder what happened with Wall-E, Up and Ratatouille… (05/31/2010)

When confronted with the equally old Toy Story 3, I'll probably always prefer to reach for the toys, but this is another superb and novel animated movie. An excellent idea taken to absolute satisfaction, a story suitable for adults as well as children, with gorgeous visuals that can't leave anyone cold (it's remarkable how much emotion the creators can show in a dragon's face). Of course, there are also a lot of great jokes and I would like to emphasize the excellent soundtrack, which is one of the most beautiful in animated films. The plot is blindly predictable, but the amazing execution overwhelms everything else. 90% (04/07/2013)

I had to check my birth certificate after it was over to make sure I was as old as I was. That’s because I was convinced that I had clearly become slightly effeminate, as I longed, with a tear in my eye, to get my own black dragon, one that spits out the same cannonade as the "plasma gun" from "Doom III" and has such sad rendered eyes that it captured my heart for the entire runtime. It doesn't quite have the perfect animation or storyline, and in a two-dimensional world, it also drags the eyes too much to where the spectacle-wielding cinema-goers were sighing blissfully, but damn... it's got moments that kids won't pick up on, jokes galore, Powell's awesome music, and an apocalyptic finale like something out of a better RPG. 4 ½. (10/14/2010)

A wonderful story about a special friendship that also has considerable resonance. Of course, it can be seen as a simple narrative where "the son, against his father's expectations, takes a path other than the predetermined one and actually opens everyone's eyes in the end." How to Train Your Dragon offers much more than that. It is, in fact, about a precipitous change in deeply ingrained thinking and beliefs. Here the means to achieve it is an extraordinary interspecies relationship that until now has been considered fundamentally unacceptable. I'm not afraid to say that this is truly one of the best animated films I've seen yet. And the cool thing about it is that it works for all ages. There's something for everyone that grabs them by the heart. (02/24/2019)

This is an animated movie that simply somehow engraves itself into your memory. Lately, I have the feeling that there are quite a few high-quality animated films being made. "How to Train Your Dragon" completely astonishes with some scenes, both in terms of the plot and visually. It's also nice that the second installment is definitely worth watching as well. (03/13/2015)