Saturday, April 3, 2010

How To Date, I mean, Train Your Dragon

I spent half of this Spring Break on finishing up grades for the quarter, but tonight Mr. Woo surprised me with a night on the town! We had a delicious dinner at Burma Superstar before heading over to watch the magical 3D movie How To Train Your Dragon.

Initially, I had qualms about the title using the words "your dragon" because I don't have one. Even after watching the movie, I prefer it to be "A Dragon," but that's any and all criticism I can give about the movie (we can talk about the literary effects in person). It was fantastic!

From the message it gives to the details of the names of the characters, which kids will get a kick out of, it was a brilliantly executed film. It was absolutely appropriate for the younger audience (pyros and non-pyros alike) and not so predictable for adults. Brightly colored, action-packed, heartwarming - How To Train A Your Dragon soars.

I also applaud DreamWorks also for their willingness to cast an actor who does not look like the animated character for the voice-over. Case in point: America Ferrera as the "blonde Viking bombshell" Astrid. They had already created the character before casting Ferrera, but they cast her anyway. I'm liking that.

I'm sure Cressida Cowell's book will sell thousands of copies just on the fact that the movie is based on it. How closely it follows the plot, I do not know as I haven't read the book (yet), but I'm sure there were many changes.

Mr. Woo and I hardly purchase movies, but we walked out of the theatres both agreeing that this will be one of our rare keeps. This movie gets an A in our book. And it seems that the general public agrees as it is currently at a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.

One of my favorite parts of the movie, without giving away too much, is when Toothless smiles back at Hiccup. It's a charming moment - and a blast from the past for me as it reminded me of (Lilo &) Stitch. Makes me want to get a pet dragon, but only if it's a Nightfury.

Dinner and a movie? Sign me up for the next date. :)

Image credit: DreamWorks Animation

4 comments:

Esty said...

i LOVE burma superstar. so good.
and...ppl are in love with this movie. i should go watch it

Hannah said...

oooo cool! i can add this to my to see with david list... we're always looking for clean, fun movies but they're actually pretty hard to come across these days :(

Tiffany said...

that dragon (toothless) is seriously the cutest dragon in the world. i bawled my eyes out during Hiccup's "final" exam (all the way through to when his dad went to the dragon lair). :P AHHHH. he's so cute. He's like a puppy... kinda reminds me of Sesame. :D

Anonymous said...

I want to see this movie!