Trailer Tuesday: How To Train Your Dragon

-


I went to watch Avatar in 3D last week and one of the most enjoyable parts of the experience was all the trailers - which left the audience drooling by fully exploiting the 3D format. Now of course I'm most excited for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland in 3D (how desperately I wish we had 3D IMAX in South Africa!). However, I was also pleasantly surprised when I watched the trailer for How To Train Your Dragon for the first time.

How To Train Your Dragon is the latest CGI-animated film from DreamWorks Animation, and is loosely based on the children's book by Cressida Cowell. A fantasy comedy-adventure, How to Train Your Dragon is set in medieval Scandinavia and centres on a wimpy but smart-mouthed young viking, Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) who doesn't fit in with his bloodthirsty, dragon-slaying clan. A chance encounter with a small black dragon, named Toothless, however changes Hiccup's life, as he learns that dragons aren't the winged pests and vicious monsters he's been taught to be believe. Assisted by Toothless and his young friends, Hiccup sets out to convince his community to change their ways.


DreamWorks animated movies can either be frenetic, superficial nonsense that coasts on the appeal of their all-star voice cast (Madagascar, Bee Movie, Shark Tale) or they can actually have a heart and/or something to say to accompany the goofy but rousing action (Kung Fu Panda, the original Shrek).

It's my hope that How To Train Your Dragon is an example of the latter. Then again, perhaps I'm biased because I'm already completely in love with Toothless, who has a very strong Stitch vibe.


The cutesy factor aside, How To Train Your Dragon has a lot going for it. The setting is great and the film's apparent base concept, a comic take on the over-serious likes of Eragon and Beowulf, is similarly enticing. Then again, there's also the obvious appeal of the dragon riding. Who hasn't dreamed of flying one of those big beasties? It's one of the staples of childhood imagination. And by the looks of things, in How To Train Your Dragon we'll get to experience it to the vicarious extreme.

Oh, and for the record, the voice cast of How To Train Your Dragon includes Gerard Butler as Hiccup's short-tempered chieftan father, Jonah Hill as Hiccup's burly teenage rival and America Ferrera as Astrid, Hiccup's love interest.

How To Train Your Dragon is set for release in the United States AND South Africa on 26 March. Although it is predominantly being released as a 3D film, I'm sure it will also be screening in traditional 2D at those cinemas still unequipped for the new format craze.

Comments

MJenks said…
Wait, did you just put Eragon and Beowulf in the same sentence?

Also, I think "How to Train Your Dragon" is hurting itself with the advertising blitz it's putting forward during the Olympics. I've heard a LOT of bad vibes from that.
4:54 PM
Pfangirl said…
I did, and for that I apologise;) I was just thinking about heroes flailing around with dragons and those were the 2 that came immediately to mind.

As for the "overkill" backlash, we've so far been able to escape it here... We've also managed to escape any kind of dedicated Olympics coverage for that matter, much to my annoyance. Ho hum.
3:47 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is the rebooted Lara Croft gay? Evidence for and against...

-
Image
As some of you know, I’ve been fangirling hard over the new Tomb Raider , the first entry in the video game series since 2008, and ostensibly a reboot for the entire franchise . Taking the form of an origin story, Tomb Raider 2013 depicts the events that transformed a beautiful, if bookish, archaeology graduate into a pistol-packing adventurer with a devil-may-care attitude. We meet Lara Croft as a pretty, fairly ordinary 21 year old, brooding over her work notes, listening to her mp3 player and very much confined to the shadow of her male mentors. By the end of the game, however, she’s taken charge – she’s had to! – and, battered, bruised and bloody, she’s both a survivor and hero, right down to rescuing the princess and carrying her away in her arms. Yeah, this is probably the best point to mention that there will be some Tomb Raider 2013 spoilers in this post, so read ahead with caution. Anyway, I loved the game. Technically it’s near faultless, it looks beautiful, the ov
Read more

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Queer Icon (Part 4)

-
Image
Part 4: The mystery of Lara Croft’s sexuality “Now what’s a man gotta do to get that kind of attention from ya?” – Larson Conway (Tomb Raider, 1996) Despite being an icon for many queer pop culture consumers, Lara Croft’s own sexual orientation remains ambiguous. Outside of the Top Cow comics and live-action films – where Lara is blatantly heterosexual, with a fondness for slightly scruffy bad boys (who keep betraying and hurting her) – the character comes across as primarily asexual. Kurtis Trent is the only male figure who even comes close to being a love interest in the game series. Lara's apparent sexual disinterest is despite the adventurer appearing very sexually attractive herself; a figure of desire with bee-stung lips, voluptuous breasts, toned stomach and impossibly long, athlete’s legs. Yet Lara is never dominated by sexual yearnings or romantic affections. She is very much in control of herself at all times. It’s worth noting, however, that over time th
Read more

Ladies I Love: Part 2 - Rhona Mitra

-
Image
Following on from the first post in this series , you may realise that I have a very definite type. Anyway, today we profile model-turned-actress Rhona Mitra . This 36 year old Briton is of English, Irish and Indian descent. You'll have seen her pop up on the big and small screen multiple over the past decade and a half, although Mitra's claim to fame is that she was the second ever model (some say first if you rule out "unofficial"  Nathalie Cook ) to play iconic video game character Lara Croft . From 1997-1998, Mitra could be found in PR material, as well as at trade shows, events and conventions as a flesh-and-blood embodiment of Tomb Raider 's kick-ass archeologist lead. There have been many official Lara Croft models over the years , but as far as I'm concerned Mitra remains the best. In my mind, of all of them, she most closely resembles the video game character in terms of facial features. Plus she comes from money and had a rebellious boarding
Read more