Badger - H’yeah, cool beans, right? I’ve been listening to that song on repeat for the past few days. Yeah, I know, I’m crazy.
Nice OC! Do you have a link to this ‘dragon story’ of yours (You can PM me if you feel shy to post it here)?
…
Anyway, HTTYD is off to a great start on the Tomatometer! Expect the ‘Perfect’ rating to drop, as it happens with most movies once the more cynical critics move in.
And I bought ‘The Daily Telly’ at my local newsstand and it comes with a free HTTYD activity book! To be honest, it was quite underwhelming, since I was expecting a characters dossier and a beefier plot summary than the one on the inside cover. But you can’t hope for much, just the usual kindergarden-level ‘Colour-In’ and ‘Unscramble the Word’ and ‘Crossword Puzzles’. Interestingly for the latter, they even give the answers next to the pictures, since they wouldn’t expect the reader to know most of the characters’ names, so all you had to do was write the answers in the boxes!
[size=100]Can you handle the fiendishly murderous brainteasers within?[/size]
It’s great though, that the marketing campaign is in full swing here!
So if there are any Sydneysider HTTYD fans, yeah… you might want to ask for a copy from your local newsagent.
00:00-0:30 The first half-minute sounds like it’s from the Halo soundtrack!
00:57 Sounds Scottish yet has an Oriental flavour at the same time.
1:25 Okay, now it’s really starting to sound like KFP. But it’s still pretty rousing.
2:48 Sweet flute interlude.
3:15 Oh, this part is so beautiful.
3:35 Ah, now you can hear bagpipes.
4:50 Here’s the portion we heard on the official website.
5:25 This part sounds majestic, and is probably the main theme.
6:20 Beginning to sound like Chinese mandolins again…
8:43 Here the main theme is reprised.
10:13 Wow, now we’re in for the ‘Marching Band’ finale? Nice!
Overall, it sounds great, but could do with more of those bagpipes to develop a more distinct aural identity. Some parts were boring and dragged a bit, but when it got to the good bits, it really takes off!
Anyway, John Powell is one of my favourite composers, having created three of my favourite action movie soundtracks: The Bourne Supremacy, Mr & Mrs Smith, and Bolt. I can’t wait to see what he pulls for this one!
If you want more soundtrack ‘tasters’, AlciraSanada has uploaded a few more tracks!
Well, HTTYD opens today in Sydney, and I’ll probably watch it on Cheap-*** Tuesday (if they have 2D versions). Last weekend’s Sunday Telegraph 4 1/2 star review by Ben McEachen was quite patronising to the movie:
This appeal-to-the-masses populist approach could work both ways, I guess…
He did have one criticism, though:
I also read this month’s issue of Empire and a Helen O’ Hara gave it 4 stars, with this to say about the two protagonists’ development:
The verdict:
The RT rating has dropped to 90% due to two negative reviews. The first is from Ella Taylor of the Village Voice, who came off as a bit too sarcastic (and lazy, since her review barely lasted more than two paragraphs), and the second is from Roger Moore (Huh, nice name) of Orlando Sentinel, who wanted more Viking jokes in place of “heart”:
Right… you want Viking jokes? Here’s one:
Q: How do Vikings communicate long distance?
A: [spoil]Through Norse code![/spoil]
I don’t think I can stand 2 hours sitting through that in lieu of “heart”, Mr Moore.
I know this is kind of off topic, but I didn’t want to make a thread for this. Does anybody listen to classical music? I was listening to Gustav Holst The Planets. As I was listening to the fourth movement, Jupiter when it gets to a little bit past the three minute mark, the music sounds just like the music used for Dreamworks when their log is shown at the beginning of their movies. I thought that Dreamworks used some of the Jupiter’s music for the logo. But I read that the music was composed by John Williams. But it sounds so much a like!
Back on topic. This is the only Dreamworks movie I plan on seeing until the next Kung Fu Panda. I’m going to see it in IMAX 3D tomorrow. I thought the 3D was great in Monsters vs. Aliens when I saw it in IMAX. I actually enjoyed that movie so much that I saw it three times. But Hiccups voice almost made me not want to see this movie. It’s so annoying! But I figured if I can sit through She’s Out of My League, I can sit through this.
You’re right! I can hear some of the resemblance. I always thought it was taken from the Shrek scene where Fiona sings to the bird (and that ‘riff’ always reminded of a Disney classic cartoon for some reason).
I’m not really won over by the 3D gimmick, but most reviews have been praising its use (and some even compare it to Avatar, by Jove!). The only 2D showings at my cineplex is at 10 am in the morning! So it looks like they’re ‘forcing’ us to pay the premium. For Sydneysiders, the Imax at Darling Harbour is not running it for some reason, but the one at Entertainment Quarter is.
And yeah, I didn’t find Jay’s nasal voice too exciting either.
Thursday reviews came in. Paul Brynes of Morning Herald was mostly critical; half of his review was about Cressida Cowell’s book and him drawing comparisons between the source material and the movie. To be fair, I’ve read the book, and they did change a lot in the transition from page to screen. Toothless was supposed to be The Terrible Terror according to ‘The Art of’, but then Hiccup wouldn’t be able to ride him for those flight sequences. And the students were all male in in the book, whereas the film introduced Astrid and the female twin to include some female characters. Personally, I don’t mind the tweaks so much, but Brynes had an issue with it.
He did have praise for Toothless, though:
He gave 3 1/2 stars.
Leigh Paatsch of Daily Telegraph also gave the same rating, but he was more impressed. Like Helen of Empire, he criticised the confusing opening, but had praises for the rest of the development between Hiccup and Toothless. Like any of the twenty reviewers out there, he complained about the difference in accents between the adults and the teens (and I have to side with him on that, too). But he also drew attention to a certain DOP:
For Pixar fans, you would also know he helped out on a certain robot romance movie.
I really like how Dreamworks decided to give this film so much heart and message compared to their earlier works (mostly considering Pixar does that as well. That’s probably why they’re so popular. ). I can see this film becoming a success already…
I wonder if they’ll make merchandise. I’d love a Toothless plushie.
I LOVED this movie! It has dethroned Kung Fu Panda as my favorite Dreamworks movie! I was suprised at how I thought the actor who did Hiccups voice was a good choice since it annoyed the hell out of me when I saw the trailers. I wish Dreamworks made more movies like this and less movies like Shrek. I loved the message. And when I use to see the trailers, I would always think, “Toothless is so ugly, there is no way I would feel anything for him.” Boy was I wrong! I almost cried a few times because of what was happening to him and when they started getting close. The music played a big part in me almost crying during this scene. And speaking of the music, I LOVED the score! As soon as I got home, I bought the soundtrack off iTunes. Forbidden Friendship is my favorite piece. It’s very touching IMO, especially when I think about the scene it’s used for. The 3D was great, the action scenes were awesome and I liked the characters. I noticed that other than the actor doing Hiccups voice, some of the other actors from Shes Out of My League did voices in this movie. Or at least it sounded like it. They were so enjoyable compared to when I saw League where I found some of the characters unlikable. I hope Dreamworks keeps the duo behind this movie in their stable for more movies. They know how to make a great movie that’s the anti Shrek way of doing a movie. There was some jokes that people come to expect from a Dreamworks movie, but they were kept to a minimum. Now excuse me while I get back to listening to Forbidden Friendship while I daydream about this awesome movie and think about how I can’t wait to see it again in IMAX 3D next Thursday.
”Set in the mythical world of burly Vikings and wild dragons, and based on the book by Cressida Cowell, this action comedy tells the story of Hiccup, a Viking teenager who doesn’t exactly fit in with his tribe’s longstanding tradition of heroic dragon slayers. Hiccup’s world is turned upside down when he encounters a dragon that challenges him and his fellow Vikings to see the world from an entirely different point of view.”
As I’ve said numerous times already, I’m not exactly DreamWorks Animation’s biggest fan. I feel that, aside from [i]Shrek[/i], [i]Kung Fu Panda[/i], and last year’s [i]Monsters vs Aliens[/i], their films symbolize the worst of mainstream animation, focusing primarily on cringe-worthy pop-culture gags. What convinced me to buy a ticket for [i]How to Train Your Dragon[/i], then, was seeing that Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois – directors of [i]Lilo and Stitch[/i] (one of the few rays of light in Disney Animation’s “dark age”) - would be at the helm. Oh, and that 97% on Rotten Tomatoes may’ve been a part of it, too, admittedly. Whatever the reason, I’m happy to say that [i]Dragon[/i] not only surpasses the duo’s previous effort, but is also my favorite film delivered by the studio.
While the premise of [i]How to Train Your Dragon[/i] may seem tenuously related to that of other films of its ilk, the way in which it’s actually delivered makes the whole movie feel all its own. The two main characters, Hiccup (voiced surprisingly brilliantly by Jay Baruchel) and Toothless, are incredibly endearing, and their relationship is unfolded in such a way that’s nothing short of tear-jerking. It looks like the folks at DreamWorks Animation have been taking lessons from [i]Up[/i] and [i]Wall-E[/i], as the most beautiful moments of the entire film are those without dialogue.
Speaking of beauty, the use of 3D in [i]Dragon[/i] is the most impressive I’ve seen in any animated film, and actually, rivals that of [i]Avatar[/i]. Unlike, say, [i]Alice in Wonderland[/i], the film doesn’t rely on the 3D clichés of awkwardly bringing objects toward the screen. To put it simply, the 3D visuals enhance the story, rather than act as a substitute for one.
[i]How to Train Your Dragon[/i], while including an engaging, character-driven story, is an awe-inspiring theater experience. While the basic story may not be the most original, what these artists do with it make it extremely lovable. On top of that, the characters are particularly endearing, and the visuals are some of the most impressive that I’ve seen in any animated film. DreamWorks Animation, consider me a fan.
I really enjoyed this movie. In fact, I believe that its my 2nd favorite Dreamworks movie. It’s really intense, but what I liked about it is that I could relate to the main character, Hiccup, a lot.
I went to see HTTYD this afternoon and loved it! The characters were engaging, visuals were great, and the story had me wondering all the way through, “How are they going to get out of this one??” I really wasn’t sure that they weren’t going to [spoil]ultimately kill off a major character![/spoil] I saw it in 2D (I won’t rehash my gripes about 3D), and had a pretty good audience (lots of "awwwww"s at appropriate moments). I would recommend this to anyone who likes “epic fantasy adventure” stories; very well done.
Guilty confession: I’m kind of so-so about Shrek; I’ve seen all of them (although only #2 in the theatre), and hadn’t particularly planned to see #4 in the theatre - but they ran the trailer, and darn it, Puss and Donkey were makin’ me laugh.
Saw it this afternoon. Surpassed Kung Fu Panda as my favorite Dreamworks movie. Chris Sanders coming to Dreamworks is the best thing to happen to them in a long time.
Hopefully Dreamworks learns from the two to do more story focused features and less DERP FART JOKES AND POP CULTURE REFERENCE movies.
Just saw it today. And, honestly there’s not that much too say about it besides its great special effects (not as good as UP’s), how the actual story was, and its overrated tomatometer. (97%!)
First of all, let me just say that the 3-D and special effects were AMAZING, but still not as great as UP’s special effects.
It had a pretty decent plot regarding its lack of originality. (A boy finds something magical and tries to hide it from everyone, made famous by E.T.) Plus Chris Sanders, the director of Dragon made a very similar movie, Lilo & Stitch which was also about a kid hiding something special from people.
And the Tomatometer in my opinion is just ridiculous. Please don’t even get me started.
This may be Dreamworks’ best film since Madagascar Escape 2 Africa, but it may be just a temporary good film for Dreamworks. Before this there was Monsters vs. Aliens. After this there will be Shrek Forever After…[/i]
We really liked this film. Reading through the whole ‘art of’ book really shows how much thought was put into this film from story, to lighting - which Roger Deakins consulted on. How To Train Your Dragon was really a lot of fun to watch, and it is DreamWorks’ most mature and beautiful film to date. The 3D was not used as in Monsters vs. Aliens to be obviously throwing stuff at the screen, but as a brilliant extension to the cinematography. In example, for those who don’t have the ‘art of’ book, the following is a paragraph about this. It’s in spoiler tags, since it discusses a scene from the film, albeit a very early on one…
[spoil]The scene where Hiccup first sees the dragon he has brought down: "As we come to the top of the ridge, you’ll notice how the two cameras are almost aligned, and the image is now essentially flat and physically easier for the audience to focus on.
Then as Hiccup drops down, the cameras separate and the image becomes very dimensional, which now makes the viewer’s eye re-focus, causing a slight postural sway and increase in heart rate which hopefully translates into the anxiety in Hiccup’s POV at seeing this dragon for the first time.
The audience has the anticipation and can feel the physical excitement of the moment. It’s similar to how an artist uses color in a scene or over the course of a movie, with mono-saturated looks when it’s an emotional downturn and super-saturation during a big, bright, musical moment." - Head of Layout Gil Zimmerman - Excerpted from page 145, The Art of How To Train Your Dragon. [/spoil]
I would definitely reccomend getting The Art of How To Train Your Dragon, BTW.
Simply, I went into this film with high hopes and an open mind, since I’m a firm believer not to judge a film by studio, but by how well the people actively involved in making the film are able to communicate the story to me in a way that I can connect with it. And I connected to the story told by this film. Those who worked on it can be confident that they did a great job.
I saw this yesterday, and it was great. Easily the best Dreamworks film, I’d even say it even beats out a few of the lesser Pixar films.
Although the story was pretty much what you’d expect, the way it’s told makes it feel fresh. I especially like the ending; [spoil]normally a kid’s movie would make the characters come out unharmed, but I like that here they show that there’s at least some sort of consequence to everything that happened.[/spoil] The bond between Hiccup and Toothless was great and Toothless pretty much stole every scene he was in. Also, I liked that Hiccup showed a little sarcasm and wasn’t a 100% goody-two-shoes wimp that most animated kid protagonists tend to be.
Visuals-wise, there are some great looking scenes, and a lot of moody, foggy environments that you don’t usually see in animation. The dragons had some very cool designs and were well animated. Also, if you’re gonna see this movie, see it in 3D, because the flight scenes are spectacular.
There’s not much that I can say is necessarily bad about the film, but near the end I did feel a little like I was watching someone play a video game rather than watching a movie, which was one of my larger gripes with Coraline.
Overall, though, this is a really good film and I congratulate Chris Sanders and the entire crew at Dreamworks for getting it done with such a short production time and getting it done well. Let’s hope that Dreamworks learns from this movie, but the trailers for Shrek 4 and Megamind aren’t giving me much hope.
By the way, was it just me, or was anyone else seeing a few allusions to The Iron Giant? [spoil]Hiccup brings food to Toothless at first just like Hogarth does for the Giant, Toothless envelopes Hiccup in his wings when he falls like when the Giant clutches Hogarth, and when Hiccup hides behind the rock a la Hogarth camping behind the fallen tree (similar staging).[/spoil]
I watched this on Saturday. I loved this movie, it was amazing! It exceeded my expectations of an average Dream Works movie with it’s beautiful animation, scores, and script.
What happened to the [spoil]Godzilla dragon thing? Did it just die or whatever[/spoil]?
Pleased to read the positive reviews so far. Even though I became a fan lately, I’m still surprised to see that is has been so well-received!
I listened to some of the tracks, but I haven’t heard ‘Forbidden Friendship’ yet. I’m saving it to hear for the first time when I watch the movie!
This is by the far the biggest plot arc I’m looking forward to in the movie. Thanks for another great review, Rare!
Wow, 2nd favourite, TSS? That’s a tall order. What would be your first? And without spoiling too much, in what way do you emphatize with Hiccup?
That’s the vibe I’m getting. I’m not sure whether it’ll beat KFP, but I guess I’ll see for myself.
Hm… I have to admit that the Donkey line was the only one that made me laugh. I kinda saw the Puss’ punchline from a mile away… I’m also a little ambivalent towards Shrek 4, though leaning towards a ‘not-watch’…
Haha! Dreaded scatological humour…
If it really is, then I don’t think the RT rating is unwarranted. The film deserves to be judged on its own merits, regardless of whether this is a temporary success for the studio or not. And it’s difficult to come up with an original story nowadays (I can name a dozen ‘inspirations’ for Up, Wall-E and Monsters Inc., of which the last, in particular, was the subject of a lawsuit…). But it’s good that the special effects impressed you, personally, I thought they would be pretty weak from the lackluster teaser and ‘Dragon Training’ videos, so maybe I’d be surprised.
I would like to add a vote of support for 1M5V. The book really explains a lot of the changes from the original source material, and has some pretty spectacular scenery and character designs that sadly didn’t make it into the final product.
It certainly does. I hope it’s just as good, cos’ Dragonheart is one of my favourite fantasy films ever.
Again, that’s a huge recommendation for me. I’ll take note of your criticism on the end and see how it plays out for me. Great review!
Yay, another vote of confidence!
…
I tried convicing my friends last weekend. They were initially dismissive of the film because of the terrible teasers, but I kept insisting they watched the final trailer, which they haven’t. When they reached the 1:20 mark, they did a 360 paradigm shift.
“Okay, now I’ve changed my mind. This actually looks interesting!” one of them quipped.
Which made me annoyed. Why did Dreamworks choose to withhold all the amazing battle scenes and ‘epic shots’ till the last trailer and TV spots, and then release it too late (about a month before its release, instead of waaay beforehand)? It did make a spectacular box-office debut, finally dethroning Alice’s long rein, but didn’t quite match last year’s MvA, which had a better marketing campaign. I think the lack of publicity was partly to blame.
Hopefully with Easter Break round the corner and all the rave reviews, it’ll have stronger legs in the weeks ahead.
It did make a spectacular box-office debut, finally dethroning Alice’s long rein, but didn’t quite match last year’s MvA, which had a better marketing campaign. I think the lack of publicity was partly to blame.