Voices of: Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, America Ferrera, Cate Blanchett, Jonah Hill
Directed by: Dean DeBlois
Genre: Animated fantasy
Duration: 102 minutes
Showing at Cinema Magic, Metroplex Mall Naalya
Dreamworks looks like it is not taking the back seat to Walt Disney and Pixar when it comes 3D animations. They may be doing this with a sequel but there is no denying that they are doing something right.
They wowed us last year with The Croods and are back flying on the backs of the dragons no less. Also back is Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) and his dragon friend Toothless who we met three years ago in the first movie. The sequel, How To Train Your Dragon 2 takes us to the Viking village of Berk where the dragons are no longer the enemy but have become part of the village as friends and the odd means of transport and entertainment.
It is five years since we last met them, so Hiccup and his friends are older and facing the prospect of bigger responsibilities. For starters, Hiccup’s father Stoick (Gerard Butler) wants him to take over as leader of the Vikings. Although Hiccup still has sarcastic humour intact, he is more confident and can be as crude as the next Viking, though it still doesn’t match up to his girlfriend, Astrid’s (voiced by America Ferrera) energy.
And then there is the impending doom hovering over Berk after Hiccup and Astrid find out about a maniac called Drago who is collecting an army of dragons. He plans to attack the Vikings with it. Add this to the unveiling of Valka (voiced by Cate Blanchett), plus Hiccup’s mum and we have an exciting 102 minutes.
The movie’s strongest point is that it is even more exciting than the first. Everything from the music to the characters’ expressions says a lot about how much was put into its production. It took 500 people to put the movie together, yet it comes together effortlessly.
