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| Tookey's Review |
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| Trailer |
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| Cast |
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| Released: |
2010 |
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| Genre: |
ACTION
ADVENTURE
MONSTER
FANTASY
FAMILY
COMEDY
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| Origin: |
US |
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| Colour: |
C |
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| Length: |
98 |
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Enjoyable children’s fantasy in 3D.
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Reviewed by Chris Tookey
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DreamWorks’ latest venture into animation is thrilling for children (though too scary for under-sixes) and extremely tolerable for adults.
We’ve had lots of boy-and-his-dog movies, but not too many boy-and-his-dragon yarns, and none of them until now has featured Vikings.
Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) is a viking child who is all brain and no brawn, and therefore a disappointment to his extravagantly butch father, Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler), who’s leader of the tribe.
When Hiccup’s home island is attacked by dragons, he brings down one of the beasts with a net-shooting catapult, but when it comes to killing it, he just can’t do it. Instead, he turns it into a pet, and in doing so discovers that dragons are not the vicious beasts he’s been told about, but kind and affectionate unless they’re attacked.
The first hour is great fun and makes good use of 3D, especially in the flying sequences. As the film continues, its derivativeness become all too noticeable. This is essentially the same plot as Dances With Wolves, Pocahontas and Avatar.
The final half-hour, as too often in Hollywood movies, consists almost entirely of fighting. And I would have liked some attempt to explain why all the children in the movie have American accents, while all the grown-ups sound Scottish.
But it looks good and has funny jokes. It’s a kids’ adventure with heart.
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