Review of How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) by Kyle M — 14 Dec 2014

When the movie was over and I got to my car, I couldn't stop saying (and thinking) how GREAT the movie is. (This is the third time I saw a film and kept describing it with one adjective ("The Avengers" was awesome and "Captain Phillips" was intense)). Before I get on with the stuff on what makes this great, let's go over what it's about.

This sequel takes place 5 years after the first film (with the two seasons of its television series "Dragons" taking place after the specials early on in that timespan directly after the original) and the people of Berk are living in harmony with dragons peacefully after their conflicting war was resolved. The hero of that was Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) when he befriended the formerly dangerous Night Fury dragon, Toothless; and now, they're inseparable. They go on journeys together to discover new lands and dragons. But at Berk, Hiccup is being pressurized by his father Stoick the Vast (Gerald Butler) to become chief, a big responsibility he thinks he's not ready for such, even though he has the blood (and maybe heart) to be one.

On one moment after discovering a new land and a wild fire (that was probably a purpose of an SOS), he and his girlfriend Astrid (America Ferrera) and their dragons go there but encounters Erik (Kit Harington from "Game of Thrones") and his dragon trappers. They got the warning of an incoming mad antagonist Drago Bludvist (Dijimon Hounsou) forming a dragon army (has a similar power on dragons as Blackbeard does to his ship in "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," but at a larger scale).

Against his father's order, Hiccup goes to Drago to try to stop him in persuasion so harmony can be kept and spread. But he gets into a detour as a mysterious dragon rider/master took him and Toothless to where a bunch of other dragons are hidden. The movie's emotions stirs up when the dragon master turns out to be Hiccup's long-lost mother Valka (Cate Blanchett from "Blue Jasmine"). During her absent, she's been protecting dragons from Drago and was truly the first one to find the heart in their eyes before Hiccup's discovery (and I think she knows a lot about dragons than Hiccup probably).

Now let's cover the film's qualities:

1. HEART/EMOTIONS - The film's heart warmth is the most heartwarming I probably ever felt towards a film. I was just smiling like more than I probably ever when watching a film at the same time my heart being warmed. The mother-son and family re-bonding was just lovable, next to the friendship between Hiccup and Toothless (similar to the friendship between Jesse and Willy in "Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home"). But there are emotions to those specific relationships in the film that were truly sad (especially a sad twist on a fate), sad enough to have tears climbing up to your eyes. Because of that, this is an emotional film in heart and sadness. There are few other parts contributing to that, as well the fun emotion of laughter will never be left out.

2. ANIMATION - The animation was just amazingly well done in a beautiful way, probably the best I've ever seen in a film. I'm even surprise how they'd animated the characters' growth differentiates from their original, younger appearances. With Pixar out of the way this year, this is an obvious winner of Best Animated Feature, Dreamworks's third win.

3. CAST AND THEIR PERFORMANCES - The returning cast - Craig Gerguson as Gobber, Jonah Hill ("The Wolf of Wall Street" and "22 Jump Street") as Snotlout, Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Fishlegs, and T.J. Miller and Krsten Wiig ("Despicable Me 2") as the twins Tuffnut and Ruffnut - is always a pleasant thing for a sequel, especially their talented performances. The spotlight (and the scene-stealer) is Cate Blanchett's performance because of her reputation of being such a great actress.

4. SOUNDTRACK - The predecessor's soundtrack was nominated for Best Original Score (but lost to "The Social Network"). The magic of that soundtrack returned in this sequel with the returning composer John Powell. The sequel's soundtrack is more magnificent than its predecessor's because it has more power to make the film more epic (analysis's in the upcoming quality). It's both an energy source to the film's power and a contender for Best Original Score, giving the "Dragons" franchise another shot to win the category at the Oscars.

5. EPIC/POWER - Now the best for last. This animated sequel is more an epic masterpiece than its predecessor that was also a great masterpiece. What makes this epic is the power, energized by the performances in soundtrack, cast, and animation (and the fast growth that usually takes a franchise a few movies to show how much it has grown). But there was a realization on the power the film contained: it has the same power as "The Lion King." There were epical stuff and energy and some plot points that reflects the "king" of animation on its 20th anniversary.

I know there are a few stuff I've said in the review that were repeated. I want to say what I want to say about how GREAT "How to Train Your Dragon 2" is. This review will probably be updated when I see it again (it's worth seeing it again), and see if I've forgot to describe or analyze something about the film in this review.

To sum it up, "How to Train Your Dragon 2" is this year's definite winner of Best Animated Feature (give me a good reason why it's not, Academy). It's an epic masterpiece with beautiful animation and big heart with emotions. It's Dreamworks's best ahead of both its predecessor and "The Croods" (the studio's best originality) and the sequels they've made. It's also more enjoyable than last year's highly popular animated film winner "Frozen.".

After this film, I'm looking forward for more adventures of the franchise in the upcoming 2017 sequel, with the main cast and crew returning. It'll probably be interesting and exciting. The upcoming 3rd season of its television series, which will be on Netflix in Spring 2015, is going to fill up the gap between this and the previous season to explore new details that were brought up in this blissful sequel. (A+).