'How To Train Your Dragon'

'How To Train Your Dragon' (PG) ***1/2

Writer: Dean DeBlois
Directors: Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
Voices: Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, America Ferrera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jonah Hill, Kristen Wiig, Craig Ferguson

I really do love dragons! When I was a kid and I saw anything with a dragon I wanted to have it. I didn't even mind sitting through a terrible dragon movie like "Pete's Dragon". I was very happy after I saw the latest Dreamworks 3D animated movie "How To Train Your Dragon". This is a very fun and sweet movie that looks awesome in 3D and has flying sequences that rival those of "Avatar". The movie's animation is crystal clear, colorful and the story is restrained and beautiful. This is not a loud, crowded movie like "Flushed Away" or "Kung Fu Panda". The voice work is just perfect and the relationship between the main character and the dragon is touching, funny and sweet. I think kids will be wrapped up in this but I also feel that adults will be swept up in it's beautiful look. That main character is named Hiccup and he is well voiced by Jay Baruchel. Hiccup is part of a Viking clan that feels that they need to kill dragons. Along comes Toothless who Hiccup discovers and then traps. They both become good friends and this does not please Hiccup's Viking warrior father voiced by Gerard Butler, in what might be his best performance lately. Hiccup must go through training in how to kill a dragon and he is not too good at it. There are some hilarious scenes as we go back and forth between Hiccup learning how to deal with dragons with Toothless's help and successfully taming the fierce dragons at training class. The movie then has some beautiful scenes where Hiccup and Toothless get to fly around. This movie is charming, fun, beautiful to look at in 3D and has a very touching story between dragon and boy. Besides "Avatar" I am not jumping up and down with the latest 3D movies because most look ugly and dark in 3D. "Clash of the Titans" was a joke because it was transformed into 3D, not filmed in it. "How To Train Your Dragon" is how a movie should look in 3D because it is breathtaking and worth the extra charge!