Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Jay Baruchel, Cate Blanchett, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T.J. Miller, Kristin Wiig, Djimon Hounsou, Kit Harrington, Kieron Elliott, Philip McGrade, Andrew Ableson, Gideon Emery, Simon Kassianides, Randy Thom.
There are many films that at the end of the screening you wonder exactly why they are advertised as being for children, why the family, which all when and good as you want the next generation of film lovers to have had great experiences like this rather being baby sat by a games console, has to be involved; for some films are truly made for everybody to enjoy and yet advertisers insist on placing some films in to ready-made box.
Such is the fate that could await How To Train Your Dragon 2, a film that is both lush in in its artwork and animation as it is funny and in places laugh out loud so. Not just to the children or the mums and dad’s but to all who find themselves with a couple of hours to spare in which to live through the eyes of a thoughtful, oddly brilliant Viking lad and a Dragon called Toothless.
As Dreamworks reaches twenty years of entertaining and for the vast majority of times thoughtful creative films, like its prequel, How To Train Your Dragon 2 fits neatly into the realm of great fantasy, of message driven invention and the world in which imagination can flourish unhindered. It opens up a world to many over a certain age and who have forgotten what it is see the world through the eyes of innocence and puritanical sophistication. The ability to believe in something other than what you know to be true and authentic to all you have come to believe since you were able to imagine monsters under the bed and fire breathing dragons.
The lesson of the individual being able to bring down a corporation or Government through its sincere actions is what comes across and whilst cleverly concealed in what is essentially a great film based on several books, all who took part in it should feel a great sense of pride, including above and beyond the animators and dreamers.
Whilst a film is nothing without its cast, animated films have something beyond what the Director can see in the Human Being, and although Jay Baruchel as Hiccup, the superb Cate Blanchett and Gerard Butler reign supreme and America Ferrera captures the essence of loyalty, the real stars of the film are those whose faces will not be instantly recognisable to the public.
A very cool, very funny and ultimately Oscar deserving film, How To Train Your Dragon 2 is rich in its scale and breathes life into the genre.
Ian D. Hall