Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

How to Train Your Dragon 3D Blu-ray Movie Review

Another title that could push 3D gear is given a bundled-exclusive limited release.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman October 27, 2010

Killing a dragon is everything around here.

With How to Train Your Dragon, DreamWorks Animation seems on the cusp of finally matching in overall quality the typical Pixar effort. Long since the industry-standard for computer-animated entertainment, Pixar's movies are not only gorgeously rendered and impeccably scripted, but they're centered by moving story lines and thematic subtexts that make them not only fun for the kids but worthwhile movies for more demanding parents. How to Train Your Dragon is, on the other hand, constructed around a story that's as predictable as they come but that's nevertheless endearing and plenty of fun. DreamWorks' latest is also home to some breathtaking animation the likes of which has never before been seen in a movie not bearing the famed Luxo Jr. logo. Dragon is a movie for the kid at heart in every viewer, a picture that's one part sweeping adventure and two parts childhood fantasy; combined with its touching story elements that speak on the importance of being true to one's self, the strength that's found in the bonds of friendship, and the importance of acceptance based on character rather than appearance or past actions, the movie serves as both worthwhile entertainment and subtle moral reinforcement all in one. While it doesn't break new ground from a thematic perspective or reach the level of soulfulness of the best Pixar films, How to Train Your Dragon is nevertheless one of the best of its kind for both its impeccable visuals and quality story line.

Angry 3D fans (Toothless) give exclusive-happy studios and equipment manufacturers (Hiccup) the evil eye.

In the time of the Vikings and on the fictional island of Berk lives a scrawny teenager named Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel, She's Out of My League) who wants nothing more than to fit in and kill his first dragon. The island is under nearly constant siege by powerful dragons, and the resistance is led by Hiccup's father, a stout warrior named Stoick (Gerard Butler, Law Abiding Citizen). The island's denizens have learned to fend off each of the many species of dragons that aim to lay waste to the Vikings' humble abodes; except, that is, for the powerful and rarely-seen Night Fury, a ferocious beast capable of attacking with great precision from vast distances. Hiccup, a burgeoning blacksmith and an inventor of various gadgets, constructs a weapon he hopes will prove capable of bringing down a Night Fury, which he hopes will earn him the respect of his father and maybe even land him a date with the best-looking girl on the island, the young warrior-in-training Astrid (America Ferrera, Our family Wedding). Hiccup, to his own surprise, actually manages to knock the feared beast out of the sky -- but nobody believes him. He sets out to find his prize but when he stumbles upon the frightened and injured beast, he can't bring himself to finish it off. Instead, he builds an amicable relationship with the dragon that turns into a full-blown friendship between man and beast. Hiccup is forced to keep his new friend a secret, but when he's not mending the dragon's wounds, feeding it fish, or learning how to fly on its back, he's forced into dragon-fighting classes under his father's orders. As Hiccup grows closer to his new friend he's named "Toothless," he comes to learn that dragons aren't so bad after all. He just needs to convince his blood-thirsty father and rowdy fellow Vikings of the same.

How to Train Your Dragon in an interesting movie in the way that it manages to create so much feeling and heart yet build its narrative around a completely predictable story. Even the title, more or less, gives away the film's major turning point, but with a picture such as this, that's OK. Its characters are very well conceived, and it's through their genuine interactions and the honesty and themes of the story that the movie is able overcome its trite arc. These characters are the heart and soul of the movie, and were they simply automatons meant to advance the plot rather than lend to it a welcoming, heartfelt tone, How to Train Your Dragon would have gone down in flames faster than a building hit by a dragon's fireball. Fortunately, there's a depth to the characters that centers the story in all the right places, allowing the supportive elements to be just that rather than focal points that would have reduced the movie to a smoldering pile of rubble with no shape, character, or purpose. Not only is the father-son dynamic nicely constructed -- even if the father figure is little more than a hulking cliché -- but the bond between Hiccup and Toothless is believable and touching, built not around trite dialogue but through looks, actions, and understanding. For a relationship grounded in feeling rather than empty words, this one is exceptionally realized; it's not only a credit to the incredible script that does so much with so little, but to the animators who capture the very essence of the human-dragon bond and make it work through character actions and unspoken feelings that take the movie to heights not often achieved by even the top-tier animated titles.

The film additionally and effortlessly meshes several elements to create a complete feel; there's not much new to say about an animated movie constructed around equal parts humor, heart, and adventure -- a combination DreamWorks has used to great success in both Kung Fu Panda and the Shrek films -- but How to Train Your Dragon does it in style and with a sense of purpose and confidence that makes it better than most. Although the film rightfully puts its characters first, it doesn't forget the importance of its secondary elements, and the result is a picture that's as polished as most anything else out there. The animation is top-notch; one look at the intricate detailing says it all and shows just how far computer animation has come. It's an exciting time to be a movie lover; Dragon sets the bar about as high as it's ever been, and the challenge is now out for another movie to top this in terms of sheer visual eye candy. Better still, the voice acting is impeccable, finishing off the characters not only at a superficial level but at a much deeper one that allows the combination of visuals and dialogue to truly ground the story where it needs to be; all of the primary voice actors seem to have found the very essences of their characters, and that there's so much heart in the performances is one of the film's greatest assets. It's reminiscent of the way Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs really found its center through its impeccable voice acting and touching father-son relationship, and How to Train Your Dragon is its equal in that regard. Putting the finishing touches on the movie is John Powell's (Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs) fantastic score; it's big, heroic, and heartfelt and deserves recognition as one of the year's best.

How to Train Your Dragon 3D Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

How to Train Your Dragon's full HD 3D Blu-ray transfer is impressive, but it's no better or no worse than the average animated 3D Blu-ray presentation. The transfer's traditional attributes impress, and in terms of raw detail, color reproduction, and the like, this 3D presentation is nearly the match of the standalone 2D release. Indeed, the remarkable detailing of the 2D release remains intact here, with the image revealing the finest nuances in clothes, hair, faces, rocks, landscapes, and Toothless' roughly-textured hide. Colors are natural and eye-catching throughout, with the bright hues seen on various dragon hides and numerous wooden shields appearing without any perceptible loss of vibrancy through the 3D filter. If there's a drawback to any one area of the transfer, it comes in the form of blacks that are simply too dark; no doubt parts of How to Train Your Dragon are by their very nature dark, particularly the opening battle sequence, but the transfer's blacks are so overwhelming that there are several instances where they just devour the entire screen and leave little room for anything but the faintest of outlines of foreground characters. Otherwise, this 3D presentation is comparable to DreamWorks' exceptional 2D effort, and save for those blacks, the differences between those elements both transfers share in common are negligible at worst.

How to Train Your Dragon's 2D Blu-ray featured an excellent sense of depth to begin with, and it's only enhanced by this quality 3D presentation. Like most of the other Blu-ray 3D releases, Dragon's visuals are more about achieving a sense of realistic depth than they are wowing the audience with pointless gimmicks that usually only deflect attention away from the overall quality of the presentation. How to Train Your Dragon, much like the 3D release of My Bloody Valentine, doesn't work quite as well in its darker scenes as it does when working around brighter backdrops. Considering just how dark this 3D transfer can be, it's no surprise that the 3D effect appears diminished under the crushing blacks, but viewers will notice the image's many plusses in the 3D arena once it lightens up. The transfer handles both the obviously 3D environments and the not-so-obvious little touches that truly make a 3D transfer a winner equally well. The digital environment is home to several locales that benefit from the added depth; the Vikings training arena appears as a seamless 360-degree environment with plenty of perceptible spacing both around the entire perimeter and through its vertical axis. Likewise, the clearing where Hiccup and Toothless form their friendship appears as a spectacularly-realized environment where viewers will note the spacing between rocks, grasses, and other objects. The wooded area outside the clearing offers some of the finest 3D imagery yet; not only is the spacing between trees nothing short of real in appearance, but the way the various crooked branches hang around the screen adds another layer of impressive depth that replicates the look and feel of such a location almost too well.

It's no surprise that these environments look great; any 3D image worth its Blu-ray disc should achieve similar results, so what sets the better transfers apart from the lesser ones is the way it handles the less obvious but no less important aspects that put the finishing touches on a great 3D presentation. Small details like the way a character's chin juts out from his face; the way sparks from a fire float around the screen and, in this case, seemingly in front of and behind it; an underwater shot where a fish seems to be swimming in front of the television screen; the feeling of real space as a dragon flies around the screen, offset against a monochromatic overcast sky; or even the sensation that dense fog is floating by in layers rather than as a singular gray chunk all contribute to an overall high quality image and help make a traditionally good 3D image great. Of all of the transfer's nice little touches, the best arguably comes in chapter five during a scene featuring Hiccup studying an old book on dragons. The way the pages lay one atop another and fall in towards the middle where they're attached to the spine gives off an incredibly realistic sensation that perfectly duplicates the look of an open book lying on a flat surface. It's such a mundane visual but nevertheless one that works incredibly well in 3D, and it's those sort of little touches that are just as likely to impress as the bigger, more generalized attributes that so often overwhelm most 3D Blu-ray discussions. The only real issue here is that viewers will still have to contend with some bouts of ghosting and transparency around a few edges, usually off to one side of Hiccup's face. Such occurrences -- at least on Panasonic's first-generation plasma unit -- are the exception rather than the rule, and they aren't cause for too much alarm or distraction. The biggest fault of this transfer is definitely the overwhelming blacks. As a raw 3D effort it's otherwise about as good as anything else out there right now, and it's too bad it's currently only available as a pricy exclusive title. Please note that all screenshots in this review were captured from the 2D transfer located on the 3D disc.

How to Train Your Dragon 3D Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Many Blu-ray and 3D fans were understandably perplexed and upset when DreamWorks' bundled-exclusive release of Monsters vs. Aliens -- the first-ever 3D title available -- was absent a lossless soundtrack. Several months later, the studio's second release -- again a Samsung exclusive -- has not only made things right with the inclusion of a losses track, but DreamWorks has gone one step further by one-upping the standard 2D release of How to Train Your Dragon by granting the 3D release with a full-fledged 7.1 TrueHD soundtrack, adding two additional surround channels not available on the 2D version's 5.1 TrueHD presentation. The 2D release's lossless soundtrack is amazing, but the added presence of the additional two channels manages to makes this release's soundtrack even better. Indeed, the track takes full advantage of the added channels, creating an even more refined, seamless, and all-encompassing soundstage. Music is subtly supported by the back channels but is spaciously and with infinite clarity and power handled primarily across the front. Dialogue is perfectly centered and amazingly clear and accurate, with just enough force behind it to give it a big, cinematic feel. Bass is fantastically aggressive and effortlessly strong, rattling the soundstage with regularity but never playing as sloppy or absent precise levels of power. Best of all, the track makes full use of the added surround channels; the opening battle between Vikings and Dragons delivers plenty of pinpoint effects and swooping, multi-directional elements. Whether fireballs zipping straight through the listening area from front to back or the Night Fury screeching its way around the listening area, listeners will feel engulfed in a seamless 360-degree field of sound that's as impressive as most anything else on Blu-ray. Atmospherics are perfect, too, with the track delivering plenty of natural environmental effects -- slight breezes, chirping birds, or the sound of crackling fires -- here and there around the soundstage to put the finishing touches on a perfect 7.1 soundtrack. Why this track wasn't included with the 2D release is anyone's guess, but 3D fans are in for a real treat with this exceptional soundtrack that's easily one of the year's best.

How to Train Your Dragon 3D Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

All that's included is a 3D trailer for Megamind (1080p, 2:32).

How to Train Your Dragon 3D Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Is the computer-animated film home to the next great wave of movies? Studios like Pixar and DreamWorks just can't seem to miss, and it's hard to find another genre or style that's cranked out as many successes as this. How to Train Your Dragon is just the latest in a string of computer-generated film that have not only dazzled with their incredible visuals, but entertained through pitch-perfect stories that find just the right balance between humor and heart. While it's true that Dragon plays as entirely predictable, it's also true that it brings to the table an honesty and approachability that will allow audiences of all ages to find value in the story and its themes of friendship, trust, perseverance, acceptance, and the importance of laying aside differences and finding commonalities that altogether forge a bond that's unbreakable even in the face of the oldest traditions or the most violent of histories. That the film is made of some of the most stunningly beautiful animation is merely icing on the cake, making How to Train Your Dragon a great movie and another example of why the computer-animated film is here to stay. This Blu-ray 3D transfer of How to Train Your Dragon is strong but not leaps and bounds better than any of the other animated 3D titles currently available. Blacks are a bit too overwhelming and both the 3D elements and the overall look of the transfer suffers as a result, but daytime scenes look about as good as can be expected. DreamWorks' inclusion of a soundtrack that's superior to even the tremendous offering available on the standalone 2D disc is commendable, but the fact that the disc is yet another exclusive linked to the purchase of a brand-specific television takes all the air straight out of the excitement surrounding this release. This is the sort of release that could sell the format and not just a television, and it seems like a wasted opportunity to advance Blu-ray 3D in the public eye. Even considering the absence of extras, How to Train Your Dragon 3D would receive an enthusiastic recommendation were it actually available in stores.