How to Train Your Dragon 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.5

How to Train Your Dragon 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

With its acquisition of the DreamWorks catalogue, Universal has released the fan-favorite animated film 'How to Train Your Dragon' to the UHD format. The release includes new 2160p/HDR video, a new DTS:X soundtrack, and includes the Blu-ray the studio released in June 2018, which features new and old and missing extras compared to the disc Paramount released in 2010.

How to Train Your Dragon 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc. Watch for 4K screenshots at a later date.

How to Train Your Dragon's UHD knows how to up the ante for a digitally animated production. The upscaled 2160p/HDR presentation offers a boost in both categories, enjoying an increase in texture and an often substantial adjustment, for the better, to its color palette. Covering the latter first, the improvements to color are quite drastic. Fiery reds and oranges are the hands-down highlight, Boasting greatly improved brightness, saturation, color depth, and overall punch, resulting in a much more dramatic visual element with each example, particularly at film's start along a dark low light backdrop but also at the film's finale in more forgiving light. In daytime, such as the sequence when Hiccup locates (the yet to be named) Toothless, the presentation reveals a somewhat less dramatic color alteration but rather a faithful tweaking, solidifying depth of everything in the scene, whether Toothless' leathery black skin (which enjoys a fruitful added depth that gives the creature a more impressive feel of clarity and color stability), gray rocky formations, or Hiccup's green and brown attire. Close-ups focusing on the dragon's face are likewise revealing of not only the color depth but the adds to detail as well, which as noted above are not quite as consistently drastic but certainly critical in shaping the film's UHD presentation. The leathery skin is the most obvious point of sharpness increase, but study the creature's eyes and find more clarity and definition to the small organic details within, which are vital in thoroughly defining the scene's dramatic impact. Likewise, character models enjoy greater stability and definition, particularly some of the more complexly rendered characters, such as Hiccup's father, with the enormous beard or other Viking characters with complex facial features and dense attire and armaments. Certainly, though, the color improvements are the big takeaway here. The movie feels more epic, more polished, particularly with its deeper blacks and more prominent saturation, tightening the image and complimenting the finer, but very welcome, textural improvements.

How to Train Your Dragon 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

For its UHD release of How to Train Your Dragon, Universal has upped the ante, literally, with the inclusion of a DTS:X soundtrack, notably adding overhead channels to the experience. The film was previously available on Blu-ray with Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Dolby TrueHD 7.1 lossless soundtracks. This one, another incremental step up by adding yet more channels to the presentation, is good, but arguably not the best of the bunch. At reference level, it comes across as somewhat reserved, a problem not replicated on the other tracks. Dynamics aren't fully intense, but the track does handle some of the more prominent, more meaty low end moments with fairly good depth. Surrounds are regularly active, whether battle din at the film's action bookends or in more isolated moments that feature various dragon sweeps and swoops. Toothless powers through, and above, the stage in chapter four, a wonderful swoosh that offers a decent sense of power and overheard traversal that does well to put the listener in Hiccup's place. Lighter atmospherics are nicely immersive, with world definition playing with sonically vivid and immersive detail, such as when Hiccup heads out in the woods early in the film to locate the dragon he shot down and through the early days of their relationship. The track is most obviously shaped by the action scenes, though, and while not as deep, dense, hard-hitting, and rawly powerful as the material would seem to demand, the core pieces are certainly in place for a positive, though not entirely invigorating, listen. Dialogue clarity, positioning, and prioritization are fine.

How to Train Your Dragon 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

How to Train Your Dragon's UHD disc carries over the filmmaker commentary track but otherwise leaves all of its bonus features to Universal's Blu-ray, which is included with purchase. For convenience, below is a list of what's included on the Blu-ray with notes as to what is new and what is missing compared to the old Paramount disc. A Movies Anywhere digital copy code is also included. This release ships with an embossed slipcover.

• NEW! Frozen (1080p, Dolby Digital 5.1, 22:41): An episode of the television show DreamWorks Dragons titled "Frozen." The episode is season two's (Defenders of Berk) fourteenth.
• NEW! Book of Dragons (1080p, Dolby TrueHD 7.1, 17:38): A short film that was previously released to Blu-ray as part of a two-pack with Gift of the Night Fury.
• NEW! The Ultimate Book of Dragons (1080p): An interactive extra in which users can choose one of several dragons they wish to learn about, opening up opportunities to discover secrets, watch the dragon come to life, view flip book animations, dig through statistics, and look at image galleries. The dragons available for selection include Monstrous Nightmare, Terrible Terror, Whispering Death, Gronckle, Hideous Zippleback, Snaptrapper, Deadly Nadder, Timberjack, Scauldron, Thunderdrum, Boneknapper, Changewing, Skrill, and Night Fury.
• The Animators' Corner
• Trivia Track
• Audio Commentary: With Directors/Co-Writers Chris Sanders & Dean DeBlois and Producer Bonnie Arnold.
• Viking-Sized Cast (1080i, 11:44)
• How to Draw a Dragon (1080i, 10:57)
• The Story Behind the Story (1080i, 7:40)
• The Technical Artistry of Dragon (1080i, 10:13)
• NEW! Gobber's Training Secrets (1080p, 2:10 total runtime): A six-part feature that offers comically brief scenes with tips on how to train various species of dragon. Included are Lesson 1: Deadly Nadder, Lesson 2: Gronckle, Lesson 3: Monstrous Nightmare, Lesson 4: Hideous Zipplebnack, Lesson 5: Night Fury, and Lesson 6: Terrible Terror.
• Previews (1080p): Trailers for How to Train Your Dragon 2, DreamWorks Dragons: Defenders of Berk, and Mr. Peabody & Sherman.

• Legend of the Bonekeeper Dragon
• Racing for the Gold
• Your Viking Profile
• Keep Out!

How to Train Your Dragon 4K 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. How to Train Your Dragon's UHD release features excellent 2160p/HDR video, a good DTS:X soundtrack, and plenty of extra content. Recommended.