How to Train Your Dragon

Here is a computer-animated movie. Berk is home to a band of Vikings but the island is constantly beset by dragons. Thus, it is of little surprise that the Vikings of Berk are particularly skilled at fighting dragons.

Our hero is a hapless Viking lad named Hiccup. He has attributes better suited to a tinker gnome from Krynn, only his inventions work fairly well. He desperately wants to slay a dragon but, being puny and weak, is always left in safety during dragon raids. However, on one raid, he hurries out with one of his inventions to prove he too can be a dragon slayer. Though he shoots a dragon out of the sky with his netflinger, no one believes him. Thus, he finds the entangled dragon which he is unable to kill, so he adopts him.  Thus begins the friendship of Hiccup the Viking and Toothless the Dragon. It is great fun to see - in 3D - Hiccup and his dragon soaring through the sky.

As with most Viking movies, there are problems. First, the names. Hiccup? Snotlout? Fishlegs? Well, this is based on a kids book so the names can be forgiven. Then there is the Scottish accents. These are Scottish Vikings. The ships and shields are good but the siege engines are out of place. But these are just nitpicky things that really don't detract from the movie, even with a stickler like me.

Highly recommended.

 

I saw this in April 2010.  The cast included the Gerard Butler (Hiccup's father, Stoick), Jonah Hill (Snotlout), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Fishlegs), Kristen Wiig (Ruffnut), and David Tennant (Spitelout).  Though not as well-known as his co-stars, Jay Baruchel (Hiccup) certainly holds his own and proves to be a very effective dorky nerd as epic hero.  The movie had a sequel, the cleverly named How to Train Your Dragon 2, and has a third in production.

300

Though the movie depicts historic events almost exactly as they didn't happen, for once I don't mind.  The movie isn't meant to be historic and the liberties are willingly overlooked.  On March 31, 2007, I provided my take on 300:

Though based on the historic Battle of Thermopylae, the movie feels more like a particularly violent D&D adventure, complete with some bizarre monsters. Our heroes - the 300 Spartans - dress in much the same fashion as all female characters or Conan; nothing but a loin cloth. It starts out easy as the Persian Emperor sends wave after wave of 1st level goons to die on the spears of the high level party. Then the named monsters start to arrive. There are the Immortals who wear silver masks that cover dessicated faces, the Frankenstien monster who kills a Persian in order to arm himself, an armored Rhino, some elephants almost as big as the ones seen in Lord of the Rings, and even an executioner who seems to have bone swords instead of arms. The movie is most entertaining and highly recommended. It makes me want to run a Greek campaign.

 

Here is the movie that made Gerard Butler a star and launched Zach Snyder's directorial career into the stratosphere.  The movie is ludicrous from start to finish, describing a fantastical and bizarre ancient world that merely borrows some plotlines from historical events.  However, the names were not changed to protect the innocent.