Director: Dean DeBlois
Starring: Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, Gerard Butler, Cate Blanchett
Four stars
Dragons are in, right? Game of Thrones has made the fire-breathers sexy, that's for sure. But it was arguably 2010's How to Train Your Dragon that brought these mythical beasts back into public view. The DreamWorks animation came out of nowhere – well, actually out of Cressida Cowell's young-adult book series – to rake in almost US$500 million (Dh1.8 billion).
That first film, set in an age of superstition, saw the Viking-era teenager Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) befriend the titular Toothless. Think E.T. with dragons and you get the picture.
This time, the writer and director Dean DeBlois has widened this tale of boyhood friendship, ageing the characters, turning up the emotional heat.
Working for the first time without his partner Chris Sanders – they co-directed the first Dragon and 2002's Lilo & Stitch (the latter character surely an influence, visually, on Toothless) – DeBlois ensures this sequel doesn't simply go for the bigger, louder and faster aesthetic that most Hollywood follow-ups aim for.
Returning us to the land of Berk, overseen by Hiccup’s stern father Stoick (Gerard Butler), dragons and humans now coexist peacefully. But while his rowdy classmates go dragon-racing, Hiccup and his tomboyish chum Astrid (America Ferrera) explore farther afield, stumbling across a fortress made from shards of ice created by – you guessed it – a dragon.
This is just the first surprise in an ever-shifting world that pits Hiccup and Toothless against a fearsome dragon-hunter named Drago Bludvist (a booming Djimon Hounsou).
Commenting on the expansive nature of the Dragon franchise (a third movie is already in the works), Baruchel recently noted: "I feel like I got to stumble into our Star Wars" – and there's something of that sci-fi saga here, as characters get to explore their deep-lying origins.
In particular, Hiccup’s eyes are opened when he encounters Valka (Cate Blanchett), a peace-loving protector of the dragons who has lived among the creatures for years. As you might expect from a double Oscar-winner such as Blanchett, she’s the standout voice talent – infusing every morsel of her Scottish-inflected dialogue with depth and humanity.
The film is not perfect. There are one too many chases and races in a desperate bid to make full use of the eye-catching 3-D and some rather perfunctory scenes that fritter away the voice talents of Kristen Wiig as well as the Superbad alumni Jonah Hill and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. But for the most part, this is a family film in the best sense of the word. It's as good as animated sequels get.
artslife@thenational.ae
