A Stunning Blockbuster Animated Sequel: A Strong Oscar Contender

Five years have passed since the events of “How to Train Your Dragon.” The father hopes that the grown-up and matured Hiccup will soon take his place at the head of the tribe, but the young man does not see himself as a leader. He is much more interested in flying around the world on Toothless and discovering new islands. During his next trip, he stumbles upon dragon trappers and learns from them that a powerful dragon lord named Drago Bludvist is gathering an army of people and lizards to conquer all the countries he can reach and turn dragons into slaves of humanity. Fortunately, Hiccup soon has a new ally - his long-lost mother Valka, who has spent all these years saving and studying dragons.

The artists of “How to Train Your Dragon 2” were inspired by the nature of Norway when drawing the islands of their fantasy world. They even went there on a week-long excursion.

How can one describe the new animated blockbuster from DreamWorks Animation? Probably in the same way we described movies as children, gesticulating wildly and choking with delight: “Well, in general, there - a-a-a! And they are like - o-o-o! And they fly, fly, fly! And then like this - whiz, whiz, whiz! And those are like - smack! And boom! Boom! Boom!” Of course, you can try to find the right words and talk about the stunning animation, inspired graphics (a lot of new breeds of dragons!), exciting plot, witty jokes and a perfectly balanced combination of sweeping epic and intimate family scenes. But it will be somehow too detached and too objective. There will be many facts in this description, but few feelings. And “How to Train Your Dragon 2” is a real emotion-squeezer (in a good way).

DreamWorks Animation has already announced that it is working on a second sequel that will complete the trilogy.

An Emotional Rollercoaster

In an hour and a half, the film takes viewers through the entire spectrum of emotions, from admiration to sadness. And when you leave the hall, you realize that you have not watched, but experienced the picture - admired the dizzying flights, marveled at new lands and new dragons, touched by the first meeting of Hiccup and Valka, indignant at the cruelty of dragon hunters, mourned the dead (yes, there are deaths in the film) and rooted for “our” in the culminating battle with all my might. Therefore, it is better to talk about “How to Train Your Dragon 2” not with coherent and sedate phrases, but with interjections and gestures. They are much more emotional and expressive.

Imperfections?

Does all this mean that the cartoon is perfect? No, it doesn’t. If you abstract from the impression it makes as a whole, and disassemble it into its component parts to examine each one separately, you can find flaws like: “This joke is repeated too many times”, “This character should have been given a little more screen time” and “Couldn’t they have chosen a slightly more elegant hairstyle for Valka?”. But these will all be quibbles that are even ashamed to list against the backdrop of those monstrous blunders and misses that feature films and animated blockbusters are regularly released with.

A Colossal Achievement

True, there are still enough of these quibbles that “How to Train Your Dragon 2” cannot be equated to the fifth episode of “Star Wars”, which the creators of the cartoon were guided by. But how many films can even be seriously compared to this fantastic masterpiece? And the DreamWorks Animation picture - you can. And this is already a colossal achievement. In addition, “How to Train Your Dragon 2” is designed for younger viewers than those for whom Lucas was filming, and therefore the animators could not afford some of the things that were possible in “Wars”. If not for this self-restraint, the tapes, perhaps, would have become equal!

So don’t think about the problems of the film, but grab your children and friends and go to the cinema. If you have seen the first picture and if you like fairy tales about Vikings and dragons at least a little, then you will get great pleasure from “How to Train Your Dragon 2”. And don’t forget the handkerchiefs! Although the picture is generally positive, it will be difficult not to shed tears in some scenes.