Dreamworks “Dragon” is one not to be missed!

By Judy Marker

MCJ Movie Critic

If you see just one more 3-D movie this year, gather the family and head for

Dreamworks “How To Train Your Dragon.”

Based loosely on the children’s books by Cressida Cowell, this is one movie that comes closest to reaching amazing perfection!

With spectacular animation and fine story telling, “How To Train Your Dragon” will quickly win you over as one movie worth seeing again and again, especially in its 3-D format.

Directors Chris Sanders (“Mulan”) and Dean DeBlois (“Mulan”) have teamed up to make sure this 1 hour and 38 minute jewel is Oscar worthy.

While the story may not resemble the books they were taken from, writers DeBlois and Sanders give us a tale that unwinds all around us designed to be breathtaking when wearing your glasses. While available in 2-D, so much is missed. This is truly a theatre going experience with 3-D.

Off the coast of Scotland lies the mythical Island of Berk, where its Viking ruler Stoick the Vast (voiced by Gerard Butler “The Bounty Hunter”) and tribe has been fighting dragons for three centuries.

The fierce warriors have continued to live by the rule of ‘the only good dragon is a dead dragon,’ that is except for one.

Meet Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel “Knocked Up”), Vast’s son and a misfit in the tribe. We quickly meet him at the start of the film as he tells us about life on the Isle of Berk.

With the residents duty bound to slay the fire-breathing dragons, Hiccup is enrolled at the Dragon Training School against his will and with disastrous results.

The teenager fails to impress his fellow Vikings and quickly becomes an embarrassment to his father. Also gone appears to be any chances of winning over

Astrid (voiced by America Ferrera “Our Family Wedding”), the girl of his dreams but does not yet know it, at least for now.

Everything changes when Hiccup meets the enemy, a dragon he names Toothless. Hiccup nurses the long-feared, injured dragon back to health.

It turns out that this scary foe is simply misunderstood and not as aggressive as the Vikings have thought. Now can Hiccup convince his father and fellow Vikings?

“How To Train Your Dragon” sores thanks to its impressive flying scenes worth the extra price of 3-D alone.

Cinematographer Roger Deakins has made sure this is the most remarkable animated 3-D movie to appear. It will definitely become a ‘classic’ in the history of modern 3-D films.

“How To Train Your Dragon” is rated “PG” for language, sequences of action, and some scary images. It is easily one of the best animated 3-D movies I have seen to date and of course receives my highest rating of “5-J’s/See it now!”