303. How to Train Your Dragon
(✩✩✩✩) - Live TV
- A viking village called Berk has been attacked by fearsome dragons for generations and the people have always fought back. Their entire culture has been built around killing these monsters as trophies. Then one day after an attack, a cowardly boy finds an injured dragon and instead of killing it, he ends up taming it through understanding rather than bringing it down through brute force. I found this to be an insightful morality tale with substance and fun characters. It's good for all ages. And for a kids movie it takes you places you don't expect.
After the movie was done, I saw the first two episodes of Dragons: Riders of Berk
. It picks up with the same characters and much of the all-star voice cast. Given that it's a series, the animation isn't as sharp, but it's good. Story-wise, I look forward to seeing how it goes since it promises to expand on the world and mythology. It's like The Matrix
though, in that the story has already been told, so there doesn't appear to be too much else they can do beyond just showing us more stuff with dragons.
(✩✩✩✩) - Theatre
- The trailer made it seem like this was a movie full of humorous absurdity. That was a good hook because the event surrounding the plane got people into seats. What we got instead was a story about something else. It was a solid and occasionally humorous drama that dealt with a man and his personal troubles.
The ending was heartfelt, but...
I also had one gripe… Looked like the plane didn't skid far enough after it hit the ground.
Live TV: 120
Recorded TV: 5
On Demand: 43