Culture

Rating: B+

How to Train Your Dragon 2 is like one of those shape-sorter toys. It’s not complex, and every emotion fits into perfectly shaped slots. The square block fits in when the young hero acts plucky. A heart-shaped block whenever the pet dragon is adorable. A teardrop block when the inevitable sad thing happens. It’s a good film, but not revolutionary.

The story picks up five years after How to Train your Dragon left off. The Vikings and Dragons are now best friends. They play Quidditch with sheep, fly about having adventures, and it seems like fun. When this cheerful way of life is threatened, our hero, Hiccup, must muster his courage and his dragons, etc. You know the drill.

I’m not going to say the animation is visually stunning, because that would be inane and lazy, but the shapes on screen are sufficiently shiny. The story may be a stock sequel, but the voice work and script is surprisingly engaging. Craig Ferguson and Kirsten Wiig’s characters are especially lively.

Dragons are undoubtedly the best thing about How to Train your Dragon 2. The film is a constant rainbow parade of winged reptiles. Dragons are captivating creatures in any story and the filmmakers know it: all dragons, all the time! Toothless and Hiccup’s friendship got the tear ducts working, and Toothless has managed to worm his way onto the list of “Ella’s Fave Drakes” through his open shows of affection. In fact, I was a little jealous. During the break, all the love I got from the family cat, Jervis, was a half-hearted nuzzle when she wanted to be fed.

How to Train your Dragon 2 was emotionally engaging and genuinely entertaining. As sequels tend to, it lacked some of the lustre of the original. A solid effort from DreamWorks, worthy of a Friday night date with your duvet, but maybe not a trip to the cinema.