Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on August 2010

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This latest effort by Dreamworks Animation, which gave us Shrek but since then mostly a lot of kids’ stuff, is about a boy named Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel), the slightly nerdy son of the chief of a medieval, vaguely Viking village (where people of course speak English with Scottish accents). His village devotes most of its time to defending itself against a variety of nasty (but kid-friendly) dragons, all of whom are assumed to be mindless, voracious marauders. But purely by chance, Hiccup traps one of the most ferocious dragons, gradually befriends it, and learns that the village has been wrong all along about the beasts’ nature and motivations. No one listens to him, so it’s up to Hiccup and his reptilian pal to deal with an even worse menace. It’s formulaic, yes, but so emotionally rich, great-looking, story-based and just plain satisfying that you don’t care. This one soars. The film is high on family values, but don’t let that put you off, as it eases its message of tolerance in between several brilliant action scenes and some surprisingly sophisticated humor. Other voices by Gerard Butler, America Ferrera and Craig Ferguson. Note: all local screenings dubbed in Japanese.