I don’t want to say, “the bloom is off the rose.” I mean, that’s not really true — How to Train Your Dragon 2 is a gorgeous and sometimes very entertaining and uplifting film. But it ain’t the original; not by a long shot. Far as I’m concerned, it’s the difference between Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University, between Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2, between Hoodwinked! and Hoodwinked, Too! Hood v. Evil? -well, let’s not be silly– that one was a yardstick for devolution.
Hiccup (voice of Jay Baruchel) is back with his pal, Toothless the Night Fury (voiced by present day Gregory Peck). Hiccup now dresses in black leather with a red skull, which suggests badass, but the being voiced by Jay Baruchel undermines the desired effect so much so it’s almost certainly part if the plan. This is the part of Dragon 2 that works – having shown depths of strength and integrity in the first film, the burgeoning adult is on the verge of being tribe leader, but at this point he can no more escape his youth than his peg-leggedness. I love that part of the this tale, the Hiccup and Toothless are both damaged, both missing body parts, but neither they nor their community accepts that as a handicap.
Part of the burden exposed by being so successful in the first iteration of the tale is that Hiccup’s rebelliousness now has teeth. Twice? Thrice? More often? in the first 20 minutes, the lad defies direct orders to solve a problem. In a way, it’s no different from what he did last movie, but now we accept that he’s older, more resolutely defiant instead of “nobody notices me anyway” defiant and he’s setting an example rather than working an exception. And, pal, if you’re gonna dress like a punk biker, you have to start channeling devil-may-care motivations; this “serving the greater good of the tribe” crap ain’t gonna fly.
Speaking of fly, Hiccup’s long-lost mom (Cate Blanchett) appears above the clouds as some sort of dragon whisperer. Totally ran up the animation budget to film that, I’m sure. Turns out, she wasn’t lost at all. And s
he was just a few islands over. Huh. This feels like a cheat, cuz, you know, geez, mom, like, where have you been for 20 years? I also expected a much larger woman based on a clue from the original. What’s up with that? And then Hiccup immediately wants a relationship and so does dad (Gerard Butler). I wasn’t sold on the ease of transition. And then we get cheated of familial conflict because evil happens in the form of standard cartoon villain Drago (Djimon Hounsou). I know it’s important for the sake of children that a bad guy looks like a bad guy, but the themes of this film about becoming an adult and the recklessness of naïve youth don’t jive with, “hey, that’s a bad guy.”
Don’t get me wrong; I am fond of How to Train Your Dragon 2. I’m just not “gotta rewatch” fond. Much like Monsters U., it was, for the most part, cute and watchable. Also slightly shocking. Don’t make me give away the plot. And like Monsters U., Dragon 2 can be seen once, enjoyed and left alone, like this review.
You can make plots slier than the fox
You can build relationships sturdier than rocks
But when you revisit a dragon
Expect quality to be laggin’
You can’t invent charm once it’s out of the box
Rated PG, 102 Minutes
D: Dean DeBlois
W: Dean DeBlois
Genre: The selling of cute masking serious
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: My daughter
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Vulnerable children
