I am going to start my review of ‘How to Train Your Dragon 2’ this way: it is my favourite animated film since 2012’s ‘Wreck-It Ralph’. While that may not be a popular opinion with others, especially with the love that 2013’s ‘Frozen’ gets, but that is just the level of impact that ‘Dragon 2’ had on myself and my family yesterday.
I firmly believe that this is the rare sequel that is a large step above the original, and that is truly saying something as the original was a great film four years ago as well. ‘How to Train Your Dragon 2’ hits on all the notes: laughs, action, great animation, and even manages to tug at the heart strings on multiple occasions, all to the great effect of providing amazing change of pace in a 102 minute film.
‘How to Train Your Dragon 2’ also features just enough character growth to make the story an actual success, instead of just forcing the audience to accept the changes that were happening. With this, it certainly allows the aforementioned heart strings to certainly be tugged in a manner that was quite a shock to myself.
As for the story itself, ‘How to Train Your Dragon 2’ does a wonderful job of continuing the story from the first film, and is actually quite a natural progression, despite a five year gap in setting from the first film to the sequel. Further exploring family, along with loss, the film plays to strengths you would not have expected.
At the end of the day, I truly feel that ‘How to Train Your Dragon 2’ tells the best story so far at the theatre in 2014, and is my favourite non superhero film of the year to date.
As always, for all this and more, feel free to follow me on Twitter at @kymayer. Cheers.
Mayer on Movies 