One day I was flipping through the channels and came across a cartoon. I stopped to watch, because the title just *had* to be a play on the title of a famous series of fantasy stories: The Dragon Riders of Pern.

The cartoon series was called, "Dragon: Riders of Berk" (its sequel series is "Dragon: Defenders of Berk".

I found the cartoon very entertaining and engaging. It was later that I learned that it was based on the movie "How to Train Your Dragon".
This movie's been on tv a lot lately, because the sequel is out, "How to Train You Dragon 2". I haven't seen it yet, but I want to.

First, a disclaimer. I like dragons. I know, we're not supposed to, but I do. It goes back to my days playing Everquest with my gnome wizard...

Aldrin (my wizard), hated giants. All giants in Everquest are bullies, and he hated bullies. He would travel to Kael Drakkel at every opportunity to kill frost giants (and Everquest in those days was not WoW; you did NOT fight things alone unless you were very good or wanted to spend your time retrieving your corpse...)

The dragons of Skyshrine were hostile to the frost giants. Eventually, Aldrin had slaughtered so many frost giants, he couldn't walk through the city of Skyshrine without dragons stopping him for photos, pulling him onto their laps, inviting him to lunch, or just patting his head; he was right popular with dragons.
So, as I said, I've developed an affinity for dragons.

The story of "How to Train Your Dragon" is about a misfit viking boy named, "Hiccup", living on the island of Berk, where the climate is terrible, the people are worse, and there is a constant war with dragons. Of which there is a huge variety.

He's a bit of a misfit, because he's a tinker and inventor and doesn't really fit the viking profile of "kill first, then why bother with questions?"

I won't spoil the story any more than that.

The movie has fairly well-developed, if stereotypical, characters. They're all idiosyncratic, even the ones you, at first, dislike. Even the ones you dislike at second.

There's much PC in the story; tolerance, understanding, blah blah blah. And of course, the girl love-interest who's more of a man than the protagonist. Gotta have that.

But, the story development and the richness of the characters, in particular they're interactions, held my interest through the movie, even the predictable parts.

Hiccup's relationship with his father, with Astrid, with Toothless, all were ultimately deeper than they seemed, all had amusing, touching and intriguing aspects to them. I admit to feeling a glisten in my eyes from time to time, especially with Hiccup trying to deal with his father, but it was matched by the times I laughed, and way outmatched by the times the movie made me smile. Especially Toothless.

The movie seemed a bit rushed, but then, there's the tv series to make up for that.

The ending was a bit shocking, but it rocked.

I highly recommend this movie for people to watch, especially families to watch together, especially on Father's Day.

Now I'm going to go back and watch the end again...


The sequel looks wicked...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7p5CqT...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5_3Eut2...