How to Train Your Dragon

Hiccup reveals his desires in life neatly in the opening minutes. As a teenager, he wants to be his own man but still lives and longs for his father’s approval. He’s a nerd, and rather than wield an ungainly axe or hammer, he aspires to use his mind to invent new ways to do things, i.e. hunt pesky dragons. And, of course, he wants the girl, but he’s a nerd and doesn’t think he has a shot.

It’s not that How To Train Your Dragon is all that original, it’s just SO WELL DONE. In the first five minutes of the movie, filmmakers successfully create a fully relatable character. From then on, Hiccup's voice and desire drives the plot, and we completely understand how he and Toothless, the bad-ass misunderstood dragon, could secure such a deep bond. The jury’s still out on the 3-D trend, but in this case it’s a MUST SEE in 3-D. Filmmakers deliberately use 3-D to showcase the depth and danger of Hiccup’s hostile home, and it’s a delight to see him and Toothless dart through the jagged rocks and islands and shoot up into the sky.

To put it another way, it’s not like they reinvented the wheel, they just made one REALLY good wheel.