Film Review: How To Train Your Dragon

Dreamworks. The company that has always had to compete with PIXAR. Most of the time, these guys get a bad cred. You can blame that on duds like Spirit, Shrek The Third and Madagascar 2. But with films like Shrek 1 & 2, Over The Hedge and Kung Fu Panda, these guys show they can do great cinema. They just need to get talented people to work on their films. This one has Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois in the director's chair. These guys worked on the classic Lilo & Stitch. So is it any wonder this is the best dreamWorks adventure yet?

Hiccup (Jay Bruchel) is a small viking on the island of Berk. While his friends are always battling dragons, he's working with Gobber (Craig Ferguson) as a blacksmith. However, he catches the rarest of all dragons: a Night Fury. But when he see's it for the first time, he just CAN'T kill the little critter he dubs Toothless. And thus, a classic film friendship is born.

Let's face it. This story has been told time after time again. But...this one just seems fresher, perhaps because this is the first pet that, y'know, kills people! Toothless, however, comes off more cute than ferocious. In fact, he has some of the best expressions that I've seen in animation in a LOOOOOOOOOONG time. He and Hiccup do make good buddies.



The voices in the film are really well, Jonah Hill and Craig Ferguson being stnad-outs. Gerard Butler also does well as Hiccup's father. Jay is alright as Hiccup, much better than I thought he would be thanks to those pesky TV commercials. Toothless, thank goodness, has no voice actor. That's probably for the best as he does perfectly fine here silent.

The animation also does well here. The background are beautiful and the dragons look really good too. This film just gets everything right, fromt pacing to action to animation. A highly reccomended ride in 3D or 2D!!



Rating: 9.0 out of 10 or A

SYS

Simpson Review: Pranks and Greens

Pranks and Greens was about Bart finding out that he wasn't the best prankster ever. As funnily put by Skinner, he may be the best of his era, but not of all-time. The prankster turned out to be none other than...Andy Hamilton (Jonah Hill). It turns out Bart thinks Andy needs a life, so he helps Andy get a job with Krusty.

Jonah Hill is a good comedian and he does well here (Seth Rogen, his somewhat partner guest starred in this seasons premiere, just as a note). I also felt that a lot of good gags were in here like the exploding pen, Andy's hair, Swim Teacher Willie, the names of the pranks and by far the best joke of the season Krusty's things he couldn't do. Among them were: "I won't see screenplays, I won't give a rising star his first break, won't give an old hack his last break...".

There was also a B plot in this episode. Marge decided to get more healthy so she went shopping at a local health food market. I like the whole health food rotting in seconds gag and the Lard Glug drink. However, it must be admitted that everything else was filler, tohugh funny filler.

This was nice episode, another classic for this nearly 20 year old show. After last weeks dud I was worried. But now, I see they are back on track. Good job you guys! Really liked this one!!

Overall: A- or 8.7 out of 10

Pranks and Greens Tonight!

A new Simpsons will air tonight called Pranks and Greens. It airs at 7:00 on FOX. I'll have a review up tomorrow for it.

In this one, Bart learns of the best prankster in Springfield: Andy Hamilton (Jonah Hill). Soon, Andy needs Bart's help to get a job and Bart realizes what it truly means to be a hooligan.

Sounds like a good time. I hope to see good ratings for it as well.

SYS