Movie Review: How to Train Your Dragon 2

Dreamworks’ second installment in this series, How to Train Your Dragons 2, shows the kids from the first movie older and more mature.  Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel), Astrid (voiced by America Ferrera), and the others are still in the line-up, as are their dragons.  However, this movie is definitely about Hiccup, him discovering his past, and dealing with aspects of growing into an adult.  I felt this more so than I did in the first movie.  Astrid still plays a significant role, but the others less so.

While some of the story line was more mature, overall the movie is still targeted for a younger audience.  To me, some of the plot lines were more sophisticated, but the humor was closer to the first movie.  There were also some motivations that were simplified for younger viewers.  This is not necessarily a bad thing, but perhaps shows a gradual transition for the movie.

Avoiding spoilers, a new villain is introduced who has control of an army of dragons.  It is against this new threat to Berk and their dragons that Hiccup must fight.  Being pretty much as hard-headed as his father, Stoick (voiced by Gerard Butler), Hiccup decides he has to solve the problem on his own.  This decision precipitates a series of events where Hiccup discovers a number of secrets from his past as well as develops a better understanding of dragons.

One item that I had trouble with was what appeared to be a slight change in the rules of how dragons work from the first movie.  It is not a huge change and it could even be argued that things worked that way in the first movie, but was simply not explained that way.  It was not a huge issue, but it did feel to me like a slight change in the lore.

Overall, I would give it a smidge less than 4 out of 5 stars.  If you have kids, they will like it and I will end up buying the Blu-ray.