Word: cgi
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...special effects - the encounters with the scorpions and Medusa and the Kraken - are fitting rather than astounding; they're smartly choreographed and shot by Leterrier's constantly prowling, soaring camera work, but aren't candidates for the CGI Monsters' Hall of Fame. In fact, when the Kraken shows up at the climax to claim Andromeda (Alexa Davalos), the creature looks less like Harryhausen's majestic creature from the Greek lagoon and more like Gamera, the killer turtle in a dozen Japanese B movies. There's also an odd, kinky kick to the sight of Andromeda strung up on a seaside...
Toothless is but one of many creatively crafted dragons in the film. Unlike the CGI-based cinematography, which often calls to mind the epic sweep of Peter Jackson with glorious pans across its digitized landscapes, the film’s dragons are awkward and strange. With outsized heads and teeth that jut out at uncomfortable angles, these are not the majestic and mysterious beasts of so many other films-—they are odd and misshapen, just like people. The movie’s message of empathy is thus underscored by its imagery...
...CGI bombast, though, what carries “How to Train Your Dragon” is the dialogue written for its characters and handed off to a superb cast. Baruchel plays the self-deprecating misfit Hiccup as though he’s talking to the audience, and not the characters on the screen. In this way, he pulls the viewer into his confidence, and both find themselves the only sane people in a village of blood-crazed Vikings...
...Dragon” takes a classic and clichéd Hollywood storyline and makes it memorable. This is most evident in the wondrous scenes in which Toothless, Hiccup, and Astrid soar through the sunset to the beautiful Celtic-inspired score of John Powell. Viewers may recall a very similar CGI experience in “Avatar,” in which flying beasts streak the sky in symbiotic unity with their mounted protagonists. The difference in “How to Train Your Dragon” is that the audience actually cares about the characters and not just the images...
Unlike Pixar, its chief rival in CGI animation, DreamWorks usually casts big names to supply the voices for its lead roles and promotes the stars as if they were to be seen, not just heard, on screen; that's one key to its movies' financial success. No question that the names of Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Seth Rogen and Jackie Chan helped 2008's Kung Fu Panda reach its $60.2 million opening weekend, or that Reese Witherspoon, Rogen, Paul Rudd, Hugh Laurie and Stephen Colbert lent heft to last spring's Monsters vs Aliens ($59.3 million). Dragon...