REVIEW: How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014, Dir. Dean DeBlois)

Growing up is a pain in the arse. Everyone around you wants to dump responsibility in your lap. You can't escape it, it just keeps piling up. Unless, of course, you have a pet dragon, in which case you can fly far away from the monotonous, responsibility-laden world. That's what we find our good friends Hiccup and Toothless doing at the start of the imaginative (but not so imaginatively titled) How to Train Your Dragon 2.

Granted, their world is no longer monotonous, not since Hiccup knocked sense into his village in the franchise's first installment. Berk is now awash with dragons. Life is fast paced. Life is peachy. Except for that pesky responsibility malarky. Hiccup's father is preparing to pass over the reins of the village to his boy, though our free-spirited protagonist isn't quite ready to fold his wings and take on that burden. Besides, Hiccup and his father don't see eye to eye when it comes to the best way to protect their home, something they come to loggerheads over when a band of dragon trappers points their nets in Berk's direction. Cue action.

As far as sequels go, How to Train Your Dragon 2 goes bigger with its design and it looks absolutely gorgeous. There is more action this time around. That'll surely keep the young's happy but for me spectacle was never this property's strongest asset; it is the sentimental side that really drives the HTTYD engine (I'm a big softie in that regard). Thankfully, it delivers on the emotional journey, too, pressing the familiar buttons of friendship, devotion and family, the last helped inordinately by the appearance of Cate Blanchett as Hiccup's long-absent mother. She rocks a slight Skåndi lilt, some pretty fierce styling and a kick-arse dragons' nest. Her relationship with her son and with her husband proves tissue worthy by film's end, and all without undercutting her staunch independence. Don't drain yourself entirely though, Hiccup's relationship with Toothless remains one of the film's committed focusses and may be wringing tears from you as well.

On the voice side, the film is as strong as anything being released at the moment. Ring-ins Kit Harington and Djimon Hounsou make for threatening villains, at least at the outset, and the returning cast, which includes many a star who's seen a sharp ascent since the first film, Jonah Hill and Kristen Wiig to name but two, keep it colourful. I'll admit I struggled a little with Jay Baruchel voicing Hiccup this time around, since becoming super familiar with his not so clean-cut work in Goon. I reckon that'd make a great double bill for the kiddies.

All in all, How to Train Your Dragon 2 does what sequels need to do. It feels bigger than the first but doesn't let things get too out of hand. Lessons get learnt, often the hard way, and kids grow up, responsibility and all. Basically, it hits the spot. It may not hit it as hard as the first effort but there won't be many, kids or adults, who will walk out unsatisfied. I certainly didn't.

★★★★

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