Hello :-)
It is a truth, not universally acknowledged, that Children’s
films aren’t easy things to get right. The perception is that you can churn out
any old crap, slap a anthropomorphic critter on it and the kids’ll lap it up,
but this isn't (and never has been) the case.
Whilst it may appear that a children’s film is popular at
the box office, the proof of the pudding is re-watch value. This is something
the original ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ has in spades. With the success of the
original, DreamWorks have ordered a sequel in the form of ‘How To Train Your
Dragon 2’ (HTTYD2).
Five years have passed since the events of the first film,
Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) is now 20 years old and wrestling with the pressure put
on him by his Father Stoick (Gerard Butler) to take over as Chief of Berk. On
top of that Hiccup and his dragon Toothless find themselves faced with Dragon
trapper Eret Son of Eret (Kit Harrington), the terrifying Drago Bludvist
(Djimon Hounsou) hell bent on creating his own Dragon Army and the enigmatic,
mysterious Valka (Cate Blanchett).
It’s been four years since Hiccup and Toothless first graced
our screens and in a world where film sequels get churned out in less time than
it takes for a new series of Sherlock to make an appearance, a four year gap is
a nice thing.
It’s also proof that if your characters are good enough, on
their return, it’s going to feel like they haven’t been away. It’s true that
Hiccup has ‘Longbottomed’ but
the central relationship and fully realised personalities of the characters
make HTTYD2 comfortingly familiar.
The brilliant thing about HTTYD2 is that it has grown with
it’s audience but still has enough to satisfy new viewers. There are still things
to laugh at (the sheep basketball in particular) but overall the themes are
more mature, the film tackles bigger issues like identity and duty to your
family, the stakes are higher and the action scenes are bigger. However none of
this has been done for the sake of it. The wonderful thing about the HTTYD
series is it feels like the creative tem have a genuine affection for the
story, characters and aren't doing things just because it’s a
sequel and they have a bigger budget.
The voice cast is strong. I'm not overly keen on
him in other things but I really like Gerard Butler as Stoick the Vast.
Cate Blanchett as Valka is just the right level of affectionate whilst
maintaining an air of mystique. Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse .J. Miller
and Kristen Wiig as Snotlout, Fishlegs Tuffnut and Ruffnut bring the funnies as
Hiccup’s Dragon rider friends. Sadly America Ferrera as
Astrid doesn't have a great deal to do but the interplay
with her and Hiccup is lovely to behold and a depiction of a healthy relationship
between equal partners is never something to be sniffed at.
Anchoring the story is Jay Baruchel’s Hiccup. He is such a
brilliant lead, especially for children. He favours diplomacy over violence, he
has a disability but doesn't let it hold him back (also, points
to the inhabitants of Berk because no one treats him differently because of it)
and he has an unwavering faith in his best friend.
Toothless is another fully rounded character, despite the
fact he can’t talk. I just love his character design, he’s gorgeous.
You will be unsurprised to hear that the utterly beautiful
visuals are, in part, down to the inimitable Roger Deakins, who serves here as
Visual Consultant. In short, it’s god damn stunning. Slightly off topic for a
moment but WTF Academy?!?! 11 nominations and the man hasn’t won one Oscar.
SORT. IT.OUT.
Combining familiarity with the new, action with more
emotional moments and maintaining the likeability of it’s characters,
HTTYD2 succeeds where countless children’s films (let alone sequels
to children’s films) have failed. Knockout visuals, effective emotional
punches and inherent charm puts HTTYD2 up there with ‘The
Lego Movie’ as one of the best children’s films of the year. I can’t
wait for the third instalment.
Right, let’s have a look at some...
Reasons to be Cheerful :-)
1. Sherlock
is returning with a one off special and a new series! Four whole
episodes… good lord BBC you are spoiling us. Don’t get too excited
though, Martin
Freeman let slip that the special was due to air at Christmas 2015
(presumably the series proper will air in 2016) so we’ve got a whole 18 months
to wait. Oh well, my box sets will sustain me till then!
2. Speaking of Benedict Cumberbatch, the
new teaser trailer for the Alan Turing biopic ‘The Imitation Game’ is out and
it looks bloody good. Turing is a fascinating man who was hideously mistreated
at the hands of the law. It seems as if the film is going to delve into his
homosexuality conviction and some other key periods of his life so I'm really
interested to see if they do justice to the memory of this brilliant man. If
you're interested on reading up on Turing before the film comes
out you should definitely read 'Alan Turing: The Enigma' by Andrew
Hodges, it's really good.
3. And finally my crush on Chris Pratt has reached new
heights when I discovered he can do French plaits…
That’s all for today!
Goodbye till next time :-)
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
No comments:
Post a Comment