8 Things Parents Should Know About How to Train Your Dragon 3D

Image by DreamWorks Animation

What better way to spend the weekend than soaring with dragons and sailing with Vikings? How to Train Your Dragon 3D combines the two for a fantastic adventure about a scrawny Viking’s coming-of-age and his friendship with his village’s mortal enemy: a fearsome dragon he improbably wounds in battle and then nurses back to health.

Will I like it?

The movie has lots of action, witty dialogue and believable characters. The pacing is good, and it’s more than run-of-the-mill dragonslayer fantasy. If you liked Shrek at all, you’ll like How to Train Your Dragon, and you’ll probably have more fun watching it. As far as the fantasy element, the existence of dragons — if it needs any justification — is treated in a naturalistic and nonmagical way, with everything else grounded in the real world as we know it.

Will my kids like it?

What’s not to like? The dragons, threatening as they are, are colorful and fun. The Vikings are humorous and heroic — we may be looking at a Viking renaissance to rival the pirate fancy of the early ’00s. If you’re attending a 3-D screening, be ready for “oohs” and “aahs” and little hands grabbing at the screen for the first few moments.

[This is a guest post by Jayson Peters]

Will we want to see it again?

It’s enough fun that many kids will leave the theater saying they can’t wait for the next time they see the movie. Those who see it in 2-D may want to see the 3-D version.

Isn’t this based on a novel?

How to Train Your Dragon is based on a 2003 children’s novel of the same name by British author Cressida Cowell. There’s a whole series including How to be a Pirate and six other dragon books, plus one written from the dragon’s point of view, How to Train Your Viking.

What’s the geek appeal?

Dragons. And Vikings. And Viking dragon contraptions. Hiccup is the ultimate outcast — a geeky inventor among rowdy Norse strongmen — but he carves out a place for himself and proves his worth to all, eventually. One of his classmates rattles off dragon stats like they’re characters in a trading card game, but instead of being dismissed as a nerd, he earns a vital role in the movie’s climactic battle.

Who’s in it again?

Jay Baruchel is the unlikely hero, a very un-Viking Viking named Hiccup. If your kids aren’t old enough for his recent role in She’s Out of My League, they may know him from Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, in which he played sailor Joey Motorola. Gerard Butler (Phantom of the Opera, 300) is Hiccup’s imposing father, the Viking chieftain Stoick the Vast. Craig Ferguson is Gobber, the affable Viking in charge of teaching dragon fighting to children. America Ferrara (Ugly Betty) is the standout female character, Astrid.

It’s PG, but how PG is it?

There is animated violence and lots — LOTS — of fire and sharp weapons. Limbs are lost and replaced, but without the gory details. There are references to multiple non-Judeo-Christian gods (the Norse were a polytheistic people, and the movie reflects this unapologetically).

When’s the best time for a bathroom break?

At 98 minutes, only the littlest Vikings should have trouble making the voyage uninterrupted. If necessary, there are repetitive sequences of warriors training and an ongoing montage in which Hiccup builds trust with his new dragon friend.

[Jayson Peters is a newspaper designer and copy editor who created the pop culture blog Nerdvana (http://blogs.evtrib.com/nerdvana) for the East Valley Tribune. He also teaches online media at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. He lives in Phoenix with his wife Kim and their two sons, William and Trevor.]