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by Sandra Olmsted

It’s four years later, and dragons have become an integral part of the Berk, Hiccup (voice of Jay Baruchel) and Toothless’s hometown. While the other graduates of Berk Dragon Training Academy play a sport heavily influenced by J.K. Rowlings’ Quidditch, but with nervous sheep as the balls, Hiccup prefers to range the skies and map his world. Unfortunately, Hiccup’s father and head of the village, Stoick (voice of Gerard Butler), need Hiccup to learn to be a leader, so he can take over someday.

However, Hiccup does show some signs of growing up; he has a girlfriend, Astrid (voice of America Ferrera), who likes to fly with him as he scouts the world around Berk. On one of their sorties, pirates, lead by the mercenary Eret (voice of Kit Harington), capture Hiccup, Toothless, Astrid and her dragon, Stormfly. Hiccup and Astrid soon learn the pirates round up stray dragons for Drago Bludvist (voice of Djimon Hounsou) and his dragon army. Although the pirates do the bidding of Drago, they also fear, Valka (voice of Cate Blanchett), who also rides dragons and has the an affinity for communicating with them, just as Hiccup does.

Fortunately, Hiccup, Toothless, Astrid, and Stormfly escape from Eret and the pirates, but Stoick won’t listen to Hiccup’s warning, until Hiccup mentions Drago; then, Stoick battens down the hatches of Berk and prepares for invasion. Insisting that Drago can be reasoned with, despite his father warning that he can’t be, Hiccup and Toothless take off on their own to find Drago and convince him that being nice to dragons is better. Instead, Hiccup and Toothless meet the mysterious Valka in a sequence that’s exciting and threatening. When Hiccup and Valka get to know each other, a number of interesting revelations come to light.

Director Dean DeBlois, who co-directed the first film with Chris Sanders, targets a slightly older audience with How to Train Your Dragon 2 hasmore romance among the returning favorites and more complex and dramatic plot twists, all with in keeping of the characters being four years older, and this might be a smart move.

While the complexity of the plot and themes may be too much for a new crop of younger fans, the existing fans will find that the characters matured with them, similar to how Harry Potter and company did. For example, supporting character Ruffnut’s (voice of Kristen Wiig) romantic rivals Fishlegs (voice of Christopher Mintz-Plasse), and Snoutlout (voice of Jonah Hill) now have to compete with Eret, to whom Ruffnet takes a shine. The thematic developments regarding maturity and accepting responsibility and about divided families and loss of a parent also make the story’s core more dramatic, and perhaps a harder sell for the youngest audiences, except that Frozen contains the similar themes and did well with young children.

Many more 3D effects have been added but used in playful ways that emphasizes the technology simply for the wow-factor. The animation and character design, particularly of the dragons, delight, and even with many more dragons, the animation team has given each one its own personality and look. Adding some scarier dragons to the mix establishes the possibility of another sequel. While the film has the de rigueur environmental theme of most children’s films, How to Train Your Dragon 2 also develops deep love and affection between the dragons and their people. Showing the joys and benefits of loving animals and nature makes for a stronger message than simply hammering home environmentalism.

How to Train Your Dragon 2, a Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation release of a DreamWorks Animation production, is in theaters now. Look for the simultaneously contemporary and nostalgic song in a key scene — it’s Dreamworks’ bid for an original song Oscar. Rated PG for adventure action and some mild rude humor, the film runs a longish, but delightful, 102 minutes.

More of Olmsted’s reviews are available at <www.thecinematicskinny.com>.

Many more 3D effects have been added to How to Train Your Dragon 2, but used in playful ways that emphasizes the technology simply for the wow-factor

More of Sandy Olmsted’s reviews are available at <www.thecinematicskinny.com>.

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