How to Train Your Dragon was one of the most heartfelt animated movies released by a studio, other than Pixar, in years. Despite this, creating a sequel always seems to bring problems to the table. Fortunately, when you take the same director/writer Dean DeBlois and give him the helm for the sequel, magic truly can occur. How to Train Your Dragon 2 has more heart and passion than the first one, and creates a world unlike anything ever imagined by this world of Vikings and dragons. Surely it borrows some concepts and ideas from other movies, but the hints from Avatar and Toy Story 3 (in terms of shock and awe value) are undeniable. After all, this entire franchise is built on the concept of acceptance and change. How to Train Your Dragon 2 is absolutely marvelous and one of the best animated movies this year.

The story moves itself from focusing on Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) and Toothless, to a story that focuses on Hiccup’s family and friends. This occurs when Hiccup and Astrid (America Ferrera) discover that they are not the only dragon riders in their neck of the woods. Hiccup and Astrid discover that there are evil men upon them, who are the dragon capturers lead by Eret son of Eret (Kit Harington) who is the right hand lackey to Drago Bludvist (Djimon Hounsou) who believes he is the only one to control the dragons. Drago is a twisted individual who wants nothing more than utter destruction, at any cost. Stoick even describes Drago as a soulless killing monster who kills without reason, and a man like that cannot be reasoned with. Will Drago be able to defeat Hiccup and his conquest to enslave all dragons and become leader of the free world or will Hiccup, against all odds, be able to overcome the obstacles and take down Drago? How to Train Your Dragon 2 certainly throws the obstacles left, right and centre as it takes the audience on an emotional rollercoaster.

The problem with most children’s films now is one of two things; first there is either too much going on that only children enjoy it and the parents are completely annoyed that there is no constant story, or secondly there is not enough going on and the children get restless and bored. Contrary to these typical problems, How to Train Your Dragon 2 falls in the very small space of brilliance that takes a large enough story to expand over a near two hour run time and flies with it in a way that creates a singular coherent story and amazes audience with things we have longed for in animated films. How to Train Your Dragon 2 is what a proper animated movie should be. It is the epicentre of fun, heart, and passion with enough emotion and character stability to have children loving it and their parents wanting to watch with them.

How to Train Your Dragon 2 is as fun and heartfelt as Toy Story 3, The Lego Movie, and Frozen. Grab your children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces and go see this movie.

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