BEETLE LEARNS HOW TO TRAIN A DRAGON IN 3-D!!!

2010 is really shaping up to be a grand improvement over 2009. So far we've had great films like The Lovely Bones, Hot Tub Time Machine, and now How To Train Your Dragon in 3-D.

The Story is sweetly simple as it follows the adventures of a teenage viking, Hiccup, who dreams of proving himself to the lovely Astrid, a hot teen viking girl, and his father, the viking hero and head of the village. One night during a dragon attack Hiccup escapes from his job as assistant blacksmith and tries out an invention he created, successfully bringing down the most elusive and deadly dragon in existance...the Nightfury aka Nightmare. However, when he comes face to face with his prize, he finds himself unable to kill it, and so nurses it back to health and in the process learns what it means to be a true hero.

Dragons has earned my immense respect by breaking free from most of the stereotypes and cliches of animated films. There are truly scary shit your pants moments, the characters actually have story arcs and succeed in getting the audience to care for them, and the film even puts its characters in dangerous situations and has decidedly different events happen to them that most animated films would not do. Take the sequence when Hiccup and Toothless(his Nightfury that he rescued) kidnap Astrid and drop her off on the top branch of a tree, where she dangles and almost falls to her death. Most animated films would never dream of having the hot heroine and love interest dropped into such a precarious situation, by the main characters no less, but Dragons 3-D pulls this off brilliantly. The story itself also manages to have a satisfying outcome and unusual ending for Hiccup.

The characters themselves are even dealt with in a beautiful way. Astrids introduction with the fire filling the screen behind her, while typical for your average teen heroine, in 3-D left me with my jaw open. Each character is given a reason for acting the way they do and a motivation to every action they perform. It would also be a shame if I didn't give props to the fantastic voice acting done by Jay Baruchel as Hiccup, Gerard Butler as Stoick (Hiccups Dad), America Ferrera as the lovely Astrid, and Chris Ferguson as Gobber (Hiccups mentor of sorts).

And I can't forget to mention the dragons. They are animated in such a way that they are indeed quite scary to behold, while at the same time keeping that Chris Sanders touch to them. They do not act like people, but like wild, unpredictable animals which is yet another triumph of the film. The main dragon, Toothless, is animated in such a way that you can actually imagine what it would feel like if you reached out and touched it.

Yet another thing that puts Dragons 3-D a step above the rest of your typical animated fare is its spectacular use of 3-D, the best examples of this are during the breathtaking flying sequences with Astrid, Hiccup, and Toothless. We, the audience, are given the rare chance to fly alongside the heroes, swooping, diving, climbing, and spinning with them. The main characters during these sequences are shown as small minitures against a large background of amazing color. I swear I could feel the wind in my hair during these amazing moments and was constantly tempted to raise my hands in the air and let loose a mighty victory whoop for I was finally flying. It really feels like you are flying with them, the film giving way to an amzing roller-coaster ride of speed and thrills. It's, simply put, amazing.

But the flying sequences aren't the only thing done well in 3-D, every inch of atmosphere is brought to life and the 3-D helps to bring us into the open spaces and even the private moments of these characters. At times it almost feels like we are intruding on an intimate moment that we should not be seeing, it's pretty cool.

While it did take me half of the film to truely gt invested in the characters and plot of the film, by the time I WAS fully invested there was no turning back. In fact, there was a time where I took off my 3-D goggles to clean my glasses and I realized that the film just didn't feel right in 2-D, so I quickly placed the goggles back over my eyes.

Now, here's the part where i feel obligated to address an issue that keeps coming up with Dragons 3-D. There are some who say that Dragons is much better than Avatar. Personally, I believe that Avatar ws really lacking in a good story and character development, and while its true that the SFX were years ahead of its time, I still think that becuae Dragons has a solid story and strong character development, mixed in with amazing 3-D effects and some truely breathtaking flying sequences that do make it a SMIDGEN better than Avatar.

I believe that this film is the best Dreamworks film to come out in a while. Gone are the days when Dreamworks made hip, pop-culture referencing films...Hopefully Dragons is the first step in what could be a new era for Dreamworks.

While it does take a while to fully get into the films fantastic world of vikings and dragons, the final product is definently worth the wait if you see this beauty through till the end. With Fantastic 3-D, a well-rounded story, loveable REAl characters, believable animals, a main character that is actually turns into a legit. hero, and a great message about growing up and finding yourself Dragons 3-D is a film that noone should miss. Once again, I must say DO NOT WALK, RUN TO THIS FILM.

5/5 Stars BETTER THAN SEX