Movie Notes: How to Train Your Dragon

How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
Directors: Chris Sanders, Dean DuBlois

This was a really good non-Pixar animated feature. It's formulaic and conventional in its themes, but the world, the characters, and the visuals are all top notch.

As per normal practice, it's the relationship between the parent and child that is the weakest in the film. It's so incredibly hard to understand that dynamic in the best of times, and to boil it down to a simple misunderstand/ forgive on the part of the parent -- essentially the same theme here as we saw recently in Brave -- seems cheap to me.

Anyway, the movie is formulaic and toothless in theme (get my little joke?). It's also a lot of fun. The dragons are great. The main character is really sympathetic. Toothless is a great movie pet, reminiscent of the Black Stallion. The flying scenes are exhilarating, and both the final confrontation and the conclusion are satisfying.

Movie Notes: Brave

Brave (2012)

Director: Brenda Chapman and Mark Andrews

I never saw Cars 2 because the reviews were so poor, so my high expectations from Pixar have been forever lowered.  Brave surpassed these lowered expectations.  I was prepared to be critical of the film, but ended up wrapped up in the story and simply enjoying myself.  And, that's one of the things I'm looking for when I go to see a movie, so I have to say I liked the movie quite a bit.

That's not to say I liked everything about it.  I think there's wisdom in the old ideas of living to your place in the world.  Part of that involves a healthy degree of respect for one's parents.

I also think the reconciliation between Merida and her mother was more wish-fulfillment than meaningful art.  How many times in your relationships with other people have you had to give up little of what you'd like and receive exactly what you're looking for from them?