Movie Notes: Ernest Saves Christmas

Ernest Saves Christmas (1988)
Director: John R. Cherry III

I watched this as a kid.  I didn't remember it, though I do remember that I loved all of the Ernest movies as a kid.  I'm not sure why.  Somehow, I found Ernest funny.  He is somewhat funny, but he's best in small doses as his humor is not very broad.

That's the beauty of this movie.  Ernest is a supporting character, and that's using him to his best effect.  That's probably the best part of the movie.

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.