How to Train Your Dragon 2

Movie Title--  How to Train Your Dragon 2

Release Year--  2014

Running Time--  1 Hour and 42 Minutes

Director--  Dean DeBlois

Cast--  Jay Baruchel, Cate Blanchett, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T.J. Miller, Kristen Wiig, Djimon Hounsou, Kit Harington

When Hiccup and Toothless come across some trappers that claim a man is coming and will steal all their dragons, the pair soon find themselves at the center of a fight for peace.

Five years after Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) introduces dragon riding to the Viking village of Berk, dragons are now living among the villagers, most of whom keep the dragons as companions.  They have even adopted a new form of entertainment: Dragon Racing.  The original dragon riders, Astrid (America Ferrera), Fishlegs (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), Snotlout (Jonah Hill), Ruffnut (Kristen Wiig) and Tuffnut (T.J. Miller) are the riders in the race with Hiccup being the only one not in attendance.

Instead, Hiccup and his dragon, a Night Fury named Toothless, go on adventures together, mapping out newly discovered lands.  While on such flights, Hiccup tests out his new flight system, allowing him to fly and glide alongside Toothless.  Astrid finds Hiccup after the race, and he tells her that he has come of age, so his father Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler) has decided that he should take over as chieftain of their village.  Hiccup shares with her his fears of being unable to handle the responsibility that will be placed on him.  As they are talking, Hiccup sees a fire in the distance and the two of them go to investigate.

They see that large chucks of ice has torn apart a fort and as they are flying over, Stormfly, Astrid's dragon, gets trapped and shot down.  Toothless catches Astrid and they land on the ship that Stormfly is trapped on to rescue the dragon.  The led trapper Eret (Kit Harington) believes them to be the ones that destroyed the fort and tells the pair that he is taking their dragons and taking them back to Drago Bludvist (Djimon Hounsou) who is building a dragon army.

Hiccup and Astrid are able to get Stormfly free and they fly home to Berk where Hiccup tells his father that Drago Bludvist was coming for their dragons.  Stoick begins to close the village off, telling the occupants that no Viking or dragon is to leave.  Hiccup believes that this is a mistake, so when Stoick tells him that he is to stay within the walls, he instead climbs on the back of Toothless and flees as the gates are closing with Astrid close behind.

Hiccup and Astrid land on Eret's ship and give themselves up, asking to be taken to Drago.  As Hiccup is explaining that he is sure that they can work something out if only he could sit and talk with Drago, more dragon riders arrive.  Stoick lands on the deck, revealing that it is a recovery mission to bring Hiccup and Astrid back to Berk.  Hiccup, still believing that he can talk to Drago about peace, flies off once again.  This time when Astrid begins to follow him, Stoick demands that she take the rest of the riders back to Berk while he and Gobber (Craig Ferguson) go after Hiccup.

Hiccup is attacked by Valka (Cate Blanchett), a mysterious dragon woman and is grabbed off Toothless, sending Toothless sprawling down into the icy ocean below.  Hiccup insists that they return to get Toothless because he can not fly without his assistance but they dragon woman keeps going and a mysterious water creature scoops Toothless up and takes him under the water.

At the same time, Astrid decides that they have waited long enough without Stoick or Hiccup showing up, so she leads the group back to Eret's ship and kidnaps him, forcing him to take her to Drago.  Once they are in Drago's presence he takes them all as prisoners and she realizes that he doesn't have Hiccup or Stoick after all.  Drago's army then sets sail for Berk  and all it's dragons, leaving it up to Hiccup to try to broker a plan of peace.

I thought this film was amazing.  I can not put into words how much I enjoyed it.  It was funny and heartwarming and sad and very enjoyable rolled into a visually stunning package.  The CGI animation is just fantastic in this film.  There were times that it was hard to remember that an animated film was rolling.  If dragons were real, I would imagine that as textured and real they seemed on the screen would be how they actually looked.

The story was just great.  It holds the viewers attention all the way through.  The story is constantly developing to keep the viewer engaged.  The characters are so likable and very easy to cheer and feel for as they are overcoming the problems set before them in order to succeed.  I will also say that Craig Ferguson's character Gobber has a great speech in this film, it really isn't to be missed.

This film may be a little scary for very small children, so beware if you decide to watch with young kids up to about 4 or 5 but for anyone older than that, this really is a great watch.  This film was released on DVD this week, so gather the family for this action packed animation and Don't Forget the Popcorn!