DreamWorks decides to try their hand at the recent Disney phenomena of remaking all their animated hits. The premise remains unchanged: A Viking village is under attack from dragons. A boy is hungry to prove his worth. He manages to capture and befriend an injured dragon and realizes they're both misunderstood in their own way, etc. It worked the first time, so it stands to reason it would have the same effect, except less so, because it's no longer novel. Luckily, it manages to be faithful enough that it doesn't piss anyone off.
There are a number of reasons why this turned out so well. Dean DeBlois (director of the originals) adapts his own material, Gerard Butler inhabits the same role (and looks perfect doing so) and Toothless's CGI design remains essentially unchanged. Not to mention, we still have the same powerful musical score from John Powell which gives it all its heart. The whole thing feels very recursive (what's next, an animated version of the live-action remake?) and pointless if you've already seen the original since it doesn't offer much else except another bite of the apple, with a bit of added fluff.
It mostly works because, well, who doesn't dream of having their own dragon?
3 prosthetic fins out of 5
7 comments:
Dibs on Falkor.
I've been meaning to nut the rest of those movies since last year, but my never-ending story seems to be losing track of time and forgetting everything.
As soon as I'd finished typing the name, I wanted to watch the movie. >_<
There was a documentary about the cast a while back, part of the 'Life After' series. I've not seen it, but it looks enjoyable.
I got to see it in theaters last year as part of its (*sigh*) 40th anniversary. It's either a 4 or 5 Happy Flights for me, depending on how far I lean into the nostalgia.
I also rewatched the other two films last year and jotted down some notes at the time. I'll try to forge those into half-assed nuts, since now is as good a time as any.
I started a post on the three of them a few years back but never finished it because by the time I found a stream of the third film, I'd forgotten what I wanted to say about the second one. My memory is rubbish. I've the first one on Blu, so will pop that in tonight. An easy choice. And I have snacks.
With regards being OT, I've not watched any of the HtTYD movies.
I have so many notes from as-of-yet unnutted movies, but it's hard to get myself into the right "headspace" unless I crank them out right away. But time always gets away from me and I end up moving onto the next thing. Interactions like this help keep me accountable by focusing on getting it done. :bearclap:
Sometimes when I grapple with whether one of my nuts is "up to snuff," I'll go back to the earliest posts which were only about a sentence or two, and then realize not to sweat the small stuff. Sometimes even an initial impression is enough to get the point across. But I suppose no two nuts are alike (my urologist assures me that's normal).
I'm the same. I've two shoe boxes literally full of pocket-sized notebooks with stuff that I haven't got around to writing about. :shame: I've accepted that I probably never will unless I re-watch or re-read the items in question, to get the refresher, so every now and again I dip into it, grab a notebook and go to a random page. If it's a movie that I still own, I watch it that night and do my best to get something written. It takes away the 'What will I watch tonight?' phase, which is a good thing. It's a lucky dip...
Coincidently, I found my Neverending Story pages. I'll continue this on the relevant post...
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