How to Train Your Dragon (2010) review

Be wary of your enemies - they may just be misunderstood friends. Skinny outcast Hiccup is incompetent when it comes to fighting the dragons that terrorize his village (and women) - much to the dismay of his powerful father - but when he befriends an aerodynamically challenged cat-bat-dragon (that he nicknames Toothless) he learns that dragons are seriously misunderstood. The voice-over work is outstanding (particularly by Jay Baruchel and Craig Ferguson) and the core relationship between the boy and his 'pet' is so incredibly endearing I was able to overlook the fact that the animators at Dreamworks still go overboard with the characters' facial expressions (though they are clearly learning from Pixar about storytelling). Echoes of Pokémon are hidden in there; I choose you, Mewtwo!