How To Train Your Dragon

We're in a Golden Age of animated motion pictures. When I was a kid growing up in the 1980s you got one, maybe two films from Disney in a calendar year, plus the odd independent movie like Watership Down or The Secret of NIMH, or some arty foreign language thing with bad dubbing, but that was about your lot. Since the Disney renaissance began in 1989 with The Little Mermaid the strength and popularity of the animated feature has grown exponentially, to the point where every major studio has its own animation department, well over a dozen full length feature animations are released each year, and companies like Pixar break box office records with apparent ease. The competition is fierce, but the Dreamworks studio seems to have managed the right blend of hip comedy and family-friendly action, spinning off from their massively successful Shrek series with hits such as Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar, and their 20th and most recent feature, How to Train Your Dragon.

Based on a...Read more

I mean, sheesh, really?

I'm a youngun (18) and I've always had a bit of a thing for instrumentals, soundtracks, what have you- this is probably the first movie of my life I walked out of thinking, I MUST HAVE THAT SOUNDTRACK.

Seriously, this is strong stuff. Emotional roller-coaster stuff. It's like coffee, actually- I've found myself PUMPED after every listening.

The opening, "This Is Berk" is a rip-roaring rollicking "overture" of sorts that makes you wanna leap out of bed, grab your horns and a bucket of water, and go fight some dragons.

All in all, it's great listening if you're draggin' a little. (Ha, draggin'... )

Other great tracks include "Forbidden Friendship" which of course makes you picture some of the most endearing scenes of the movie, while rousing you with the soul-twisting strings at the finale. "See You Tomorrow", a personal favorite, is a melodramatic little jig between heroic theatrics and...Read more

DreamWorks couldn't have found a better composer for this film when they brouht John Powell on board. Already with scores for Shrek and Horton Hears a Who under his belt, Powell does a terrific job with this 25-track album.

Most of the score contains classic orchestration; largely strings with plenty of woodwinds. The songs are generally upbeat, and the soundtrack grows thunderous as the film progresses. While the movie takes place in the mythical island of Berk, songs like "New Tail" and "This is Berk" have a pleasant Celtic twist to them.

The more offbeat instrumentation in the album includes the East Indian sitar in "Dragon Book", and the xylophone in "Forbidden Friendship." A few inclusions in the album also incorporate an intense chorus, such as the Danny Elfman vibed "Wounded". Speaking of other composers, I also enjoyed "Romantic Flight", a hopeful and inspiring song that is almost a throwback to the older work of James Horner.

The...Read more