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420. How to Train Your Dragon – Ani-May 2025 (#198)

Posted on May 25, 2025 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, this week with special guests Deirdre Molumby and Graham Day, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every second Saturday at 6pm GMT, with the occasional bonus episode between them.

This week, Chris Sanders’ and Dean DeBlois’ How to Train Your Dragon.

On the island of Berk, the Viking settlers have found themselves engaged in a war against dragons spanning literal generations. Hiccup, the son of the town chieftain, struggles to find his place in a community that doesn’t value his unique strengths and attributes – he wonders whether he will even be manly enough to hunt and kill dragons. However, a chance encounter with a fallen dragon named Toothless leads Hiccup to question everything that he thinks he knows about dragons.

At time of recording, it was ranked 198th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Non-Review Review: How To Train Your Dragon 2

Posted on June 22, 2014 by Darren

How To Train Your Dragon 2 is a staggeringly beautiful piece of work. Every frame of the movie is elegantly crafted and beautifully composited. It’s a wonderful example of how computer-generated animation is every bit as artistically valid as the classic hand-drawn style. The vistas are breathtaking, the choreography is stunning, the design work is elegant. It’s a wonderful piece of animation that is never anything less than visually amazing.

Structurally, How To Train Your Dragon 2 is well-constructed – perhaps a little too well-constructed. It’s a wonderful demonstration of just how fantastic the sequel structure established by The Empire Strikes Back can be when applied well. The sequel is meticulously put together, carefully and precisely calibrated to strike the right notes at the right time with the right intensity. As far as constructing a sequel goes, How To Train Your Dragon 2 is following some impressive blueprints.

There are moments when it feels like How To Train Your Dragon 2 adheres a little too rigidly to formula, but given how well it pays off, it’s easy enough to forgive.