Chinese kung fu fans

How to Train Your Dragon is a 3D animated movie produced by Dreamworks, the creators of Shrek and Kung Fu Panda. Out on 26th March 2010 the film will be released in 3D as well as traditional cinemas.

The film is based on the book of the same name by Cressida Cowell, a British Author, who has also written seven other books in the series. The plot centers around a young teenager by the name of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, who lives on the island of Berk in the North Sea but is anything like his fellow pillagers. His father is the village chief and is in charge of keeping the village safe from the local Dragons who regularly pick off stray sheep and set fire to houses.

Hiccup’s strength lies in his intellect and his smart mind rather than his demure physique and his occasional bouts of wit alienate most of the tribe though he desperately wishes to be included in their dragon hunts. Hiccup is finally selected with other young teens to undertake Dragon Training but instead of relying on brawn invents a dragon catching machine which manages to down a young dragon. Once up close with the dragon, Hiccup finds he is unable to kill the beast, eventually befriending the animal and naming it Toothless. As you can imagine, this does not go down well with the rest of the tribe.

Cressida Cowell’s book was a tremendous success with both kids and critics and while the film seems to deviate from the book in several areas the humorous feeling of the book remains. Apparently for the first half of production the film did in fact follow the book closely but then changes were made half way through to reflect the final rendition of the film. Dreamworks had a major success with 2008′s beautiful production Kung Fu Panda and the look of How To Train Your Dragon is similarly spectacular. Hopefully the production “hiccups” will not affect the flow of the story.

How To Train Your Dragon opens in cinemas 26th March 2010 and stars the voice talents of Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Gerard Butler, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Craig Ferguson.