ScreenWorm Watches: Book of Dragons
ScreenWorm Watches!
How To Train Your Dragon: Book of Dragons
by Dreamworks Animation
****
The Story: Book of Dragons is a computer/traditionally animated short film based on the How to Train Your Dragon franchise. Happening after the events in How to Train Your Dragon, the short shows Hiccup, Astrid, Fishlegs, Toothless and Gobber telling the legend behind the Book of Dragons with the misadventures of its author, Bork the Bold. In addition to Bork's discoveries, the young Vikings reveal their own training methods they developed with new, never before seen dragons.
(From Wikipedia)
The Review:
Clip shows are a mainstay of any animation series and any animation buff has encountered them while watching a series. They are annoying but they serve a purpose: they save money for the epic fight scenes of the mid-season finale. We understand this but it makes it no less annoying. Thankfully, while this special does utilize clips from the first film, a lot of original is used
This show offers two main things that appeal to kinds and to the parents watching along with them.
For the kids and kids at heart are the clips of Bork the Bold. The clumsy, misfortune-riddled ancestor and founder of Berk. The hijinks that befall Bork are some of slapstick’s finest traditions. Accidents, injuries, and falling down. Bork continually gets beaten up by dragons and he keeps on rolling. He doesn’t really talk, just makes noise, but it works because it makes it more universal.
For the adults, the other sequences show case the concept art that went into the production of the film. The artwork is really quite beautiful and distinctive. We are introduced to a wide variety of Dragons that the film could not show us all at once. We get favorites such as the Night Fury, Monstrous Nightmare and the Hideous Zippleback, but we also see new and exciting dragon forms such as the Whispering Death, Bone Knapper, Thunderdrum, and the Timberjack.
(ScreenWorm’s personal favorite is the Thunderdrum.)
We see both concept art and real animation which are both very impressive and sure to tickle any fan of dragons and cool artwork.
No offense to the great character Astrid Hofferson or her faithful steed Stormfly but the Deadly Nadder Dragons seems to be a bit lazy. It’s does not really look like a dragon but more like a prehistoric bird. Too much avian not enough reptilian. Considering the origins of dragons being from dinosaur bones which we now know were more closely related to birds it may make more sense, but ScreenWorm still does not care for it.
Final Verdict: Book of Dragons is not required viewing for a fan of How To Train Your Dragon, but for any lore freaks (like ScreenWorm) it is delving into a wonderful fantasy world. That right there, is the appeal of both the movies as well as the cartoon series. It is one of the few fantasy-adventure shows out there, even less so animated ones, that exists and adding to the appeal is the fact that it is not a standard swords and sorcery epic. Good, old fashioned cartoon silliness, beautiful artwork, and awesome trivia. The whole thing is a lot of fun.
Four Dragon’s Teeth out of Five
****
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