I just… don’t know. It’s not a bad movie. It’s not a good movie either. I have a hard time dealing with these ones. Disney, Pixar… these movies are so calculated to manipulate the viewer, that even as I have an emotional reaction, I’m acutely aware of a voice in the back of my head reminding me that I’m being forced into this.
There are some very fun elements to the story. The handling of the dragon’s playful behavior is really well done. There’s a good amount of energy to the story. But then the script seems annoying. I think this is just me, but I’m really sick of scripts that are written to appeal to young audiences. This has been a problem for a long time, but I’ve started to realize that there is good scriptwriting available. It’s just very rare. One of the things that really made me love The Hole was that it was aimed squarely at kids. It was an introductory horror movie. But it didn’t rely on annoying kid-speak to sell it. It worked well for adults watching it as well.
I felt like there were a few more things that bothered me. It felt too clearly manipulative as far as the color schemes went. We open on a dark night, lots of fire. The goal is to make the dragons as scary as possible. For each sequence, the surrounding day or night and location informs how the viewer is supposed to feel about the dragons. By the end, I was thinking that the dragons looked like they were left over from Monsters, Inc.
I would never watch this again, but I feel this way about most Disney/Pixar movies. Even ones like Aladdin, which I really loved, I have no interest in returning to.
One possible good influence this movie might have is that it might make young viewers less scared of dogs.
Also, I really hated the love interest in this movie. The hero likes her, but she's a jerk until she finds out how she can use him. It actually felt kind of bad to see her kiss him at the end.
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