How To Train Your Dragon (Dean DeBlois, 2025) & Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken (Kirk DeMicco, 2023)

How To Train Your Dragon is the not too shabby live action remake of the beloved animated feature, that will provide a lot of families with the sort of agreeable entertainment they seem to crave.

Based, as always, on the beloved children’s books by Cressida Crowell, writer and director Dean DeBlois returns with a movie that offers both more of the same yet also something a little different.

That feeling of new-ness is mainly due to the imposing (Irish) landscape, the sheer physical presence of Gerard Butler (who had a voice role in the original) and the special effects that are duly impressive, even though towards the end there is perhaps a little too much of ‘em.

But still: the sight of all those dragons is something to behold, especially when the main protagonists fly ‘em sky high, up and down and round and round (eat that, Tom Cruise!).

It is the same sense of wonder and amazement that made the original animated feature (by DeBlois and Chris Sanders) so captivating back in 2010.

That the movie takes half an hour longer than the original How To Tame Your Dragon feels like it’s main setback, the otherwise engaging story eventually stretched a little too thin, and perhaps a little too much time spent on the training on a bunch of young hopefuls who dream of slaying dragons.

The story itself is basically the same. It takes place on the (fictional) island of Berk, that’s so tiny it’s probably not on any map anyways. And it’s inhabited not by mice and men, but by Dragons and Vikings, who are continuously at odds with one another.

To make the fight a little more inclusive, the Vikings have gathered warriors from all over the world, even if the population as a whole still feels very small. But why kill dragons when nobody has ever really tried to live in peace with them?

The Vikings are led by Stoic the Vast (Butler), who’s son Hiccup (Mason Thames) sees things differently than the other villagers, even though the town’s eccentric blacksmith (Nick Frost) has his back and the town’s kick ass bad ass teenage girl Astrid (Nico Parker) slowly but surely moves to his side over the course of the dragon training.

It’s only when Hiccup accidentally starts a friendship with a wounded Night Fury dragon he calls Toothless, that things begin to change. The duo learn so much from each other, it seems only a matter of time before the rest of Berk will come to see that Viking and Dragon can indeed live together.

If only things were that simple, cause then an even bigger danger becomes a threat to the village as a whole and Hiccup’s friendship with Toothless becomes key to its survival and future.

In the end it is a choice between fear of the unknown versus love and understanding. A simple enough message, but one that will probably always be relevant enough in this crazy, uncertain world we’re living in.

I give it 7 1/2 out of ten!

Note: How To Train Your Dragon is released this week in most of the world, with Japan following in September.

RUBY GILLMAN, TEENAGE KRAKEN (Kirk DeMicco, 2023)

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken is a highly amusing animated movie, in which sea monsters for once represent good, while a normally charming mermaid gets a chance to play bad.

For the uninitiated, a Kraken is (according to Wikipedia) a legendary sea monster of enormous size said to appear of the coasts of Norway. In movies Kraken have often moved east and fought against Godzilla. But not in this one.

Here the Kraken family around mother Agatha Gillman (Toni Collette) tries to live on land in a coastal town and pass for humans. Whenever real people look doubtful they just say they’re from Canada - and yes, that always works.

But when insecure teenage daughter Ruby (Lana Condor) disobeys her mother and ventures into the sea - while trying to save the boy she has a crush on, natch - she finds she turns into a giant Kraken - with laser eyes!

This kicks off the real plot: not only are Ruby, Agatha and Grandmama (Jane Fonda) of royal blood, they are also part of an ongoing feud with the Mermaid Queen, who is described as vain and narcissistic and wants to play boss, like, all the time.

Yet there is hope in the form of a young Mermaid, striking redhead Chelsea (Annie Murphy), who goes to the same school as Ruby and also believes in peace (in our time) between Krakens and Mermaids.

The second half of the movie mainly takes place in or under water, where Kraken princess Ruby receives her warrior training in the Royal Realm of Grandmama, while the final battle sequences with the Big Bad Mermaid are straight out of a Godzilla movie.

Director Kirk DeMicco (The Croods) and co-director Faryn Pearl, working from a script by Pam Brady, Elliott DiGuiseppi and Brian C. Brown, have made a very funny movie, that is not only visually striking, but also takes a lot of smart turns. To boot, it is full of little jokes, that will keep both parents and children thoroughly entertained.

Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken has the spirit of an old cartoon movie, but with much better special effects. I dug it!

I give it 7 1/2 out of ten!

Note: the movie is available through various streaming platforms, like Amazon Prime Video, Google Play Films, Apple TV and Rakuten TV.