mother of dragons

How to Train Your Dragon, based on the series of books by Cressida Cowell, was a fun, quirky little entry in the glut of animated films that has come down the pike since Toy Story. Dragon has flown (ha) slightly under the radar compared to the enormous success of other animated films, but it has quietly, successfully, and adorably forged its own franchise, which shows no sign of stopping. Between film releases, DreamWorks Animation has sandwiched an entertaining animated television series, DreamWorks Dragons, and a few special shorts as well. The second feature length movie, How to Train Your Dragon 2, the second in a planned trilogy, was released recently, and it was just as much fun as the first, and even more visually stunning than expected.

This sequence was reminiscent of My Neighbor Totoro and other gorgeous Japanese animation, which is high praise indeed

Dragon has done a good job of sketching the Viking world of Berk, a place where Vikings, dragons, and some unfortunate sheep try to coexist. The animators actually base their stunning backgrounds on real Norwegian locations, including Oslo, Bergen, and Svalbard. In the first film, young Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), the son of Berk's Viking chieftain Stoick (Gerard Butler), met a Night Fury dragon that he named Toothless, and proceeded to not only train the dragon, but his fellow Vikings — that humans and dragons could not only live peacefully together, but become friends. In the second film Hiccup has grown, along with his friends and Toothless. Life in Berk is pretty idyllic (except for the local sheep who have to take part as targets in human/dragon sporting events (note: no animated sheep were harmed in the course of the movie, just man-handled and annoyed). But there is trouble on the horizon, with a gang of dragon hunters led by Eret (Kit Harington), who have to answer to a villainous boss named Drago (Djimon Hounsou). While Hiccup and Toothless are trying to evade the hunters they run across a pro-dragon vigilante, who also happens to be Hiccup's long-lost mother Valka (Cate Blanchett) — no spoiler, as her identity is revealed in all the ads and trailers.

Hiccup and Toothless are as cute together as ever

The plot is your standard good guys vs. bad guys, but there are some surprisingly sweet and sad emotional moments in the midst of all the dragon adventure. But the real prize is the stunning animation — of the rugged yet beautiful landscape of Berk, and especially, some of the "new" dragons. Hiccup has grown, and is even sporting a little stubble. He also gets just a little canoodling time with his fellow dragon trainer and friend-turned-girlfriend Astrid (America Ferrera) before the story gets going. The voice cast is good, and features many well-known actors, like Jonah Hill, Kristen Wiig, and Craig Ferguson, but they tend to disappear nicely into their roles, rather than create star turns.

I have to admit that I was a little confused by Hiccup's mother's reasons for staying away from her Viking family and instead opting to live in the world of dragons. But her hideout sure is pretty to look at, and her backstory didn't seem to bother my 10 year-old daughter, who loved the film. It will be interesting to note if that changes once we check out the movie when it comes to dvd and aren't distracted by the soaring large-scale dragons and movie theater 3D.

oscar congrats all around

Some may have found last night's Oscar telecast a little tame or subdued. Or even boring. But I think it was more a reflection of a desire (and need) for Hollywood to lighten up, and that the nominees were all pretty deserving. Honestly, anyone could have won and it wouldn't have been considered an upset.

Ellen Degeneres was the perfect host  for such a laid-back, upbeat vibe. She only made a few real digs, in her opening monologue, at Jonah Hill and Liza Minnelli, and while those might have been a bit more acidic than her usual shtick, they were also understood to be good-natured ribbing. The rest of the time she tried to get a rise out of the usually stiff celebrities, by corralling A-listers in a goofy record-breaking selfie, and ordering pizza for the first two rows of the tuxedo and bejeweled crowd.

The selfie tweeted 'round the world

Favorite moments:

Pharrell Williams's opening number, "Happy." The multi-talented Pharrell got the audience on their feet in the theater, and (at least here) at home, too. Pharrell also helped showcase another of Meryl Streep's hidden talents (around the one-minute mark of the video below).


There were quite  few more-entertaining-than-usual acceptance speeches, from Best Actress Winner Cate Blanchett, Best Supporting Actor Winner Jared Leto, Best Supporting Actress Winner Lupita N'yongo, and Best Actor Winner Matthew McConnaughey.

There has to be one completely weird and inexplicable moment, and John Travolta obliged, with his strange introduction of "Adele Dazeem" singing "Let It Go" from Frozen. The crowd watched in confusion as Broadway veteran Idina Menzel, who performed the song in the movie as well took the stage. Travolta introduced himself as a big fan of musicals, which made the gaffe even more bizarre. The song was the Oscar winner, too.

Bill Murray's sly, slipped-in tribute to the fabulous Harold Ramis was also a high point. Ellen's celebrity-pack selfie was fun (and it's already generated a web page where one can insert oneslef into the mob), but this image from the red carpet is my favorite of the night.

Cumberbatch photobomb — say that three times quickly

Congratulations to all.

the fractured fairy tale of hanna

I finally got to see the movie Hanna. Its plot is simple — a spy vs. spy story that has impacted the next generation, the child of one of the spies. 16 year-old Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) is the daughter of ex-CIA operative Erik (Eric Bana). Fourteen years ago CIA officer Marissa (Cate Blanchett) tried to eliminate Erik, Hanna's mother, and two year-old Hanna, who were all involved in a canceled but top-secret project, but she only succeed in killing Hanna's mother.

Erik escapes with the baby and hides out in the frozen mountains of Finland, where he trains her to be a first-class assassin. The movie is essentially a chase film, where Hanna tries to escape Marissa and reunite with Erik. But what makes Hanna special are its striking visuals and fairy tale subtext. Blanchett makes a deadly and devastating wicked witch, complete with evil troll Issacs (Tom Hollander) to do her bidding and killing.

Hanna has been raised to survive in the wilderness

The world is wild and wonderful for Hanna

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf? Not Hanna.

Hanna is an intrepid heroine, bringing to mind Gerda from Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen. She makes her way through a forest, the deserts of Morocco, Spain and Germany. Along the way she makes some friends who become her temporary companions, including a hippie British family and a friendly magician. After being raised in isolation, everything is ne to her, but she adapts quickly, even when she learns some disturbing truths about her parentage. She has been an apt pupil, incorporating all the survival skills from her father and will need to use them if she is to to dispatch Marissa in he climactic showdown, set in Spreepark, an abandoned amusement park in East Berlin.

Hanna is a little too bloody and even callous to be a movie that one would watch more than once. If director Joe Wright had kept the body count down and upped the magical elements more it might have had a more widespread appeal. But it is still an effective, lethal little thriller. Cate Blanchett was truly scary and Saoirse Ronan even has a princess kiss moment, complete with tutu, although without the usual fairytale outcome for this tough little cookie.

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