"How To Train Your Dragon" Review

After years of living in Pixar’s shadow Dreamworks Animation has finally delivered a film that rival’s the animation king of CGI films. “How To Train Your Dragon” tells the simple story of a young Viking named Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) who is considered weak by the rest of the Vikings for being unable to hold his own in a fight with dragons who destroy their town on a weekly basis (the town is old but the houses are new). His dad is the leader of the Vikings named Stoick (Gerard Butler) who - like most fathers in animated films - considers his son to be awkward and a bit of a disappointment. No, he’s not odd in that he’s gay, because he has a crush on the feisty Viking girl Astrid (America Ferrera), but odd because he has no violent traits.

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The Sound of Animation

We've had a great year for animation, but one aspect of these animated films that are rarely being discussed is the music.  Believe it or not, not ONLY has animation managed to one-up many of the live action movies this year in terms of quality, but the soundtracks are also more memorable then most of the live action films.  Of course Michael Giacchino looks like a shoo in to get a nomination for his (yet to be released on CD) score for "Up," but let's face it: That nomination - while justified - will be there just to rack up the nominations for Pixar.  Below are some of the OTHER animated scores that deserve to recognized by the Academy (but most likely won't):

Astro Boy

Coraline

Ponyo

Up

Personally, if I had to award an Oscar to a score this year, it would be for "Ponyo."  Thankfully the score of "Ponyo" IS available on CD...for those willing to play the import game.  For those who WANT to play the import game but don't know how, here's a good place to start.

Dark Knight's Score Is Back In

According to the L.A. Times Hanzs Zimmers and James Newton Howards score for "The Dark Knight" is qualified once again to run in the Oscar race. The Academy likes to have a single vision for the score, much like for directors and screenwriters, but for whatever reason it appears they caved for this score. Why? Well, this is a personal thoery only, but I think the Academy really wants this film to get as many Oscar nominations as possible, which would in turn (hopefully) lead to more eyeballs tuning into the show come March.