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Click here to return to the main site. DVD Review
Although, more common in Japan, It’s not unusual that a successful English speaking film will spawn an animated series. What is unusual is a show which nearly matches its source material. Dragons: Riders of Berk (2012) is based on the film How to Train Your Dragon (2010) and sits somewhere between the first movie and the planned sequel which will be released in 2014. With the show now in its second season, this two disc DVD set holds the first eleven episodes of season one, each of which runs to around twenty-two minutes. The story picks straight up from the first film with the Vikings and dragons in an uneasy truce. Although the Vikings have stopped trying to kill the dragons following the saving of the village, they are not natural neighbours to the humans and will often revert to type, setting fire to buildings and stealing food. Mildew especially hates the dragons and at various points tries to turn the villagers against the dragons. To further the continuity with the film many of the vocal actors have returned to work on the show. Hiccup and his teenage friends Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut want to hold on to their pet dragons, so Stiock the Vast, leader of the village and Hiccup's father, comes up with a novel scheme, turning the arena, where once they killed the dragons, into a dragon training school in the hopes that the two communities can live in harmony. The first thing which impresses is the fact that the animation isn’t significantly poorer when compared to the film. The series gets off to a slow start, the conflict between the village and the dragons natural behaviour doesn’t really provide a villain to unite the narrative, unless you count grumpy Mildew, who is more of a pain than an actual villain. After a few scene setting episodes a new nemesis arrives and the show finally finds its feet. The show is presented with a 1.78:1 aspect ratio and a DD 5.1 English audio track as well as five 2.0 tracks for Dutch, Spanish, Swedish, etc. There are seven European subtitle tracks. Disc two is where the extras are hiding with Dragon Tracker - Part 1, an interactive map which opens up into an explanation of the attributes of five of the dragons; the animation is mostly taken from the show, with some extra pieces, narrated by Hiccup. Evolution of Thunderdrum (2 min, 54 sec) is a small piece with visual effects supervisor, David Jones, talking about the creation of the new dragon. “Heavy Metal”, Dragon Mash-up (2 min, 15 sec) is a music video which utilises shots from the show. Apart from the somewhat lacklustre start, the show's warm-hearted centre eventually shines through, driven by its witty and charming scripts. If you liked the film, then you’re not going to be disappointed by the animated show. 8 Charles Packer Buy this item online
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