Another shout-out to 2G'08: When Shannon and I were walking on the floor below the staff room, we saw Ms Ng and said Hi to her; she shouted back "HELLO! THANKS FOR THE HOMEWORK!"
So I think that's a success!
Yet another shout-out to Diana: Your prank was an epic fail... Mrs Ni came in right after Ms Yang! Most of the class didn't even know about the prank xD
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Anyway, here goes my very first movie-dedicated post! I should probably be posting this on my other more review-orientated blog (which I shall reveal at a later date) but this post probably won't be as much of a review as some species of scattered, flailing little creature.
So I went to watch How to Train Your Dragon 3-D with my family this morning. My family wanted to watch that instead of Alice in Wonderland a few weeks before but since HtTYD wasn't showing, we watched that instead. I wanted to watch Alice in Wonderland so I carefully prevented myself from having any sort of opinion on HtTYD. However, I had seen the trailers for HtTYD many times, and just dismissed it as a usual Dreamworks film that I would get a kick out of but would not really remember as something really great.
But it was. Really great.
We went to watch it at GV Marina Square, which by the way has the most comfortable 3-D glasses out of the cinemas I've went to (VivoCity for Avatar, Cathay for Alice in Wonderland). We came in just as the movie was starting, and it was a good thing we did.
Anyway, a brief plot summary which I will try to keep as spoiler-free as possible (if you go on Wikipedia you can get all the goods there): On the island of Berk, there lives a Viking village that is constantly assuaged by dragons, and the residents measure pride and strength in the number of dragons one slays. Hiccup is an unfortunate Viking who humiliates himself by being weak and rather foolish on the battlefield, and as thus is a social outcast, banished to the weapons shop where he watches and envies the other Vikings as they revel in glory and bloodshed.
During a dragon raid, Hiccup sneaks out and manages to wound a legendary Night Fury (a species of dragon), which no one has ever seen and lived to tell the tale, long-range (with a contraption he invented himself). However, the village refuses to believe him, and while searching for the Night Fury to prove himself, he ends up befriending it. As he reluctantly starts his dragon-slaying training, he must fight to protect the dragons that everyone in the village sets their heart on killing.
First off, the animation itself is really spectacular. Not as good as Avatar, of course (which in itself was a live-action cum CGI film so the animation would naturally be better), but still something to marvel at. The dragon and Viking battles, and the dragon flights which range from tumbling and spinning to graceful glides above the clouds, are really amazing.
Also, this was the closest I have ever come to crying while watching an animated movie. The fact that the film actually made me feel for the characters is although something that every film should do, is something that I marvel at every time.
The design for the dragons also have something to do with this:
This is the Night Fury:
And this is also the Night Fury:
And this is the Night Fury again:
It's the same dragon. The Night Fury is supposed to be the most dangerous dragon on the face of the earth. But my sister says that the dragon looks like Stitch.
Indeed, in the same way Disney made Stitch so fierce (?) and lovable at the appropriate times, so is the Night Fury. Its face is an ellipse, almost, with no visible nose, and huge eyes. The teeth and mouth, even, cannot be seen. That removes all menacing features of the face. The pupils also dilate and change in size within seconds. That just adds to the impression the Fury makes and changes it whenever necessary.
It's amazing.
Additionally, the film just ties up together extremely well. The usual formula for films is that the main characters don't die, everything ends well, the bad guys die or get converted, etc. I'm not saying that this formula was broken. Some films don't have villains. But I can't say that this film doesn't have villains either. But it pulls it off in a way that doesn't piss me off, and that's really great.
My mother insists that it's better than Alice in Wonderland. But I insist that the both of them are in two different categories. So we can't compare them.