By Mark HadleyMonday 29 Mar 2010MoviesReading Time: 2 minutes
How to Train Your Dragon
Rating: PG
Distributor: Paramount
Release Date: March 25
Hiccup is a Viking teenager who plays the role of a square peg in the round hole of the village of Berk. For generations its jovial residents have trained to fight their arch-enemies, the dragons. Hiccup, however, is not the most co-coordinated of warriors and is more tolerated than tutored by his father, the village chief. The young hero sees his chance to prove that he is as much a warrior as anyone when he encounters a young wounded dragon. However, the unexpected friendship that develops (well, not unexpected by anyone who is familiar with Dreamworks) turns Hiccup’s world upside down and results in a new future for his entire village. How To Train Your Dragon is based on the best selling children’s book and brought to you by the studios that produced Shrek, Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda – so expect all the matching toys, drink bottles and kids meals as the holidays begin. This is a story about the danger of judging books by their cover, or dragons by their reputations. In fact, it has a lot to say to children about not letting historical differences stop someone from discovering the potential for friendship – a hint at the racial tensions in the world today? Good fun built on society’s one sacred virtue: tolerance.
Clash of the Titans
Rating: MA
Distributor: Roadshow
Release Date: April 1
Does the title sound familiar? It would to anyone who was young in the 1980’s. Clash of the Titans is a CGI remake of the 1981 stop-motion classic about an argument on Mount Olympus that spills over into humanity. And it’s not just the animation that has received a thorough working over. Liam Neeson has replaced Laurence Olivier as Zeus, and Sam Worthington is now the muscle-bound Perseus. The storyline has also been significantly modernised. As before the classic Greek heroes are caught up in a war between the Titans and the gods, but instead of taking sides this time they settle on attempting to eliminate their fractious deities once and for all. This is a thoroughly 21st century approach to the problems posed by angry gods and the demands they place on the human race. Faith, once again, becomes part of the world’s problems, rather than the path to a solution. This is definitely one for dad and the older boys to go off and enjoy together. However the danger inherent in Clash of the Titans resides in the fractious view of ‘God’ it will slip in while its viewers are enjoying a hack-and-slash fantasy.