The poor children. That were exactly my thoughts while i was watching this with my three kids in an nearly empty theater. I really felt bad about bringing them. Not that i dragged them! It was their wish to see it. Basically because they listened to some of the audio books about the little dragon which this fiasco was based on. So we went, and i felt bad. Still i can't remember being disappointed by an animated movie this way. I mean they're not all great, but most of them deliver some eye candy or some slapstick at least. It's not that hard to be entertained if the people behind a movie like this just put a little love into it. It really isn't. But the moment the film started i was quite shocked how utterly uninspired it all was. And i mean UNINSPIRED!
First of all there was almost no work done in the backgrounds. It was like a layout for a "real" film to be made. Just a few very ugly trees, a few bald humps and that was it. It looked like a cheap video game from the nineties. All creatures involved looked like cut out of cheap rubber foam. If one payed attention to the nostrils of the dragons, they just looked like holes drilled in a wall. The movements of everybody involved gave the impression that everybody was sedated somehow. Everybody moved totally slow, and everybody moved exactly the same way (young or old).
It was incredible. As if these people fiddled around on their laptop for a few days and than the money ran out. I couldn't believe my eyes. Even felt ashamed for everybody involved in this sad excuse of a movie. The script wasn't any better at all. In the books the little dragon is a curious little creature who explores his world. It's aim is to learn or prove things. In the movie he's just a stupid brat with a flat voice. Sounds harsh, but it's the truth. The reason for this is that the scriptwriters in lack of any ambition chose to let his stupid mistakes actually be the only reasons that things happen.
Speaking of lack of ambition: these kinds of movie are supposed to be funny, don't they? Well, it's hard to find anything funny here, the idea of the team behind this about "funny" being lifeless characters acting like morons and using stupid accents. In both cases for no reason. Oh yeah, and there's farting, of course, the last refuge for the uninspired.
My children watched in silence, really trying to feel good. Still feel bad when i think about it. There are a lot of great movies for children out there. Do yourself and your kids a favor: avoid this, it's made either by cynics or idiots. I fear both.
