Genres

Visitors Review

gavin-thelordofthefu-48-460297 2012-05-22 02:41:53

Not on par with the original, but still a very good CGI short to watch

Let's just say I'm a fan of the original. Everything about it wasamazing. The plot, characters, voice acting, animation, action, humor,heart and music score were so good it will always be highly recommendedfor both kids and adults as one of the best animated films ever made.When I heard that Dreamworks made a short film like this one, I becamevery interested and watched it a few times to make sure it doesn'tdisappoint me. The reason why it was because I was disappointed withone of the user comments in this short. I mean, sure it's a short film,but that does not take away everything that I like about it.First, there are two problems that I do have with this short. 1) Thehumor was okay, but there were barely a few jokes even though some ofthem gave a few chuckles here and there. 2) The tone for HTTYD was darkand very mature which was one of the few reasons why that movie was asuccess. The tone for this short, however, was a little bit dark, but Iguess it was fine.Everything else turned out great. I enjoyed the 2D animation sequencesof how Goober met the Bone Knapper Dragon. Although it kind of remindsyou of a Garfield cartoon, at least it was good. The computeranimation, characters, voice acting, the story and the action wereimpressive.LOTBD isn't on par with the original, but it is a very good CGI shortmade for kids and it's really worth watching.P.S. I don't have the short film on DVD (save the original on DVDalmost a year ago during Christmas break), but I think I'll get itsomeday.8.2/10

Elayis 2012-05-21 13:41:00

Four Words: Hammerhead Whale & Hammerhead Yak

See, now this is what you get when you inject British humor into a filmprimarily viewed by Americans. They don't get it. I haven't laughed sohard since I last watched Monty Python or read a Douglas Adams novel(or maybe a Doctor Who episode).This short was definitely quite outlandish and different than thefeature film. And guess what! It was supposed to be! This being a shortfilm, it allowed the filmmakers to get away with a lot more creativityand freedom than a big blockbuster would've allowed. It seems that anyidea, no matter how ridiculous, that leapt to the writers mind ended upon the page. And it was damn funny, too. So get over yourself peopleand enjoy the ride.I actually enjoyed these 16 minutes more than the entire theatricalfilm. And it was all because of The Mighty Craig Ferguson. God blesshim. Watch his show. Or you're a terrorist.

Caleb Stevens 2012-05-12 08:55:02

Good, for 11 minutes

WARNING YOU MUST WATCH THE FULL LENGTH MOVIE BEFORE WATCHING THISSHORT!!! Let me start off by saying I'M A HUGE FAN OF THE FULL LENGTHMOVIE!!! I was so excited to see a short film. The movie started outgood just like the original but then when Gobber (Craig Ferguson)starts telling his stories it turns into this crappy cartoon, thatlooks like the Garfield cartoon. It spends 5 minutes of it in thiscartoon. The cartoon's were funny but it should have been done justlike the other 11 minutes of it! It was funny especially Fishlegs, he'sso nerdy and voices his character perfectly! The dragon looked reallygood! But, this movie still had some cheesy factors that the originaldid not have. This short was good I just expected more out of itbecause the original was so good. But, it wasn't a waste of sixteenminutes.

shuvcat-1 2012-05-11 17:18:57

It was good!

I imagine the one poor review below was due to the reviewer believing(as I did) that LOTBD would be another feature film like HTTYD. True,it turns out to only be a short, but for what it is it's very good! No,the "stars" are not the main characters Hiccup and Toothless from thefirst film, but is that so strange? Lots of shorts spotlight secondarycharacters from the original movie. In this sequel, Gobber goes on ahunt for his old nemesis, the Boneknapper Dragon. He enlists Hiccup andthe other junior Vikings, none of whom are quite sure the so-called"Boneknapper" even exists. Since the focus is on Gobber this is CraigFerguson's party and that's just fine with me; his performance wasawesome in the first movie, and here his expressive rantings narratethe growingly ridiculous exploits of Gobber perfectly. The plot ispretty much the same as HTTYD's but that's not such a bad thing. Allaround, it's a charming little extra chapter of the wonderful originalfilm.

Velvet_Nightmare 2012-05-11 04:00:15

Oh Gods, what have they done?!

Let me start out by saying that I'm a huge fan of the original HTTYDfilm. The plot and characters, the voice acting, the visuals, and thescore were all superb and I rank the movie highly amongst all of theanimated films I've seen. I'm aware that this is supposed to be a "short film" and not a full-length sequel to the movie. However, that is no excuse for throwingtogether a half-arsed job in an attempt to milk what looks to be a verypromising franchise. If I could erase my memory of viewing this short,I would. Let me break down everything that was wrong about this "film"for you:The plot: Technically, HTTYD is a "family" movie aimed towards kids; Iget that. However, being in my 20s I still found the original story tobe highly enjoyable (if a bit predictable) but still with a respectablelevel of emotional maturity. Still, the dialogue was witty and thestory flowed well. I'm well aware that you can't do much in the span of15 minutes, but the story in LOTBD was embarrassingly juvenile suchthat anyone over the age of seven would find "uncool" to watch. Didthey hire the same writers? Jokes were lame, and everyone'spersonalities were reduced to stereotypes. Toothless had more of acameo than an active role, despite the fact that he is one of theprincipal characters. Heck, the hammerhead sharks and yak had morescreen time (take from that statement the content of the plot)! Thefilm was more about Gobber, who I found to be quite funny in theoriginal but I hated how he was portrayed here as a paranoid, stubborn,bumbling oaf.The visuals: This was what shocked me the most, aside from thehorrendous script writing. What happened?! The original movie hadabsolutely mind-blowing visuals; the details they put into both thecharacters and environment were stunning. The environments wereincredibly stale and unpolished, like something I would have expectedfrom the 90's in terms of quality. And to cut even more corners, theystuck in some lame 2D schlock-fest to fill up about half the time. The score: I loved John Powell's soundtrack to the movie. It's on myiPod and I've listened to it about a dozen times. To make it even moreobvious that this film was a last-minute idea, they didn't both to re-hire Mr. Powell to create a new score, and they instead re-usedeverything from the original. I was looking forward to hearing somemore original stuff, but it became a predictable disappointment.Frankly, I'm also disappointed with the voice actors that they wouldlend their talents to such a shoddy production. If the quality of thisfilm is a preview of what I can expect from the second and third full-length sequels, then Dreamworks will have lost my support for thisonce- promising franchise.

shadowotaga 2012-05-10 11:50:25

A Horrid Slap in the Face to fans.

I can't quite put into words how much I was disappointed in this.I love HTTYD, especially for the flight and fight scenes, I enjoyed thedialog and the film was fun.This "film" doesn't deserve to be packaged with HTTYD. It doesliterally EVERYTHING wrong. All the character don't interact withhiccup except for one scene, he's just there because he has to be, andof coarse he has the "smart" part at the end.Toothless is seen for approximately 10 seconds and only in thebackground! he was the true star of the original film, the only reasonto leave him out would be to cut cost due to animating him. He doesn'tdo anything funny, make a sound, or interact with anyone. They get himin the film in the beginning and thats it.All the shots are static and simple, no artistic merit behind them atall, the background seemingly thrown together in 5 minutes by a studiointern.The dialog, dear god the dialog is atrocious, consisting mostly ofclarifications and terrible puns. Gobber: "A BONENAPPER!"Ruffnut: "A whatnapper?"It's so atrociously bad that I'm actually saddened the original voicecast returns. It shows me they will lend there voices to anything aslong as they are paid. Do not watch this, it will be very painful to anyone over the age of 3.