Very odd that even thought I abandoned the idea of doing a war movies week, movies involving battles, explosions, and vast military forces keep ending up in the player! Today's movie was not my choice, but rather my mother-in-law's. This is entire due to her listening to the Academy Award Nominated soundtrack which I borrowed from EPL last week. After listening to the music earlier today, she really wanted to see the movie, and so she put on the Blu-ray copy, which we own. This was the first Blu-ray movie we've watched in some time, and it was the first one my in-laws have seen since I tweaked the settings. I'm the family technician when it comes to television and home theater setups, and I knew for a fact that I had set up an HD connection from the Blu-ray player to the TV. I never thought much of it until my sister-in-law commented, almost in passing, "Mom and dad need a new TV, because this one isn't HD." I tried to debate my position, and validate the work that I did with the setup, but the fact remained, the picture didn't look that great. Determined to fix this, I fiddled around with the settings on the Blu-ray player, and discovered that it's possible to manually set the resolution output. It had been set to Auto, which would have been fine had an 'smart' connection been used, ie. HDMI. As it was, the connection I set up was a component connection, which is not as complex as HDMI, but is capable of a 1080i output. A push of the button, and Voila! HD quality picture.
Needless to say, Erini didn't really notice. If she did, she didn't tell me. Mind, this wasn't the first movie that she'd seen since I did the tweaking, so maybe she was used to it. Also, this wasn't the first time she'd seen How to Train Your Dragon. This movie is huge favorite in my family, if for the dragons alone. Every time Caitlin watches this movie, she sighs, "I want a dragon." Most girls want ponies, bunnies, or even pot belly pigs! Not my wife. Dragons. If it was possible to breed dragons, she'd do it.
I'm not sure what exactly is Erini's favourite part of the movie. She likes so many. When Hiccup and Toothless first meet and Toothless reguritates the fish, offering it to Hiccup as a token of friendship, she giggles at the grimace on his face. In that same scene, when Hiccup is playing Toothless' game of 'Stay Off the Lines,' she thinks it's hilarious how Toothless changes from happy to angry when Hiccup puts his foot on the line. Then of course there's the BIG dragon, aka The Green Death, and the big fight that ensues.
Worthy of note, in each of those parts, there's not a lot, if any, dialogue spoken. Most of the storytelling is done with the animation and music. When I first played the soundtrack, I put on track 11, "Test Drive."
She knew right away what the music was from and said, "This is Toothless!"
Maybe it's the use of the bagpipes, or just the general atmosphere of the music that makes you feel like you're flying along with Toothless and Hiccup, but it's unique, it's beautiful, and I really hope it wins the Oscar for Original Score. Even if it's going up against Inception. Hans Zimmer vs. John Powell. Eek. I'll just have to watch on February 27 to see who wins.
As far as Oscar potential, would I say this movie better than Toy Story 3? No, but it has been noted by my mother-in-law that Erini sleeps very poorly when she watches TS3. When she watches HTTYD, she sleeps just fine. Having my daughter sleep through the night is a blessing for everyone, so until I find the time to sit down with Erini and watch TS3, and make sure she goes to bed without any issues, and stays in bed, we might be watching this high flying adventure a few more times.
My Oscar pick for Best Animated Feature is still Toy Story 3, since the Academy has yet to base their choices on my daughter's sleeping pattern.
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