Simon Dillon reviews the film

Since when did Vikings come from Scotland? How to Train Your Dragon, the latest from Dreamworks Animation, inexplicably assigns Scottish accents to many of its characters with no apparent explanation. Not that it really matters. How to Train Your Dragon is arguably Dreamworks' strongest and most satisfying animated feature to date (yes, as far as I'm concerned, it's better than Shrek).

A funny, poignant and hugely exciting adventure, the story concerns Hiccup, the wimpy son of tough village chief Stoick (who looks and is named like a character from Asterix). Hiccup wants to prove he is as good a dragon slayer as the many warriors who defend their village from marauding dragons. However, after he accidentally injures one by shooting it down, he finds himself unable to kill it. Instead he befriends it. With his father away trying to hunt down the dragon nest, he finds himself leading a double life between the highly amusing dragon slaying school he attends, and discovering that perhaps dragons aren't always so bad after all.

Directors Dean Debois and Chris Sanders do a tremendous job with the animation. The beautifully rendered forests, seas, volcanoes, dragon flights and battles are almost at Pixar standards. The screenplay is witty and inventive, vocal performances are all good, and there's a tremendous music score by John Powell.

Morally, this is full of the usual stuff about not judging by appearance, being true to oneself and so forth. It's also about the struggle with parents who don't want to listen but are determined to fashion their children in their image. In that respect, the relationship between Hiccup and Stoick is reminiscent of a similar relationship in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. It's not a spoiler to say everything turns out well in the end, but there are plenty of bumps along the way.

In summary, this is a terrific piece of family entertainment, well worth seeing at the cinema. I'm not a big advocate of the current 3-D craze, but the 3-D effects are the best I have seen since A Christmas Carol. That said, whether seen in monoscope or stereoscope it's a fine piece of work.

But I still don't understand why ancient Scandinavian warriors had Scottish accents.