Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury

These days went their is a hit animation film, not only will there be a slew of sequels there will be bonus short films as well that turn up as DVD extras or made for television specials to keep the franchise name going.

The Toy Story and Shrek films do it. The How to train your Dragon films have followed with the CGI short, Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury. Following from the original film where the Vikings now have dragons for pets who nearly all disappear during the holiday season of Snoggletog leaving the Vikings bemused.

Toothless gets a new tail to allow him to be independent but he flies off as well and is thought to have disappeared. However the kids hatch a plot to find out what has happened to them.

The short will keep the children largely entertained, adults who have not seen the original film will be left bemused. The quality of the animation is very good though.

Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury (2011)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Very entertaining spin off from HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON has the viking town of Berk about to celebrate their winter holiday when everyone notices that the dragons are all missing. The children of the village set out to try and locate them and see what's going on. DRAGONS: GIFT OF THE NIGHT FURY is without question one of the better shorts that Dreamworks have released over the years. A lot of this is due to the terrific screenplay, which comes up with a very entertaining story full of wonder, imagination and action. I thought the visual style of the film was also a lot better quality than what we've seen in some of the shorts from the studio. I've often felt that some of the shorts look their smaller budgets but that certainly wasn't the case here because the look was quite professional and right on target with the original film. I thought the look of the film was exception and especially the scenes where the dragons are flying around. I can't (or won't) spoil the ending with what happened to the dragons but it was quite funny and especially the aftermath. Fans of the feature should really love this short but even if you're not familiar with it there's enough entertainment here for two movies and this comes highly recommended.

Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury (2011) is the third short film in the How to Train Your Dragon franchise and it was a lot of fun.

Positives for Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury (2011): I liked seeing what Christmas is like and how these characters celebrate it in this franchise. Seeing dragons go to another island to lay their eggs was nice. I also liked the exploding eggs and it got a good smile from me. And finally, the ending with Hiccup and Toothless was sweet.

Negatives for Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury (2011): Once again, this is a short film that is meant to cash in on the success of the franchise and get something for families to watch on the holidays.

Overall, Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury (2011) was a great holiday short film in the How to Train Your Dragon franchise and is the best short film so far.

The original "How to Train Your Dragon" was a dandy film and I thought it was the best full-length animated film of the year (though it lost the Oscar to "Toy Story III"). It was very original and had absolutely gorgeous CGI. "Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury" is a recently released short based on the characters from the film and comes on a disk with another short (a far inferior one, if you ask me).

"Gift of the Night Fury" occurs following the original film--and now it's common for the Vikings to have dragons as pets. However, when their big holiday of 'Snoggletog' arrives, it coincides with a VERY strange thing--nearly all of the dragons fly off--disappearing for some mysterious reason--which isn't discovered until much later in the film. Another plot line involves Toothless getting a new tail--one that SHOULD enable him to live independently. But, there is a surprise catch... I'd say more, but I don't want to spoil it.

In many ways this is like a Christmas short--without Jesus or any of the other Christian trappings (since these Vikings are of the pagan variety). It's quite enjoyable...and even a bit heartwarming at the end. But, it's not exactly original and isn't so amazing after you've seen the original film. But, the animation is very nice and it's well worth seeing if you are a fan of the film. Cute.

Merry Snoggletog, y'all!

I loved the first "How to Train Your Dragon", so I was definitely going to give this "Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury" a go as well.

Despite it being a very short animated movies, about 22 minutes or so, it was actually still quite good. The animation and CGIs were as cool as in the previous movie. And there is still so many awesome details in every scene.

The story was not that bad, despite it being limited to less than 30 minutes. And I assume that it is something that could have potential to become a part of children's Christmases everywhere.

I just have a gnawing sensation that releasing such a short movie is sort of digging a bit too deep into people's pockets. Why couldn't something like this have been an extra on a collector's edition of the first movie? But hey, money does make the world go round.

If you liked "How to Train Your Dragon", then you definitely should check out this part of the saga as well.