Dragon: Le Cadeau du Furie Nocturne

Another great edition to this Epic Franchise!!!!!!! Keeps you glued to your screen from start to finish, bursting with hilarious fun and deep emotions all the way!!!!!!!!!

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!

This is an alright addition to the How to Train Your Dragon franchise. Taking place between the first and the second, it focuses on a winter holiday. It is pretty much a counterpart to Christmas in this franchise. Dreamworks seem to do quite a few Christmas based specials about their franchises. Though they might always not be about a holiday called Christmas since the culture their films are based on or the one they made, they're Christmas counterparts that are meant to be for the Christmas season. I haven't seen anything Christmas from Pixar for their franchises. It would be good if they did do a couple Christmas specials.

I do like to see more Nordic based content. When it comes to mythological based content, there seems to be more Greek based than Norse based. How To Train Your Dragons is way more Norse based, even if it doesn't feature the gods.

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.

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.