Dragons: Cavaliers de Beurk

I'm a huge fan of How to Train Your Dragon. In fact I would rate it as my favorite animated movie, even more so than anything Pixar can come up with. I love the feeling of magic it gave me, and the interesting characters and setting. So of course I was worried about Dragons, considering the show for Kung Fu Panda was disappointing. I expected the same amount of great character development and heart touching story lines from Kung Fu Panda Legends of Awesome, but didn't get those. I was expecting Dragons to suffer the same fate, and I was wrong. Right away, I notice that the animation quality is just better than other Dreamworks animated shows. then there's the plot. No little 15 minute stories here, instead we get 30 minute plots that show a problem, involve character development followed by the solution to the problem. Most of the voice actors have returns and the music sounds incredibly, so the sound quality of the show is amazing. The writing is pretty much on par with the movie as well, and the jokes are funny and witty. Its a truly great show that CN should be glad that they picked up.

DreamWorks, in its decision to make Dragons into an animated series, branched out on the plot, delving into the details of Berk from ground level. Coupled with various mini-feature specials, including 'Gift of the Night Fury' and 'Book of Dragons', the power of this show never ceases to amaze.

The excellence of the animation alone is mind-blowing. From every movement of Hiccup and the gang, to every plasma blast, spine shot and sheep "baaa" feels real enough to reach out and touch. The art of the Vikings brings a sense of reality to a fantasy story that will be remembered for decades to come.

I'm a fan of How To Train Your Dragon and was looking forward to watching this TV show with higher expectations. After I had saw a few episodes that aired on Cartoon Network, I smiled with joy, saying, "This is turning out to be an amazing show!". I understand that lots of people hated the Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness show, but I was one of the few people who liked it, in my honest opinion and considered it much more watchable for kids. With that said, this show has done well to do justice to the movie-hit back at 2010.

The episodes are well-structured with unique story lines along great character development and the concept that shows solving the situation to every problem. The writing is also pretty good with some witty and hilarious jokes that would never make you stop laughing your head off. The episodes that touched me was where Hiccup leaves Toothless at the Dragon Cove where he first met him and leaving him far away in an island from Berk in the one part-2 episode, which almost made me shed a tear. The characters are likable as ever and some of the voice actors from the original film did great voicing them with great spirit and energy while the villain named Alvin The Treacherous is amazing with some menacing voice work from Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill. The music is very amusing with some of the same motifs from John Powell's original score for the first film.

Overall, Dragons: Riders of Berk is a great TV show that would leave die-hard fans of the movie dying to love it. Due to it's recommendable value, this deserves a solid thumbs up from me!

I'm a big fan of HTTYD so I thought I'd give this show a try. At first I wasn't sure, but it really grew on me. I haven't finished the entire show yet, I'm on season 3 but it's actually really entertaining! My only criticism is that some episodes are predictable and feel like filler episodes, however considering I'm older than the target audience it's not a big deal. It's still a great show and majority of the episodes are really engaging, they don't shy away from high stakes plot lines. The animation is actually surprisingly good, definitely not the movie quality but it holds up well. I really like this show and I love how it lines up with the timelines of the movies. It makes you feel much more connected to the characters and their world.

This show may be suitable for your kids, but as an adult and a real fan of the movie, this series destroys the spirit and feel of the original.

Of course they didn't have the same budget as for the movie to make this series, you can see the CGI is less polished, which isn't that big of an issue for me. Worse is the fact, they didn't get all the original voices(i watched this in German, may be different for other languages) The story lines are a little uninspired and lack the deepness of the movie. This of course is inevitable in 20 minute episodes. They are nonetheless okay, as why i would still recommend this for your kids.

Overall i'd say, stick to the movies :)