While How to Train Your Dragon reached massive audiences in 2010, it failed to reach me until a few months into its run when I caught it on a double bill at an IMAX theater.  To get to the film I wanted to see (Hubble 3D), I had to see the animated adventures of a Viking lad making friends with a dragon, the sworn enemy of his people.  Hardly looking forward to it, I ended up being dazzled at what the folks at DreamWorks Animation had dreamed up and impressed that they had strong material (a series of books written by Cressida Cowell) as a jumping-off point.

I failed to re-watch the original before going into the second film so it took me a while to re-assimilate myself with the characters.  This was made more difficult because everyone has grown up a lot in the three years since we last saw Hiccup, his dragon Toothless, and the rough-and-tumble friends, family, and other breeds of dragon that now comfortably share their beautifully rendered coastal village.

Wasting hardly a second in its running length, we’re soon trailing Hiccup and Toothless as they avoid capture by a band of roving dragon pirates and discover a new world of dragons living in a crystalline ice cave guarded by a mysterious figure known as the Dragon Rider.  Keeping this review as spoiler-free as possible, I’ll only say that the voice of the Dragon Rider is provided by a recent Oscar winner smelling of blue jasmine.  When a sinister foe appears and threatens to destroy the peaceful harmony Hiccup and his kin have formed with the dragons, it’s all hands on deck for a dramatic showdown that will change everything moving forward.

Though rated PG, How to Train Your Dragon 2 is, like the recently released Maleficent, ever so slightly too scary for young children.  Some events transpire that parents may not feel ready to discuss with their children yet but I applaud the filmmakers for handling some delicate moments with sensitivity that doesn’t feel like hand-holding.  Surprisingly, I found myself choking up a bit through several passages in the film that masterfully tug at your heartstrings.

While the computer animation and 3D effects are the dependably stunning work that DreamWorks is known for, the voices assembled are a bit of a hodgepodge.  Eternally squeaky-sounding Jay Baruchel (This Is the End) doesn’t feel quite right for the role…his character has grown in stature but obviously is in his third year of puberty.  Striking a similar dissonant chord is America Ferrera (End of Watch) whose rich tone feels too old for her spunky heroine.  Though the rest barely can be classified as cameos, it was nice to hear the new and returning ensemble talents of Gerard Butler (Olympus Has Fallen), Kit Harington (Pompeii), Djimon Hounsou (Guardians of the Galaxy), Craig Ferguson (Brave), Jonah Hill (Django Unchained), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Kick-Ass 2),  and Kristen Wiig (Girl Most Likely).