B+

Strip away the medieval trappings and the 3-D effects, and “How to Train Your Dragon” is basically an old-fashioned Disneyesque boy-and-his-dog tale, even if the critter in this case seems more feline than canine. Fleshed out from the books by Cressida Cowell, the tale of a geeky lad who befriends an injured dragon that helps him earn his daddy’s respect and bring closure to a seemingly incessant war between humans and dragons is extremely polished and well executed, and though it follows formula it tweaks it enough to be quite enjoyable.

The pint-sized hero of the piece is Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel), the son of Stoick (Gerard Butler), the chief of a Viking community somewhere in the Isles. (One of the curiosities here is that the adult Vikings speak with thick Scottish accents while the youngsters sound like contemporary Americans. You’d think they were all adopted.) As the shrimp of the village, Hiccup is assigned to help in the blacksmith shop rather than join his fellow teens in the dragon-fighting school conducted by grizzled Gobber (Craig Ferguson). Dragon-fighting, you see, is the fundamental occupation of the men, because the critters, which exist in bewildering variety (imaginatively rendered here), attack the humans constantly and carry off their food. One might say that there’s a perpetual war between the species.

But Hiccup, an inventive lad anxious to prove himself to his father, fashions a device to shoot down dragons, and amazingly it works, felling the fastest of them all, the fabled Night Fury. But when he finds the injured creature, which because of the damage his weapon has done to its tail can’t extricate itself from the lakeside pit it’s trapped in, Hiccup befriends the beast, uses his skill to build a replacement part to allow the dragon to take to the air again, and then learns to fly atop Toothless, as he dubs his new pal. Eventually the duo become the means of ending the war by joining the two sides in a battle against a common foe, the super-dragon for whom the lesser critters have been forced to keep stealing the humans’ food. Along the way Hiccup gains the affection of Astrid (America Ferrera), the Viking tomboy who learns about Hiccup’s secret.

There’s a good mix of elements in “Dragon.” It’s a story about growing up, of course, and of becoming an unlikely hero in your father’s eyes by remaining true to yourself. It’s also a pretty rousing adventure yarn, filled with spectacular flying sequences and capped with a big final battle against a seemingly invincible foe. And yet it finds room for some rambunctious teen humor involving the other village youngsters, voiced by the likes of Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T.J. Miller and Kristen Wiig, who grow from Hiccup’s tormentors to his comrades-in-arms. And for a genuinely sweet relationship between Hiccup and Astrid, and an even sweeter one between him and Toothless, who’s one of those voiceless animal characters that ultimately seems as human as anybody else on the screen.

The visuals are pretty remarkable throughout, with a wealth of color and detail adding to the texture, and the overall look exhibits an impressive play of light and shade which shows the influence of cinematographer Roger Deakins, who served as consultant. The long, beautifully choreographed scenes in the air—particularly those that make up the “breaking the bronco” montage—are often breathtaking, with effects that add to the action and the 3-D used subtly to increase the impact without becoming obvious or overwhelming.

But for all the eye-popping visuals, it’s the narrative, and the relationships within it, that mark “How to Train Your Dragon” as something special. The script, by directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois along with Will Davies, interlaces the various plot threads nimbly, the character design (by Nico Marlet) and animation (headed by Simon Otto) are top-drawer, and the overall production design (by Kathy Altieri) and art direction (Pierre-Olivier Vincent) would be difficult to improve upon. Add to the mix the nice vocal rapport between Baruchel and Ferrera, the gruffly endearing contributions of Butler and Ferguson, and the typically energetic work of Hill, Mintz-Plasse, Miller and Wiig, as well as John Powell’s bracing score, and you have an aural experience that matches the visual one.

CG animated pictures continue to pour into theatres, and most are pretty mediocre. This is one that stands well above the crowd. It may not match the highest Pixar standard (of “Ratatouille” and “Up”), but it’s a visually spectacular boy-and-his-dragon tale that’s a thoroughly winning combination of action, humor and uplifting messages, all delivered with a happily light touch.

Grade: B+

It’s a musical that doesn’t follow convention—the characters don’t burst into extraneous songs “integrated” into the action, but sing precisely because they’re performers themselves—and a romance that doesn’t end the way you might expect. But though (or perhaps because) it’s so atypical, “Once” is a real charmer. In its low-key, gentle way this small-scaled Irish picture wins you over without appearing even to try.

There’s not much story here. An unnamed guy (Glen Hansard, lead singer/songwriter of the Irish rock group The Frames) is a Dublin busker, a street musician performing his own compositions while working with his Dad (Bill Hodnett) in a vacuum cleaner repair shop. Still nursing the loss of his girlfriend, who’s moved to London, he’s approached one day by the girl (Marketa Irglova, who’s recorded an album with Hansard), a Czech immigrant who supports her mother and young son (the husband is still back home) by selling flowers on the street, and who’s impressed by his music and just happens to have a broken vacuum. She’s a musician, too—a pianist—and by the next day they’re performing one of his songs together at a music shop whose clerk lets her use an instrument over the lunch hour. And shortly thereafter they’re applying for a bank loan to rent a recording studio so that he can make a disc of his songs.

“Once” is undeniably a mere wisp of a tale, but it avoids the curse of cuteness despite the fact that each and every one of the characters is nice (even the unexpected ones) and it seems to be headed for a foregone conclusion (though it might just surprise you). That’s due not merely to the naturalness of Hansard and Irglova, but to the unforced approach of writer-director John Carney and Hansard’s songs, which meet the emotional needs of the story without ever seeming in the least intrusive, as the tunes in even the best of musicals so often do. The appearance of the movie is just right, too, with Tim Fleming’s unpretentious but fluent camerawork perfectly complementing the deceptive plainness of Carney’s storytelling.

It may be titled “Once,” but this movie is so emotionally resonant and exuberantly enjoyable that you might just want to see it more than that.