How To Train Your Dragon

Composed by John Powell, released 23rd of March 2010.

I saw this recently and absolutely loved it. I remember seeing the trailer over a year ago and thinking that it looked like a mediocre animated film, similar to Over The Hedge. However, when it was released, it was a big success critically, but I never got round to seeing it in the cinema unfortunately, although now I wish I had. 

I didn't notice the music throughout the whole film, but there were points when I thought "Blimey, that piece is lovely." For example, the scene when Hiccup makes friends with Toothless, as seen on the cover art above. The scene involves almost no dialogue, and so the music is quite noticeable. It's really beautiful. This is a bit of a lame example but it reminds me of the relationship between me and my cat, because we don't talk. Obviously, in this story, there's a lot more danger involved because there's a dragon, not a cat. I think that the piece 'Forbidden Friendship' shows this well, because you can also hear elements of danger in the music, that would be involved with becoming friends with a dragon. From this track alone, it is obvious to me why this was nominated for 'Best Original Score' at the Oscars. However, I'm not mad about it not winning, because I also like The Social Network score. 

From reading a lot of other people's thoughts about this soundtrack, the tracks which accompany the more action-based scenes in the film are fairly popular too. However, I prefer the tracks that represent the relationship side to the film, such as 'Romantic Flight'. I enjoy the louder, more epic tracks, but I prefer the more emotional parts, as it were.

The song that plays in the end credits is 'Sticks & Stones' by Jónsi, who is well known as being the main vocalist in the band  Sigur Rós, whom I adore. John Powell even said " I've always liked Sigur Rós. They were an influence as well, even though that seems paradoxical" I haven't listened to much of Jónsi's solo music before though, but I really like this song. Simply, it's a very positive song. It's not a traditional song you would expect in an animated film, but it has that same feeling of satisfaction you get after finishing a brilliant film, and completes the film superbly.

My favourite tracks are: This Is Berk, Forbidden Friendship, See You Tomorrow, Test Drive, Romantic Flight and Coming Back Around.

I would give this soundtrack a rating of 9/10.