How To Train Your Dragon is the latest DreamWorks adventure and its easily one of their best. Its a wonderfully constructed and imaginative film which just shows what you can do with original material – you dont have to rely on churning out 3000 sequels to Shrek to be successful.

The Viking Village of Berk is under constant attack by dragons. Fortunately theyre all big burly lunk-headed , horned-helmet wearing types and can fend them off – even if it does mean rebuilding their houses every week.

Hiccup is different. Hes not a fighter, hes a thinker. Too small to be a tough axe-wielding barbarian, he instead spends his time tinkering in the blacksmiths shop where hes an apprentice, much to the disappointment of his burly dad Stoick the Vast, the chief of the village.

The most feared of all dragons is the dreaded Night Fury, a black dragon that no one has ever seen. But when Hiccups makeshift crossbow downs one in the woods, no one believes him, so he heads off to find it by himself.

Discovering the crippled beast in a valley, Hiccup realises he cant kill in cold blood and instead tentatively begins feeding and keeping the dragon, who cant fly out of the caldera its trapped in because of a broken tail fin.

He builds a rapport with the creature, which he names Toothless, eventually fashioning it an artificial tail fin and learning how to ride it.

He also has the dragon trials to contend with – a boot camp designed to teach him and his peers how to fight dragons. No one expects Hiccup to do well, being puny as he is, but he uses his knowledge gained from Toothless to subdue every dragon in the arena. But when his secret dragon taming is discovered by the feisty Astrid, his actions threaten to undermine the villages entire way of life.

How To Train Your Dragon is a marvelous film, its story is constantly engaging and absorbing. It has incredibly strong character design; the different types of dragon are a delight to watch – theyre more than just the fire-breathing scaly monsters of legend; each kind has its own charm and inpiduality.

The way Hiccup slowly builds a relationship with Toothless is as touching as any boy and his dog story – Toothless turns out to be just like any wild animal – scared of humans rather than a fearsome killer.

The excitement of flight that Hiccup feels when he takes to the skies is palpable; theyre actually more exciting than Avatars – you get a real sensation of speed and danger and Hiccups exhilaration at soaring through the clouds becomes your own.

Its hard to think of anyone that wouldnt enjoy this, younger viewers will be thrilled at the fast-paced action and animation and older cinema goers will be charmed out of their seats by a film thats consistently heart-warming, poignant and fun all at the same time. Its an absolute triumph for Dreamworks. Highly recommended.

Voice cast: Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill and Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Directors: Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders
Written by: Cressida Cowell (based on the novel by) Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders
Certificate: PG
Release Date March 31st