Product Description

A young Viking named Hiccup lives on the windswept island of Berk, where his father Stoic the Vast is the tribe's feared chief, and fighting dragons is part of every young warrior's training. But Hiccup's destiny of becoming a prized dragon fighter takes an unexpected diversion when he saves and befriends an injured dragon, Toothless. Hiccup now embarks on a mission of his own to convince his tribe to abandon its barbaric tradition of ruthless dragon-slaying and try out some new methods.

How to Train Your Dragon's full HD 3D Blu-ray transfer is impressive, but it's no better or no worse than the average animated 3D Blu-ray presentation. The transfer's traditional attributes impress, and in terms of raw detail, color reproduction, and the like, this 3D presentation is nearly the match of the standalone 2D release. Indeed, the remarkable detailing of the 2D release remains intact here, with the image revealing the finest nuances in clothes, hair, faces, rocks, landscapes, and Toothless' roughly-textured hide. Colors are natural and eye-catching throughout, with the bright hues seen on various dragon hides and numerous wooden shields appearing without any perceptible loss of vibrancy through the 3D filter. If there's a drawback to any one area of the transfer, it comes in the form of blacks that are simply too dark; no doubt parts of How to Train Your Dragon are by their very nature dark, particularly the opening battle sequence, but the transfer's blacks are so overwhelming that there are several instances where they just devour the entire screen and leave little room for anything but the faintest of outlines of foreground characters. Otherwise, this 3D presentation is comparable to DreamWorks' exceptional 2D effort, and save for those blacks, the differences between those elements both transfers share in common are negligible at worst.

How to Train Your Dragon's 2D Blu-ray featured an excellent sense of depth to begin with, and it's only enhanced by this quality 3D presentation. Like most of the other Blu-ray 3D releases, Dragon's visuals are more about achieving a sense of realistic depth than they are wowing the audience with pointless gimmicks that usually only deflect attention away from the overall quality of the presentation. How to Train Your Dragon, much like the 3D release of My Bloody Valentine, doesn't work quite as well in its darker scenes as it does when working around brighter backdrops. Considering just how dark this 3D transfer can be, it's no surprise that the 3D effect appears diminished under the crushing blacks, but viewers will notice the image's many plusses in the 3D arena once it lightens up. The transfer handles both the obviously 3D environments and the not-so-obvious little touches that truly make a 3D transfer a winner equally well. The digital environment is home to several locales that benefit from the added depth; the Vikings training arena appears as a seamless 360-degree environment with plenty of perceptible spacing both around the entire perimeter and through its vertical axis. Likewise, the clearing where Hiccup and Toothless form their friendship appears as a spectacularly-realized environment where viewers will note the spacing between rocks, grasses, and other objects. The wooded area outside the clearing offers some of the finest 3D imagery yet; not only is the spacing between trees nothing short of real in appearance, but the way the various crooked branches hang around the screen adds another layer of impressive depth that replicates the look and feel of such a location almost too well.

It's no surprise that these environments look great; any 3D image worth its Blu-ray disc should achieve similar results, so what sets the better transfers apart from the lesser ones is the way it handles the less obvious but no less important aspects that put the finishing touches on a great 3D presentation. Small details like the way a character's chin juts out from his face; the way sparks from a fire float around the screen and, in this case, seemingly in front of and behind it; an underwater shot where a fish seems to be swimming in front of the television screen; the feeling of real space as a dragon flies around the screen, offset against a monochromatic overcast sky; or even the sensation that dense fog is floating by in layers rather than as a singular gray chunk all contribute to an overall high quality image and help make a traditionally good 3D image great. Of all of the transfer's nice little touches, the best arguably comes in chapter five during a scene featuring Hiccup studying an old book on dragons. The way the pages lay one atop another and fall in towards the middle where they're attached to the spine gives off an incredibly realistic sensation that perfectly duplicates the look of an open book lying on a flat surface. It's such a mundane visual but nevertheless one that works incredibly well in 3D, and it's those sort of little touches that are just as likely to impress as the bigger, more generalized attributes that so often overwhelm most 3D Blu-ray discussions. The only real issue here is that viewers will still have to contend with some bouts of ghosting and transparency around a few edges, usually off to one side of Hiccup's face. Such occurrences -- at least on Panasonic's first-generation plasma unit -- are the exception rather than the rule, and they aren't cause for too much alarm or distraction. The biggest fault of this transfer is definitely the overwhelming blacks. As a raw 3D effort it's otherwise about as good as anything else out there right now, and it's too bad it's currently only available as a pricy exclusive title. Please note that all screenshots in this review were captured from the 2D transfer located on the 3D disc.

Many Blu-ray and 3D fans were understandably perplexed and upset when DreamWorks' bundled-exclusive release of Monsters vs. Aliens -- the first-ever 3D title available -- was absent a lossless soundtrack. Several months later, the studio's second release -- again a Samsung exclusive -- has not only made things right with the inclusion of a losses track, but DreamWorks has gone one step further by one-upping the standard 2D release of How to Train Your Dragon by granting the 3D release with a full-fledged 7.1 TrueHD soundtrack, adding two additional surround channels not available on the 2D version's 5.1 TrueHD presentation. The 2D release's lossless soundtrack is amazing, but the added presence of the additional two channels manages to makes this release's soundtrack even better. Indeed, the track takes full advantage of the added channels, creating an even more refined, seamless, and all-encompassing soundstage. Music is subtly supported by the back channels but is spaciously and with infinite clarity and power handled primarily across the front. Dialogue is perfectly centered and amazingly clear and accurate, with just enough force behind it to give it a big, cinematic feel. Bass is fantastically aggressive and effortlessly strong, rattling the soundstage with regularity but never playing as sloppy or absent precise levels of power. Best of all, the track makes full use of the added surround channels; the opening battle between Vikings and Dragons delivers plenty of pinpoint effects and swooping, multi-directional elements. Whether fireballs zipping straight through the listening area from front to back or the Night Fury screeching its way around the listening area, listeners will feel engulfed in a seamless 360-degree field of sound that's as impressive as most anything else on Blu-ray. Atmospherics are perfect, too, with the track delivering plenty of natural environmental effects -- slight breezes, chirping birds, or the sound of crackling fires -- here and there around the soundstage to put the finishing touches on a perfect 7.1 soundtrack. Why this track wasn't included with the 2D release is anyone's guess, but 3D fans are in for a real treat with this exceptional soundtrack that's easily one of the year's best.

3D Blu-ray DVD Movies Disc - How to Train Your Dragon Features

Video
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Audio

English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1
German: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 ... (more)
Note: Also includes Turkish Dol...
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1
German: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Korean: Dolby Digital 5.1
Mandarin: Dolby Digital 5.1
Dutch: Dolby Digital 5.1
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Russian: Dolby Digital 5.1 (less)
Note: Also includes Turkish Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles

English, German, French, Italian, Korean, Chinese etc.

Discs
50GB Blu-ray Disc

Package Content

3D Blu-ray DVD Movies Disc(50GB) - 3D Blu-ray DVD Movies Disc - How to Train Your Dragon x 1