June 14, 2014 -- There are more dragons and more battles in this sequel to the lighter, and very popular 2010 animated family film. Word in the business is Dreamworks is in financial trouble so they put everything they had into this film in hopes of duplicating the success of the first film. You can see it in the quality of the animation, which is much more lifelike, reflecting advances in computer animation in the past four years.

All of the main characters and voice talents used in the original are back again, with the addition of a three new characters, Valka (voiced by Cate Blanchett) the mother of the main character, Hiccup. She was assumed to be dead. Missing for 20 years, she suddenly turns up alive and kicking, with friendly dragons in tow. Two other new characters are the dragon trapper Eret and the villain Drago (voiced by Djimon Hounsou of “Blood Diamond”) who is intent on using enslaved dragons to conquer the world.

This story is a good deal darker than the story in the first film. A main character is killed and Hiccup learns that not all negotiations end in peace. Sometimes you have to fight for your freedom, although this is true in the real world far less often than claimed by warmongers. In this film, there is war, death and destruction, but most of this is glossed over even more than one would expect from a combat recruitment film. At the end, there is even a battle between two dragons for the position of dragon Alpha Male.

The story is about two different groups of people with two different relationships with dragons. One group, led by Hiccup, use dragons like horses of the air, treating their dragons as friends and partners. The other, led by Drago, dominate and master the dragons, using them as slaves to do their bidding.

The difficult relationship between Hiccup and his father, Stoic, continues in this film. Hiccup is once again uncomfortable with his father's expectations of him. Hiccup's mother, Valka, fills in an important part of the back story, explaining why Hiccup is so different from his father. There is a nice reconciliation between father, mother and son in the film. The romance between Hiccup and his main squeeze, Astrid, doesn't really go much farther in this film than it did in the first film.

While this film is a bit weaker than the first, it does have a strong story and interesting characters. The main characters, including the new ones, are as strong as they were in the first film. This film rates a B.

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