How to Train Your Dragon

We drove to the now depressing IZOD Center after work last night -- former home of the Nets and the Devils -- to take in a complementary performance of How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular. 

I was skeptical at first, but it really was an interesting bit of "art." Dreamworks is behind it and they spent years building the dragons using many of the techniques first seen in "Jurassic Park." They followed the film's story quite closely and used a projection wall on the back of the arena (the equivalent of nine movie screens) to create a sense of motion and change the scene. The dragons themselves were quite mobile, with the largest having a wing span of 40-feet. Most impressively, the show only performs once in each arena, then loads up on 52 trucks and does a show somewhere else the next night, like the circus.

The kids really enjoyed the show, laughing at the right parts and covering themselves with their blankets when they got scared. 

Toothless and Hiccup meet for the first time.

The Vikings learn that a Gronckle is just a big pussy cat.

Toothless and hiccup on their inaugural flight. (insert soaring orchestral music)

Hiccup tames a Nightmare.

Finale flight and fight with the mother Night Fury.

After the victory, Hiccup's father Stoick the Vast shows off and rides a Gronckle.  "We're Vikings! It's an occupational hazard."