Jane Doe Having Toothless give up his independence, returning him into depending on his Master to be able to get around - well that just felt right creepy. They could have easily gone flying together without him sacrificing his freedom. Probably a better analogy out there but it felt like a slave being unchained and set free, only to return and reattach the chain round his neck. Left a right bitter taste.

Charles Herold (cherold) While the original movie and its sequel were both excellent, this short is a huge disappointment; a bland kids' movie with an inane story and little of the humor and excitement of the features.As the short begins, all the dragons fly off. The kids are sad, and wonder where they've gone, but they don't do anything to try and figure it out. If this were a two-hour movie, it would turn into the adventure of someone trying to find them, but it's 20 minutes, so they don't have time for anyone to even wonder too deeply.************** SPOILERS ******************** There are other things in the movie that don't make much sense. One kid chains up his dragon to prevent it from leaving, but it's unclear how he would know he needed to chain it up. When the dragon is set free, it flies off to join the others, even though the others had flown to an island to lay eggs, and this dragon had laid its eggs where it was chained (which means it simply left them behind without a thought).And while the protagonist could have used his disabled dragon to follow the others, instead he makes it a way to fly off on its own. And it follows a different course than all the others, which doesn't really make that much sense either.

MartinHafer The original "How to Train Your Dragon" was a dandy film and I thought it was the best full-length animated film of the year (though it lost the Oscar to "Toy Story III"). It was very original and had absolutely gorgeous CGI. "Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury" is a recently released short based on the characters from the film and comes on a disk with another short (a far inferior one, if you ask me)."Gift of the Night Fury" occurs following the original film--and now it's common for the Vikings to have dragons as pets. However, when their big holiday of 'Snoggletog' arrives, it coincides with a VERY strange thing--nearly all of the dragons fly off--disappearing for some mysterious reason--which isn't discovered until much later in the film. Another plot line involves Toothless getting a new tail--one that SHOULD enable him to live independently. But, there is a surprise catch... I'd say more, but I don't want to spoil it.In many ways this is like a Christmas short--without Jesus or any of the other Christian trappings (since these Vikings are of the pagan variety). It's quite enjoyable...and even a bit heartwarming at the end. But, it's not exactly original and isn't so amazing after you've seen the original film. But, the animation is very nice and it's well worth seeing if you are a fan of the film. Cute.Merry Snoggletog, y'all!

action-jackson-805-279344 As many of you were fearing, we all thought after the...."interesting" short that was "Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon" last year that hope for the HTTYD franchise being up to par with the movie was very slim, and it was...but somehow out of all those odds, Dreamworks managed to release a short with so much depth you literally drown in the ocean of emotions it overwhelms you in...and a holiday short, nonetheless."Gift of the Night Fury" is certainly a "gift" to all the fans who are really looking for something that matches the emotional depth of the movie, and in some cases (dare I say) the level of mature character development in this short exceeded the movie. It manages to cram more emotion in 22 minutes than most movies can in 2 hours, which says a whole lot.This could've easily been another silly short with slapstick comedy, sassy one-liners, and clichéd morals about holiday nonsense, but even though "Gift of the Night Fury" was a holiday short, it really does more to bridge the gap between the movie and ultimately the TV show with the holiday theme as more of an undertone to everything else going on.The character development, as mentioned before, was where this story really shined. Everyone was so in character and the interactions between everyone was believable, easy, and lovable. Who mostly stood out, though, was of course Hiccup and Toothless's bond (honestly, one of the best friendships for animated characters in general) it really showed how much closer these two are becoming and gives promises that everything you see is 100% genuine. But, surprisingly enough, even Hiccup's relationship with his new girlfriend Astrid was a nice and easy addition to the mix of things as well. I really applaud shows that have the guts to have two people openly date since most animated TV shows (or just TV shows in general) always focus on getting two characters together rather than what happens afterwards. Hiccup and Astrid's interactions were so wonderful and you can really feel the chemistry and strong yet relaxed feelings of comfort and warmth between these two (ah, young love).The addition of baby dragons was handled very carefully as well, and it did it's job to make you go "awww" when you were supposed to as well as giving the Vikings and Dragons one more thing to bond over. I love how this short shows how attached the Vikings already are to their dragons and this is definitely shown in the ending.Even the animation quality was up to speed with the movie. You could tell it wasn't the same scoop as the movie--probably due to a budget cut and time issues--but it had the same level of detail to surroundings and careful attention to movement as the movie did.Honestly, in my opinion this short pulled out all the stops and went above and beyond the call of duty to create a heartwarming story with all the assets of the movie that we know and love as well as throwing in some new ones that only made us love Hicucp, Toothless, Astrid, and all the other Vikings and Dragons on Berk even more.I'd give it a 12 out of 10 if I could...yes, it's THAT good. And if anyone is a fan of the movie and simply fears franchise expansion, don't be afraid to watch "Gift of the Night Fury" it's a wonderful second chapter to the HTTYD story.