How To Train Your Dragon is the best animation I have seen since Wall-E and one of the best films so far this year. This comes as a surprise, given the lack of advertising hype surrounding it and that it comes from Dreamworks (more famous for the lacklustre Shrek series than for quality animation), but everything about How To Train Your Dragon just works.

The animation is breathtaking: the detail in the environment, the textures of hair and fur, the character design - these are all astounding. But great visuals don’t necessarily make a great film, and I’m pleased to say How To Train Your Dragon delivers on every other level too.

To start, the film is genuinely funny, with humour derived from both the excellent script, which avoids the pop-culture references of Dreamworks’ past, and from physical humour (if ‘physical’ is a term that can be used in animation). The film’s script also contains genuine heart, something often forgotten in contemporary children’s animation, with characters and relationships you really believe in and feel for. This is all helped by the superb voice acting delivered all round - even from Gerard Butler.

Just to make the experience even more complete, How To Train Your Dragon also throws in some thrilling action scenes, as engrossing as anything seen in Avatar.

How To Train Your Dragon is a cinematic experience that should be had by all, whether young or old, it’s a marvel of contemporary mainstream filmmaking.