How To Train Your Dragon 3D * * * * *
(Cert PG, 98 mins)

The more Hollywood has embraced violence at an adult level, the more the British Board of Film Classification has lowered the strength of its certificates in turn.

But ever since Toy Story and Babe in the mid 1990s, children’s movies have generally been the most consistent source of pure, silver screen entertainment bar none despite some clangers en route including Disney’s Meet The Robinsons.

For the most part, though, the top end of the children’s market is full of rich storytelling, brave technological developments and magical moments.

While this century’s best live action movies include The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, The Last Mimzy, Bridge To Terabithia, The Spiderwick Chronicles and last week’s fabulous Nanny McPhee & The Big Bang, the computer drawing board geniuses keep taking us to new heights.

Pixar adventures like Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E and Up are not the only ones to have benefited from the keen competition of DreamWorks’ animation hits like Shrek, Kung Fu Panda and Monsters vs Aliens.

With both companies constantly straining every sinew in the search for pure excellence, it’s the viewer who wins every time. And so it is again with DreamWorks’ latest adventure How To Train Your Dragon.

Best seen in 3D, but especially so in IMAX format on the enormous screen at Birmingham’s Millennium Point, this is a fabulous combination of Vikings, dragons and action.

Gerard Butler voices Chief Stoick, an imposingly tough Viking with the physique of a Robbie Coltrane and a tongue just as sharp.

In an unforgiving land called Berk, young son Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) thinks he’s never going to match up to the killer-instinct of his race.

But when he captures the elusive Night Fury and begins to train the dragon instead of killing it, the path of history is about to change for ever.

Based on the books by Cressida Cowell, How To Train Your Dragon is a good story that’s been cleverly scripted and brilliantly animated.

In short it’s Avatar for children – the flying scenes are even better and it comes minus the bad language and violent gun battles.

Children under six should be happy enough with the 2D version but do take six-year-olds and upwards to a 3D screen for an Easter treat.

And, if you want a 20 per cent turbo charge on top, it has to be the IMAX.

As the fans who have still been turning up in their hundreds to the see the 9.45pm weekend screenings of Avatar will testify, there’s no experience quite like it.

GY

Kick-Ass * * * *
(Cert 15, 117 mins)

This is a hugely entertaining film, though I can’t whole-heartedly recommend it.

Don’t see it if you’re easily offended. Even hardy souls like this reviewer may wince a few times – particularly when an 11-year-old girl says the ‘C’ word before mowing down baddies using extreme violence.

But if you choose to see this as brave, edgy and hilarious, rather than morally dubious, then you’ll love the rest of the movie.

It’s set in New York and based on a series of American comic books, but Kick-Ass is almost a British movie. It’s written by Jane Goldman, aka Mrs Jonathan Ross, and directed by Matthew Vaughn, Guy Ritchie’s old mate who brought us Stardust.

The baddie, Mark Strong, is a Brit, and watch out for the likes of Dexter Fletcher and Jason Flemyng.

Most importantly, the lead actor, Aaron Johnson, is from High Wycombe – not that you’d ever realise it. Having put on a Scouse accent to play John Lennon in Nowhere Boy, he’s now an utterly convincing American.

He plays geeky Dave Lizewski, who decides to become a real-life superhero, even though “my only super power was being invisible to girls”.

He looks ridiculous when he buys a green wetsuit and mask and, not surprisingly, he just gets laughed at by the villains when he reveals his alter ego of Kick-Ass. Then they stab him and he ends up in hospital.

But he’s not put off his mission and gets into another fight, which is videoed and put on YouTube. After 20 million internet hits, Kick-Ass becomes a news phenomenon.

He certainly attracts the attention of some real superheroes. Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and his daughter Mindy, aka Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz) don’t have any super powers either, but they do have a vast arsenal of weapons and are highly skilled at fighting. Mindy has been trained to kill since she was a tot by her moustachioed father, who buys her knives for her birthday and hardens her up by shooting her in the chest. “That wasn’t so bad. Kinda fun, huh?” he tells her after flattening the lass.

The pair come to Kick-Ass’s assistance as they fight gang boss Frank D’Amico (Strong), but will they be able to suss out whose side his son Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) is on?

Kick-Ass starts with a big laugh and they don’t stop coming for two hours. The script is sharp, there are clever comic book graphics, a cool soundtrack and a satisfying ending.

It’s very violent with quite a few ‘ewww’ moments, but if you can cope with a swearing, killing child, you’ll have fun.

RL