Best creature design of the year: Toothless

"So he[Toothless] has to do a great deal of acting and that’s one of the guiding principles behind his design, that he be frightening and a bit of a Stealth Fighter in their world, but also have the design elements that would make him friendly and cute and really adorable when it comes time to really get to know him." — Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois

They also said they modelled the rest of the dragons on reptiles and Toothless on mammals. It shows: he moves like an otter, rolls in grass like a dog, and gets crazy like a cat. I do not expect to see a better piece of creature design all year, for one basic reason: no matter how cute he looks, he never ceases to look comparably lethal. It's quite a trick to pull off. I think the black Goodyear-tyre-stealth-bomber-salamandar coat does a lot of the work. The movie is not bad, either, although it's too talky, in the manner of Jeffrey Katzenberg animated productions — there's even a bit of voiceover narration over a dragon attack, which is simply criminal. There's also an apology due the dragon from the boy which goes missing somewhere. But not bad.