A spinoff to 2010’s wonderful How to Train Your Dragon, the animated Riders of Berk collects a quartet of small screen adventures continuing the story of Hiccup, Toothless and fearless friends.

The cinematography and scope of animation (especially in its 3-D presentation) was a huge part of what made How to Train Your Dragon so special, and in its whittled-down, less complicated form, some of the lack of that same level of visual flourish feels like a bummer. The stories here, which are very much of the self-contained variety, find young Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) again frequently clashing with his Viking father, but the fact that so many of the main voice cast — save Gerard Butler, Kristen Wiig and Jonah Hill, really — returns to this serial presentation helps mitigate the rather wan token antagonism, in the form of Mildew (voiced by Stephen Root). Well… at least for younger, less demanding audiences.

Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case, Dragons: Riders of Berk comes to DVD presented in a sharp, 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, with a Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound audio track and optional English and Spanish subtitles. Bonus features are limited to a couple previews, including that of Rise of the Guardians and How to Train Your Dragon‘s live show, though it’s worth noting that a set of five collectible cards spotlighting different dragons is also included. To purchase the DVD via Amazon, click here. C+ (Movie) C+ (Disc)