How to Train Your Dragon – 2010
“Everything we know about you guys is wrong.”
By: Mohannad Al-Jundi
It’s hopeless, freezing to death, located on the meridian of misery and sturdy. That’s how Hiccup describes his village, which called ‘Birk’, where dragons hunt for food and his people, the mighty strong Vikings, fight them back and defend their territory. However, our hero, Hiccup, can’t be more different, he’s a skinny shaky little boy who doesn’t really fit into this whole stubbornness of Vikings must-kill-dragons formula. Although he tries to be one, Hiccup only manages to get worse when it comes to be a true traditional Viking – or wrestling against dragons for that matter. Until one day, he discovers that it’s alright to be different, or even special, in his own quirky way of course.
Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders’s How to Train Your Dragon has this truly refreshing and light sense of filmmaking, which you can only find in the best animation pictures there are, by taking a classic idea of the underdog who rises to the occasion, and turning it to a smarter and adventurous one, filled with exquisite graphics and marvelous touching moments. The movie works for all the obvious reasons, not only for the voiceover choices – Jay Baruchel is perfect as Hiccup, while Gerard Butler wears Stoick like a glove – and the entertaining storytelling, but also in putting all the needed power that the Vikings aspire for in their most marginal character, who certainly has the heart of a dragon.
His training for Toothless ends up vice-versa and emotionally inspiring as a coming-of-age story/experience where everything is possible, except maybe finding any dragons to train nowadays.
