Trailers for this film interested me from the beginning, though the experience itself was only mildly stimulating for all it promised me. The resonance with a book series I read, Dragonriders of Pern, was a definite plus. It was adapted from the first in a series of books, though there’s no evidence that any sequels are planned, though they could be fun. Putting Vikings and Dragons in any film would appeal to a good chunk of people. And even in 2D, it was impressive; contrary to what many people would tell you when recommending the film (3D’s so cool, ooh).
We’re introduced to a Viking village named Berk where the inhabitants are all warriors and kill various types of dragons that attack them. Except the son of the chief, Stoick, whose odd name is Hiccup. He’s clumsy, unable to fight dragons with big weapons and is pretty much a walking disaster. In the middle of the night during a dragon raid, he manages to take down a shadowy dragon with an invention shooting off a Batman style binding rope. But in the process, he also causes another minor disaster in the village and his father lectures him about how much he sucks as a Viking. He sneaks away and tracks down the dragon, which turns out to be a rare dragon. He tries to kill it, but after seeing its fear and sympathizing with it, he frees it and is nearly killed, but the dragon runs away. Stoick, through suggestion of Gobber, the amputee Viking who apprentices Hiccup, allows his son to start dragon training classes. Meanwhile, he goes on another search for the Dragon’s nest to try to take them out for good. Hiccup, after his first failure in dragon training, goes to find the Night Fury (catchy name) and discovers it can’t fly, since part of its tail fin was torn off in the crash. He eventually gains its trust and constructs an artificial tail fin and saddle so that with Hiccup’s help, the dragon, nicknamed “Toothless”, can fly again. Hiccup’s experience with training Toothless enables him to excel at the dragon training classes and impress his instructor and fellow students, making the other top student, Astrid (whom Hiccup has a crush on) jealous of his accomplishments. Hiccup discovers that the dragons are not inherently dangerous and are only defending themselves. His father returns and is happy to find that his son has shown a yet unobserved talent with dragons. After finishing the final exam, Hiccup’s pet dragon is discovered by Astrid and with a little time, she begins to accept that the dragons are not bad, just untrusting of aggressive humans. They are drawn in by a flock of dragons and discover the hidden nest, returning for the conclusion of Hiccup’s final exam, where he is expected to kill a dragon. He tries to calm the dragon, but his father’s interruption causes it to run rampant. Toothless hears Hiccup’s cries and manages to get to Berk, fighting off the raging dragon and nearly killing Stoick. Hiccup calms him and he is subdued. Stoick is irate that his son has befriended a dragon and Hiccup accidentally reveals that he’s been to the nest and that only a dragon can find it. Stoick then takes Toothless and chains him to the ship, using him to find the dragon’s nest, even after Hiccup’s warning that there’s a giant dragon there that they’ll never beat. Hiccup manages to round up the other kids and takes the dragons used for training to the island. The Vikings arrive at the nest and are confronted by the giant dragon after the other smaller dragons have left. They’re subsequently beaten back, their boats all destroyed by the fiery breath of the titan. Hiccup has the others look for any possible blind spots while he goes to save Toothless. Eventually the boat with Toothless on it sinks and Hiccup almost drowns, but is saved by his father. Stoick releases Toothless and Hiccup teams up with his friend to take on the dragon titan. The duo draws the dragon into the air and after damaging its wings, spits fire into its mouth where it falls to the ground, exploding with the internal gas the dragons use to breathe fire. Hiccup seemingly falls to his death after crashing into the dragon’s tail, but Toothless manages to save him and the battle ends. Hiccup wakes up with Toothless at his side at home, discovering he has lost half of his left leg in the accident, replaced by a prosthetic, similar to Gobber’s. Hiccup leaves the house to discover that the village has incorporated the dragons into daily life and everything is at peace. He gets a kiss from Astrid, who’s fallen in love with his dragon-riding charms. Hiccup and Toothless then ride off into the sky as we get a nice pan shot of the village’s recovery and the other kids joining him.
There are only four important characters to speak of. Jay Baruchel voices Hiccup. Sarcastic, scientific and otherwise different from the other Vikings, he’s a wiry kid that stands out from the other kids, since he’s relatively balanced and most of the others are too thin or fat to be taken seriously. Hiccup is remarkably insightful and courageous as the film goes on, defying the stereotype that’s been placed on him. His father, Stoick, voiced by Gerard Butler, is a typical Viking; big, brawny, doesn’t talk much about his feelings and ready to kill anything that gets in his way. He’s stubborn and like adults in many kid’s films, is unwilling to take kids seriously or accept them for who they are until the end of the movie. He definitely has high expectations for Hiccup and is a bit odd wearing a helmet made from his late wife’s breastplate (2 breast helmets, yes). America Ferrera depicts the only important female character in the film, Astrid. A major tomboy and probably the best dragon fighter of the kids, she’s unfriendly to Hiccup and jealous of the experience he gains with dragons. But she warms to him and Toothless with a little excitement in the form of a swift flight on the back of the purple-black pet. Overall, she’s both a good romantic interest and foil to Hiccup as a Viking child. Craig Ferguson portrays Gobber, the dragon training instructor. He has one hand and one leg missing, eaten by dragons. But he fights well all the same even with a prosthetic leg and arm. And he serves as a foil to Stoick, actually seeing Hiccup as having some potential, even if he recognizes that it may come out differently than the other kids. The other Viking kids are relatively stock characters: two twins, a macho jerk and a fat tabletop RPG nerd complete the set of 6 that’s common in films these days (though five always is a nice number too). Toothless is the only important dragon. His mannerisms are reminiscent of pets, albeit in a larger form. And as per many animals domesticated, it is initially skeptical of humans, but like Astrid, warms to Hiccup. Although admittedly it’s probably been taken in by getting fed lots of fish; unlike the girlfriend who likes him because of the courage and all.
There are two overlapping themes in the film. The first one is obvious from the set up, a conflict between man and nature, Viking and Dragon. And progressively they learn from each other, Vikings from Dragons mostly. The Vikings regard Dragons as beasts who only desire to kill, but Hiccup shows the others that they’re just defending themselves and are actually in a situation of their own with the seemingly ancient dragon that asks for food from them or threatens their lives. This suggests that the dragons are responding negatively to human aggression and are only behaving as benefits their group, even if it must cause problems for humans. And another lesson learned by the Vikings from the dragons is the need to be more sympathetic to non-humans and their plights. The other important issue that comes about in many films these days, including this one, is the division between human feelings and duty to a cause. Stoick manifests the latter, ignoring his son’s pleas to save the dragons in order to maintain the Viking traditions. Hiccup defies the traditions, not wanting to fight or kill dragons and rejecting the opportunity to killing one for his final exam, even being rejected by his father. With the “us versus them” mentality pushed around by the Viking culture in the film, Hiccup is all the more divided and ostracized by the village when they find he has befriended dragons even after they praised him before for being so amazing at “defeating” them. And we get the idea that adults can learn important things from children; the most important of these lessons being that might doesn’t make right and every perceived enemy is likely just as scared of you as you are of them. This goes double for the dragons that are afraid of their master and also of the humans killing them off. The film really seems to resonate with Avatar, though I have not seen that yet. I might get to it in the future.
While I find the plot progression somewhat predictable, the new and yet familiar medium of a world where humans and dragons interact puts this film in a good position. The romance is not too sappy and is actually a nice reversal of the usual gender roles, the female being more aggressive and the male more submissive. Not to mention father/son interactions and the connection any viewer can make to Hiccup’s dilemmas and development as a character. This film gets 5 out of 5 from me, with an 80% recommendation due to the inexplicable loss of Hiccup’s leg, hardly explained and hardly necessary for a happy ending where the guy gets the girl and everyone’s happy. Until next time, Namaste and Aloha.
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