Back in 2010, the long-awaited Toy Story 3 finally saw release after having been in development for eleven years. Everyone expected that movie to be the best animated movie of the year by a long shot, due to the high quality of the first two beloved installments. No one expected How to Train Your Dragon to end up giving the beloved sequel a run for its money. The film was made by DreamWorks, a company which was by no means a bad thing, but DreamWorks was not as beloved as its competitor Pixar, with many of its movies outside of the first two Shrek movies at the time not finding the same sort of critical acclaim. So How to Train Your Dragon being as good as it was came as a bit of a shocker at the time.
The film takes place in a Viking village called Berk, where a young boy named Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) looks attempts to win over his father, the village’s chief Stoick (Gerard Butler), by attempting to take part in dragon-fighting using his many inventions as a way to make up for how much smaller he is than the other Vikings. One day, one of his inventions cripples a dangerous, rare dragon known as a Night Fury, and finds that he’s unable to go through with killing it, instead making an invention to act as a replacement tail fin for it. While Stoick is away trying to find a dragon’s nest, Hiccup befriends the Night Fury - which he names Toothless - and uses what he learns about the dragon’s behavior to make him excel in Berk’s dragon training and become beloved by the entire village.
The movie is probably the best Pixar movie that Pixar never made, as it contains a lot of the same overall feel of many of its competitors other films. The film has a heart as big as many of the giant dragons that we see throughout this, touching a lot upon the subjects of family and feeling acceptance by others. Two of the main driving forces through this movie are simply building the relationship between Hiccup and Toothless, as well as Hiccup working towards simply changing the rest of Berk’s perception about him.
Sure, the film eventually reveals a larger plot later on involving the dragons and their battle with a much larger, more antagonistic dragon which takes up much of the film’s second half, but it feels secondary to the rest of the movie’s overall themes. What makes How to Train Your Dragon so refreshing is the fact that it’s a movie based more around simple family drama rather than a “good vs. evil” sort of story. And the family drama is actually incredibly riveting to watch.
There are scenes of conflict that simply involve Stoick and Hiccup getting upset with one another, or some of the other Vikings - who are by no means bad people - butting heads with Hiccup, and these manage to come off as much more compelling scenes than any story line that would have pit the Vikings up against someone evil. What makes these work so well is that, despite being a movie being about dragons, every character in this movie feels so incredibly real. Each of their concerns, fears, and moments of joy all stem from factors that the audience can relate to. Everyone is extremely well-written with some sort of extra layer about them that allows the audience to really become invested in them.
However, the character who we probably wind up connecting with the most is the one who never speaks: Toothless. Making the dragons unable to talk was probably the best creative decision made in this entire movie, as we get much more emotion from Toothless without having to hear him speak. Some of the film’s more emotional moments come from just seeing the expression on Toothless’ face. The film succeeds immensely by conveying how two characters feel by seeing them simply look at each other, and it continues to support how real this movie can feel. Not every thought or idea is conveyed through randomly expressing one’s thoughts out loud to no one, and sometimes all it takes is just a look, and it can express a lot.
The film's animation in general is a big part of why it succeeds. In addition to the expressions on Toothless’ face, there are many moments in which the animation is absolutely stunning to watch. The scenes in which Hiccup is re-teaching Toothless how to fly are beautifully done. When we see Hiccup riding Toothless, there’s not much else going on in the background, yet there’s still plenty of attention to detail given in each of these moments, making the scenery just as gorgeous as the dragon itself.
Many of these eye-popping visual moments are supported by an excellent soundtrack from composer John Powell. The music contains many Celtic influences, employing instruments such as the bagpipes and fiddles, that fit in perfectly with the film’s setting. Most of the music gives the film and “epic” sort of feel, especially during the scenes of flight and dragon-battling, with the reoccurring “This is Berk” theme being one of the biggest standout tracks of the score. Even in some of the more subdued moments, the bombastic soundtrack still remains prevalent, never necessarily trying to manipulate our emotions but instead providing wonderful support as two characters share a simple exchange.
And as emotional as the movie can be, it’s also extremely funny. The cast is made up mostly of comedians who haven’t necessarily dabbled in voice work too much before this, including Baruchel, Craig Ferguson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jonah Hill, and Kristen Wiig. And many of them knock it out of the park here. Most of the jokes are some really fun banters between characters, and the film forgoes resorting to any visual gags. Baruchel is hilariously deadpan as Hiccup while still being one of the film’s biggest sources of emotion. Ferguson gets in some really great throwaway lines that make for some fun exchanges with the rest of the cast, especially Baruchel. Out of the other young dragon trainers that include Wiig and Hill, the biggest standout is easily Mintz-Plasse as Fishlegs, who keeps relating the dragon training to his knowledge of roleplaying games, where he’ll mutter some quick words under his breath that make for some of the film’s funniest moments.
How to Train Your Dragon is a mix of many genres. It’s a laugh-out-loud comedy. It’s an action-packed adventure movie. It’s also a heartfelt family drama. The film contains stunning animation with fantastic visuals that go all the way down to just the simple looks on characters’ faces. It’s supported by a wonderful soundtrack that’s grandiose at almost every waking moment, but keeps the film at a lively pace. And it has a very small, yet stellar cast, with just about everyone getting their time to shine in one way or the other. With plenty of great jokes that adults will enjoy as well as a big enough heart that younger audiences will appreciate, this film contains elements that appeal to all ages, and easily goes down as one of the best animated films in recent years.
Comments