No
matter how he tries, Hiccup just can’t fit in. The small, stickly
Hiccup is the son of Stoick, the mighty chief of their Viking clan. The
boy is more meant for academic pursuits than marauding and raiding
dragon hideouts, yet that’s what his people do and Hiccup is going to
make himself into the son his father wants him to be. During a
nighttime attack on the village, Hiccup jumps into the action believing
he’s spotted a Night Fury, the rarest of the pantheon of dragons.
Unfortunately for Hiccup, his attempt to capture this deadliest of
flying lizards not only appears to fall short but nearly burns down the
town. His grand failure makes Hiccup determined to be a slayer like his
old man and he takes up dragon training with the rest of the clan’s
teens. It’s only after his first session shows him to be utterly unfit
for any kind of slaying does Hiccup discover he’s not as bad at hunting
dragons as he thought.
In the
depths of a valley, an inky black figure lies bound and helpless, tied
in the net of ropes Hiccup shot the night before. Hiccup can now redeem
himself by being the only Viking in history to slay a Night Fury, but
his kind heart won’t let him and he frees his prey. He later discovers
the dragon is wounded from his attack and Hiccup uses his inventing
smarts to try to win the dragon’s trust and set the big lizard up with a
prosthetic tailfin. His growing closeness to the oversize reptile,
whose retractable fangs have Hiccup erroneously dubbing him Toothless,
gives the boy an understanding of dragons that none of his Viking clan
possess. This also gives him a big edge in training and soon Hiccup is
miles beyond his peers and the most popular boy in the neighbourhood,
delighting his father for the first time. Knowing his secret about
Toothless can’t go undiscovered much longer, Hiccup decides to reveal
the reasons for his sudden dragon mastery and his unwillingness to kill
the clan’s long-sworn enemies, once again making him an outcast and
shaming him in the eyes of his dad. Not taking the disappointment at
all well, Stoick captures Toothless and against Hiccup’s pleas, uses him
to track down the legendary dragon’s nest; a place so scary, not even
dragons want to go there. Hiccup knows the proud Viking has bitten off
more than he can chew and before his entire village gets chewed by the
enormous queen (king?) bee of the dragon world and sent to
Valhalla, he gathers his fellow dragon trainees to work with the dragons
to save their clan.
How to
Train Your Dragon has all the elements of what makes an animated movie
work for the entire family. Broad enough in its comedy to include
slapstick for the little ones, the filmmakers throw in a hilarious
moment about the origin of a Hiccup’s new helmet not entirely meant for
the kiddies. The relationship between Toothless and Hiccup is very
sweet. The action is exhilarating and Hiccup’s flights over the clouds
on the back of his new friend are rendered beautifully as are all the
designs and backgrounds. We’re given a sense of the freedom and power
of what one imagines a dragon in flight to have, similar to Harry’s
jubilant ride on the back of Buckbeak the Hippogriff in 2004’s Harry
Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The drawings are so textured that
when Hiccup and his rival in training, Astrid sail through the clouds,
you can practically feel the coolness and condensation around them. The
Viking elders are depicted as a mix of Asterix and Hagar the Horrible,
while Hiccup and his friends look fairly up-to-date, even twins Tuffnut
and Ruffnut look like a pair of metalheads with their long blonde locks
and horned helmets. Petite Astrid dresses like a teenage Xena, Warrior
Princess, right down to her Ugg-patterned snow boots. Great designs
also make up the wacky rogues’ gallery of dragons: The boil-covered
Gronkle resembles a giant grub with wings. The Deadly Nadder is the
beaky, colourful parrot of the reptile world. The Terrible Terrors are
little gecko-like fellows that resemble a tweaked-out Spyro whose burst
of flame really packs a punch. The two heads of the serpentine Hideous
Zippleback work in tandem; one breathing gas and the other lighting it.
The reptile who shall not be named in the legendary dragon’s nest is a
perverse mix of the Cloverfield thing and the glimpses of the Kraken
from Warner Brothers’ upcoming Clash of the Titans remake. Toothless is
a great looking creature, kind of like an expensive looking Pokémon
crossed with a bat. He’s made of anime cuteness with a hilariously
expressive face featuring huge feline eyes the day-glo colour of
anti-freeze and textured skin meant to look like leather or scales, but
closer to the shiny nubbed fabric found on Beanie Babies. He’s fierce
enough for boys to consider cool, but huggable enough for girls. Once
Hiccup becomes close enough to study him, he sees that Toothless’
behaviour is more like a giddy kitten than the ferocious monsters of
clan lore and the dragon’s devotion to Hiccup would put the most loyal
puppy to shame.
Jay
Baruchel as Hiccup first brought to mind the voice of Mike Myers, but
strangely in a land where all the Vikings have Scottish accents and
Hiccup and his younger set didn’t, I was sure that couldn’t be right.
Gerard Butler’s casting as Hiccup’s brave father Stoick (- Not just a
name, but a way of life.), might be the best thing he’s done since
300. He and fellow Scot Craig Ferguson as Gobber, Stoick’s right hand
man - without a right-hand, or foot - deliver the slyly offhand humour
brilliantly, with Butler putting real feeling into this gruff single
parent who loves his son but can’t find a way to cross the gap between
them.
How to
Train Your Dragon hasn’t the emotional pull of Up, nor the edgy
aesthetics of Coraline or 9 {all from 2009}, but it is an
enjoyable time at the movies. In this dry season of back-of-the-shelf
studio castoffs, How to Train Your Dragon is like a breath of fresh air
to excite and entertain the kiddies and remind grown-ups of the fun
movie going is meant to be.
I feel
a franchise coming on.
~ The
Lady Miz Diva
March
25th, 2010
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