Film Review: How To Train Your Dragon (2010)
Posted on | April 13, 2010 | No Comments
How To Train Your Dragon (2010)
http://www.howtotrainyourdragon.com/
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Young Viking Hiccup just doesn’t seem cut out for dragon-slaying, being more inclined towards building contraptions and swooning over the local teen champion Astrid. When, desperate to prove himself, he manages to capture a mighty dragon whose death would cement his social standing, he finds himself unable to slay it even as it lies helpless. Instead, he ends up befriending it.
Yes, it has dragon-riding Vikings. If you’re anything like me that’s all you need to know. The film kind of got me with the first teaser poster I saw.
It’s not perfect, hence four stars instead of five, despite the fact that the film made me personally happier than any other in a very long time, and despite the pure awesomeness that is the whole concept of dragon-Vikings.
The film is based on a children’s book by the same name by Cressida Cowell, but the plot, setting and even the dragon called Toothless were completely reworked by Dreamworks. I can’t judge if this was the right decision or not, but it does explain why the plot is typical enough to be predictable almost plot-point by plot-point. This is easy to overlook since, sadly, predictability is almost to be expected in a feature animated film – though I might argue How To Train Your Dragon has an even less original plot than most. For me, the one cliché too much was the fake death scene. You know the one – you see it in just about every animated film. X is dead! Oh no! The crowd stares at the spot where X fell with hope failing on their expressive faces. Someone falls on his knees and delivers a heart-felt speech to the departed. But X is not dead after all! Everyone cheers! Yeah. That one.
The film does kick the corporate creative cowardice on some notable issues, such as portraying a pleasing amount of violence, tough girls (well, not many), non-heteronormative (though hetero) teen romance, nerd pride and loss of limb. Plot predictability is made up for by the originality of the setting and some of the characterisation – which I suspect has more to do with Cowell than the Dreamworks writers (or their marketing and research department) – and in, well.
Being awesome.
If one’s adult brain can shut up long enough to accept and ignore the clichés, one gets an amazing animated film of dragon flight, fighting giant monsters, flaming islands tumbling down into the sea, nerd-boy social success, laughs, vivid character design, and goddamn Vikings on dragons.
Yeah. What are you waiting for? Go see it!
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Bechdel Test:
1. It has at least two female characters
2. who talk to each other
3. about something other than a man.
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