Let me just start by saying that this is a great movie!! I figured after that last depressing post, I ought to post something a bit more positive, more in the spirit of this blog. So I bring you the ultimate Happy Ending movie!
First things first: I love fantasy. All-out fantasies are great, as are the ones that insert fantasy into real life (ala Harry Potter, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Twilight, etc). This movie is a mix between the two. Everyone is familiar with the stories about the Vikings, those tough, violence-loving men (and women) who beat the crap out of everything in their path. This story takes that idea to the extreme--now instead of battling other people, they're battling dragons.
What a great mix, first of all. Vikings are mysteriously intriguing because they have so much myth surrounding the truth of their history. I mean, who knows if they really wore helmets with horns sticking out of them and wore their hair in braids, but if you see a person wearing such a get-up, you immediately understand who they're impersonating. And Vikings are cool because they come out of the time when people really thought there were such things as dragons. So while this movie doesn't necessarily try to portray Vikings in a way that could be deemed historically accurate (though I'm sure a lot of painstaking work went into making it as historically accurate as they could while still making a movie about dragons), they represent a people that we know really existed. And they have dragons.
It's a great premise. You go in knowing these are a tough bunch of people, and then you see them fighting dragons with their bare hands. Pretty badass. Excuse the language--I suppose a kid-friendly movie should include a kid-friendly review. But that's what it is. These Vikings are kicking tail and taking names--of marauding dragons, that is. And in the midst of this dragon attack, poor little Hiccup (that's the main character's name) is trying with all his might to prove himself. His father, the clan chief and ultimate dragon butt-kicker, is obviously ashamed of Hiccup because he always seems to screw up whenever he attempts to be a dragon killer. He barely escapes several near-accidents during this particular raid, but he does succeed in capturing the most dangerous and elusive dragon known to his village: the Night Fury.
He discovers the wounded creature in the woods near his village, and he realizes he finally has the opportunity to prove that he is a good, strong Viking by killing a dragon. He makes the mistake of looking into the dragon's eyes as he goes in for the kill, however, and what he finds there is shocks him: the dragon is terrified of him. This realization saps the last of his determination and he quickly cuts the bonds of the dragon. The dragon growls at him and intimidates him, but it does not eat him or kill him or even touch him.
And so the unique friendship begins. Intrigued by the dragon, Hiccup returns day after day to visit it. Eventually he builds enough trust to touch it--though there are several failed but humorous attempts before he finally succeeds. He also discovers that the reason the dragon doesn't fly away is that it is missing part of its tail, so being the apprentice of a blacksmith, he sets to work to help it fly.
That was really what made this such a heartwarming movie. It is more than the story of two unlikely friends; it is the story of an unlikely partnership that needs both parties for either to survive. They can only fly together--Hiccup must work his flying contraption to control the dragon's "rudder", but Toothless (so named because the dragon's teeth are retractable) is the one with the wings. This period of exploration and experimentation where the two of them are learning to fly together is one of the best reasons to see the movie in 3D.
I had heard that it was better than Avatar (perhaps a slight overexaggeration), so I made sure to see it in 3D. The 3D is valuable for a different reason than in Avatar. In Avatar, seeing the movie in 3D enhances the feeling that you are truly in Pandora, surrounded by that glorious world. Because the design for that movie is grounded in reality, you feel like you are running with them through a forest that really exists.
In How to Train Your Dragon, the styling of the graphics is not intended to be real. The cartoonish features of the characters are what give it its charm. The real value of the 3D in this movie is the feeling of flying. You know that feeling when you are so moved by the joy in a scene that you actual feel your heart leap? I had that feeling while watching Hiccup and Toothless racing through rock formations and diving through clouds. I felt like I was flying with them, and the satisfaction of seeing their partnership solidify into something so beautiful, so amazing, and so fun was alive in me in that moment. It was the ultimate feel-good moment.
The rest of the movie was equally warm and fuzzy. Throughout the course of the movie, Hiccup teaches his village about how not to fight the dragons. Using what he learns from his adventures with Toothless, he is able to disarm dragons by tickling their soft spot or threatening them with yucky food instead of crushing their skulls with an axe. It is so obvious to us as an audience that this is the better approach that it is hard to believe that anyone could disagree. Leave that to the Vikings. Needless to say, the village is not impressed when they discover how Hiccup has really been defeating the dragons, and he and Toothless find themselves in a whole heap of trouble.
I don't want to say too much to give away the ending (Lord knows I can't keep my mouth shut), so let's just say ending offers just as many warm fuzzies as the beginning. Hiccup goes from the shunned outcast to the hero of the village. There was a subtle moment at the end that showed a new parallel between Hiccup and Toothless that almost brought tears to my eyes. So sweet. Such a perfect ending to a story about the power of friendship and partnership.
Now for an aside about the voices. Hiccup was an adorable sad loser type of voice, but it made him all the more lovable. I just discovered that Hiccup is voiced by the same actor that recently starred in She's Out of My League--where he also plays a lovable loser that eventually saves the day. Making these parallels adds so much depth to one's understanding of the connections between the characters! The other really fun part was hearing all the Scottish accents. Gerard Butler and Craig Ferguson lent their voices to two great characters, and that made this movie even more fun that it would have been with regular American accents. Plus I just love Craig Ferguson--he cracks me up! I can't tell if he voiced half the characers or if they all just had the same accent, but it's definitely an accent I love. All the charming and hilarious Scottish accents just add to the joy this movie gives.
This is a movie about trust and friendship, and the power of what can be achieved when we work together. This is such an ideal and innocent notion that you can't help being swept up in the joy of it all. Add in brightly colored dragons and fun and exciting flying sequences and this is a real joy to watch. The smile it left me with lasted all the way home. This gets my best rating: 5 rainbows! Go see it now!
Rating (out of 5 rainbows and ponies): 5 rainbows
Conclusion: Warm and fuzzy HAPPY ENDING!
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