The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

Cole said How to Train Your Dragon was really good, and wanted to see it a second time. So we went and I saw it.

Now, Dreamworks often kind of sucks. They’re no Pixar. You can usually discount them and their animated movies as cash-ins grabbing for that “parent desperate to take their kids to something” demographic. There are some exceptions, of course. Kung Fu Panda was pretty fun. Word on the street was that How to Train Your Dragon was another such exception. They were completely right.

The plot of this movie really got to me. It’s basically a story about how father and son live in different worlds, and although both are legit in many ways, neither will listen to the other. Hiccup’s dad is the main dragon-killing Viking. He wants his son to fit in, be strong, and most importantly, be able to defend himself so he will be safe. Hiccup realizes that Dragons are intelligent and aren’t bloodthirsty killers unless provoked, and attempts to play biologist, actually learning about them, and along the way, learns they can be ridden by working with Toothless, his adorable dragon. Both want the village to live better, without fear of dragon attacks, but neither can really completely understand the other’s position.
That kind of conflict is so real, and it certainly hits on things in my own life. That’s some serious, actual characterization in there. Plus, compare this to, say, Ash from Fantastic Mr. Fox. Now, I love that movie, but Ash is “different,” but proves himself by doing things everyone else’s way. Instead of being his own unique person, his moment of proving himself comes from being an athlete, just like everyone else. By comparison, Hiccup proves himself by doing something completely different, and by solving the problem his own way. At the same time, he wouldn’t have been able to solve the problem the way he did without his Father’s strength to save Toothless. It gives credit to both sides of the argument. It’s okay to be different, but the old ways have merit. Few movies actually give credit to both. It’s either an Icarus “don’t fly so close to the sun” story, or a “man, parents have it all wrong” kind of story. How to Train Your Dragon hits an excellent middle ground. That’s just kind of awesome.

Yeah, so, How to Train Your Dragon has strong characters, and that’s really what makes it a great movie. They’re realistic, and they’re fun. On top of it all, the animation is also pretty great. Toothless is cute as hell and also completely bad-ass, and he’s animated so great that you can buy it. There’s a little bit of stylistic difference between the viking adults and the viking kids, but that would seem to be completely on purpose, to attempt to help establish that different sort of world. It does look pretty great.

Honestly, I feel like there’s a chance that this movie will be better than this year’s Pixar offering, Toy Story 3, mostly because I just feel like Pixar never wanted to make a Toy Story 3, but is doing so because of HUGE PILES OF MONEY. That worries me that it’s not nearly going to be as touching or “real” as this movie. Granted, it’ll probably still be fun, but it surprises me to say that How To Train Your Dragon has set a bar that Pixar needs to make sure to surpass. It’s a really good movie, and if you like animated stuff, you should see it.