‘How To Train Your Dragon’: Watching Dragonfire Cold

The first How to Train Your Dragon movie, from DreamWorks Animation, came out 15 years ago, launching a franchise, including animated films, several short films, TV series and video games. Heard vaguely about it; never saw any of it.

But, I went with a colleague who’s a fan to an advance screening of the new How to Train Your Dragon (a k a HTTYD) movie. Currently doing well in theaters, it’s a live-action and 3D-animated version of the first film. According to her, it was very close to storyline of the original movie — if not shot-for-shot — and I take her word for it.

After all, it had the same director, Dean DeBlois.

I came in, though, with no preconceptions nor expectations, and here are some sorta spoilery thoughts.

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Animation and Live Action Are Different Things — Or Not

The story takes place on a craggy, heavily forested island called Berk, inhabited by Vikings, and beset by a nest of wildly diverse varieties of fire-breathing dragons.

As you can see from the trailer, even in live action, these are very cartoonish Vikings, that inexplicably wear giant horned helmets and armor all the time.

Scottish actor Gerard Butler — who sounds very Scottish in this, even more so than in life — reprises his voice role from the original as the Viking leader. He wears so much armor and fur that one assumes Berk must be frigid.

However his teenage son Hiccup (Mason Thames) — who has an American accent — seems perfectly comfortable in a simple tunic and pants, with a short, furry vest.

Also, while one character does suffer a serious injury at the end of the film, and there’s much talk of death and destruction (one character already has a metal prosthetic leg), it’s a pretty bloodless affair.

Dragons spew fire everywhere, but nobody gets burned to a crisp. Buildings and mountains crumble, ships capsize, pitching heavily armored Vikings into the sea … but nobody is seen being crushed or drowned.

This is a far cry from Gerard Butler’s 2002 film Reign of Fire, a dark, gritty, actually kinda realistic look at humans squaring off with fire-breathing dragons.

So, there’s a lot of intense action and violence in HTTYD — even I flinched a couple of times — but it’s almost entirely without consequences.

Ultimately, the new How to Train Your Dragon may be “live action,” but it’s still a cartoon.

Some Non-Traditional “Vikings”

There are also various multicultural folks scatted among the Vikings, justified by them having supposedly come from the far-flung parts of the world that Vikings visited. These include East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa … where there’s no evidence Vikings ever went.

However, I didn’t pick out any obvious natives of North America, where the Vikings actually did go (after Irish St. Brendan the Navigator, of course).

Sigh. At least they took a swing at explaining the casting choice.

If you are actually interested in Vikings, this film won’t help. Try the series Vikings instead (and even then). Lots of people are extremely worried about cultural appropriation these days, and treating cultures with respect and accuracy — unless they’re European. Then, all bets are off.

HTTYD may have live humans in it, but it remains pure fantasy.

What Are the Messages of This Story?

The scrawny, thoughtful, artistic Hiccup, who uses brains rather than brawn to save the day, turns out to be the hero, rather than the brave, burly men around him. There’s a spunky girl (Nico Parker), which is to be expected, but at least she isn’t one of today’s insufferable, arrogant girlbosses.

And the dragons just turn out to be misunderstood — and actually more like bees than lizards.

With Hiccup as the protagonist, HTTYD is telling kids that brains and a good nature always win out over physical strength and raw courage. No, they don’t. It’s best to have all four available.

There are moments where any one of these attributes would be more valuable than the others. But, to defeat a well-armed enemy bent on your destruction, the whole package is preferable.

And as for the dragons …

Ultimately, the fearsome dragons are merely abused and misunderstood. Hiccup learns how to overcome them, using kindness and dandelion fluff. And in the end, the Viking kids are all riding dragons around like ponies.

I fear what movies like this teach kids about wild animals, whether actual or fantasy ones (as little kids really don’t make a distinction). In the real world, you’re never going to reason with a grizzly bear — or even an angry raccoon.

Jeepers, if a squirrel turns on you, you’ll regret it.

Animals may not be evil and malicious in the sense that humans can be (although I do wonder about felines, weasels and honey badgers). But, they can be extremely dangerous nonetheless and need to be respected for that — even if they aren’t fire-breathing dragons.

People raised with a storybook image of wild animals (looking at you, The Wild Robot), have a skewed vision of reality. These are the people who pose for selfies with Yellowstone bison or think that a tame tiger or bear will never turn on them.

Urban life already divorces too many kids from nature, and indoctrinating them into thinking of animals as cuddly stuffies leads nowhere good.

It’s too bad that Casual Geographic isn’t suitable for kids, because he’s made a tidy social-media career out of exploding animal myths (warning: often not for the squeamish or faint of heart).

But, is HTTYD a Good Movie?

For me, never having experienced the franchise before, it was a huge meh. I wouldn’t have paid to see it, and I wouldn’t pay to see it again.

Since it apparently so closely hews to the animated original, the only justification for its existence is to renew a profitable franchise. IMHO, DreamWorks would have been better off doing an entirely 3D animated new version. But, I guess they were afraid of the “uncanny valley” problem of rendering humans in lifelike animation.

There is some emotional depth to the film, and good stuff about fathers and sons. Perhaps because it’s a remake of a 10-year-old movie, it avoids the worst excesses of today’s “socially aware” filmmaking (also, it’s not Disney). Other than what I said above, I have no serious objections.

If you want a fun time with the kids — and you don’t think all the fire and explosions will scare them — it’s fine.

And a sequel, natch, is on the way for 2027.