Think You Know Dragons? Think Again...<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I hated that I missed seeing How to Train Your Dragon on the big screen.\u00a0 Having watched it on DVD this week, I think it's one of the best animated films\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/2010\/10\/how-to-train-your-dragon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Think You Know Dragons? Think Again...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I hated that I missed seeing How to Train Your Dragon on the big screen.\u00a0 Having watched it on DVD this week, I think it's one of the best animated films\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/2010\/10\/how-to-train-your-dragon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pop Theology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-28T01:58:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"J. Ryan Parker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"J. Ryan Parker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/2010\/10\/how-to-train-your-dragon\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/2010\/10\/how-to-train-your-dragon\/\",\"name\":\"Think You Know Dragons? Think Again...\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-10-28T01:58:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-10-28T01:58:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/#\/schema\/person\/b00dd13fa37222b40f10d3c6d0e58f26\"},\"description\":\"I hated that I missed seeing How to Train Your Dragon on the big screen.\u00a0 Having watched it on DVD this week, I think it's one of the best animated films\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/2010\/10\/how-to-train-your-dragon\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/2010\/10\/how-to-train-your-dragon\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/2010\/10\/how-to-train-your-dragon\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Think You Know Dragons? Think Again…\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/\",\"name\":\"Pop Theology\",\"description\":\"Where religion meets pop culture.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/#\/schema\/person\/b00dd13fa37222b40f10d3c6d0e58f26\",\"name\":\"J. Ryan Parker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be2929afc83bfc71f8c5e3a27cd1612d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be2929afc83bfc71f8c5e3a27cd1612d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"J. Ryan Parker\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/author\/jryanparker\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Think You Know Dragons? Think Again...","description":"I hated that I missed seeing How to Train Your Dragon on the big screen.\u00a0 Having watched it on DVD this week, I think it's one of the best animated films","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/2010\/10\/how-to-train-your-dragon\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Think You Know Dragons? Think Again...","og_description":"I hated that I missed seeing How to Train Your Dragon on the big screen.\u00a0 Having watched it on DVD this week, I think it's one of the best animated films","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/2010\/10\/how-to-train-your-dragon\/","og_site_name":"Pop Theology","article_published_time":"2010-10-28T01:58:44+00:00","author":"J. Ryan Parker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"J. Ryan Parker","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/2010\/10\/how-to-train-your-dragon\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/2010\/10\/how-to-train-your-dragon\/","name":"Think You Know Dragons? Think Again...","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-10-28T01:58:44+00:00","dateModified":"2010-10-28T01:58:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/#\/schema\/person\/b00dd13fa37222b40f10d3c6d0e58f26"},"description":"I hated that I missed seeing How to Train Your Dragon on the big screen.\u00a0 Having watched it on DVD this week, I think it's one of the best animated films","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/2010\/10\/how-to-train-your-dragon\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/2010\/10\/how-to-train-your-dragon\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/2010\/10\/how-to-train-your-dragon\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Think You Know Dragons? Think Again…"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/","name":"Pop Theology","description":"Where religion meets pop culture.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/#\/schema\/person\/b00dd13fa37222b40f10d3c6d0e58f26","name":"J. Ryan Parker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be2929afc83bfc71f8c5e3a27cd1612d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be2929afc83bfc71f8c5e3a27cd1612d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"J. Ryan Parker"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/author\/jryanparker\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/288"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":1758,"date":"2010-10-27T17:58:44","date_gmt":"2010-10-28T01:58:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/?p=1758"},"modified":"2010-10-27T17:58:44","modified_gmt":"2010-10-28T01:58:44","slug":"how-to-train-your-dragon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/2010\/10\/how-to-train-your-dragon\/","title":{"rendered":"Think You Know Dragons? Think Again…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I hated that I missed seeing How to Train Your Dragon<\/em> on the big screen.\u00a0 Having watched it on DVD this week, I think it\u2019s one of the best animated films I\u2019ve seen in a long time, and, while I know that this might sound blasphemous, I think I like it better than Toy Story 3<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 Even though the film\u2019s message isn\u2019t anything new, it\u2019s certainly one that younger viewers need to hear over and over again.<\/p>\n

How to Train Your Dragon<\/em><\/a> tells the story of Hiccup (Jay Baruchel<\/a>), a young boy living in a Viking village that just so happens to be frequently attacked by dragons.\u00a0 You wouldn\u2019t know it by looking at him, but Hiccup is the son of Stoick (Gerard Butler<\/a>), the leader of the village.\u00a0 Picture a Viking and you\u2019re most likely thinking of Stoick.\u00a0 Hiccup, on the other hand, is skinny, timid, and is only interested in killing or capturing a dragon inasmuch as it impresses either his father or the young ladies of the village.\u00a0 During a particularly intense dragon attack, he miraculously downs a Night Fury, a dragon that no one has ever seen before let alone killed.\u00a0 In Viking lore, it is the most dangerous dragon in existence.\u00a0 Yet when Hiccup follows the trail of the downed dragon, he realizes that everything he has ever learned about dragons is wrong.\u00a0 His fast friendship with Toothless, the name he gives the Night Fury, turns his world upside down and sets him on a course that will change his entire village.<\/p>\n

Few animated films come close to the visual accomplishments of a Pixar film, but How to Train Your Dragon <\/em>certainly does.\u00a0 It benefits from some strong voice acting and good comedic casting including Jonah Hill<\/a> and Christopher Mintz-Plasse<\/a> in bit parts.\u00a0 Mintz-Plasse\u2019s character, Fishlegs, adds some humorous dialogue that draws from role-playing games of which dragons are often a part.\u00a0 The dragons are fantastically drawn and just as humorous as the inept Viking teens attempt to capture and\/or slay them.\u00a0 The score works great, and the closing credits begin with a song, \u201cSticks and Stones\u201d (in the video below), by Jonsi<\/a>, the lead singer of Sigur Ros<\/a>.\u00a0 I wish it would have had a more prominent place within the film because it could have worked perfectly with some of the aerial scenes.<\/p>\n

How to Train Your Dragon<\/em> works on a couple of levels.\u00a0 First, it encourages parents to take their children seriously.\u00a0 Many of us are familiar with the biblical commandment for children to honor their parents.\u00a0 However, there are also numerous instances that reverse this equation as well.\u00a0 Throughout the film, Hiccup attempts to honor his father but is often over-looked or simply brushed aside.\u00a0 Stoick does not create an environment in which Hiccup can flourish and, in the process, does not honor his own son.\u00a0 In a world where many children feel pressure from their parents to conform to particular roles or become something they\u2019re not, this film stresses the importance of embracing children for who they are and what they can become.<\/p>\n $\"\"$ <\/a>\n

Second, while this theme has been depicted in a variety of ways, especially in films targeted to younger audiences, it is something that should be repeated continuously.\u00a0 Hiccup learns rather quickly that dragons aren\u2019t all that they\u2019re cracked up to be.\u00a0 In fact, they might not be anything more harmful than flying dogs\u2026if you take the time to get to know one.\u00a0 Hiccup tells Astrid (America Ferrera<\/a>) that he realized early on that Toothless was just as afraid as he was.\u00a0 As they slowly realize that neither of them mean the other any harm, they begin to conquer their fears together.\u00a0 In the process, they also provide healing for each other as well, Hiccup provides physical healing for Toothless, while Toothless fills an emotional void for Hiccup.<\/p>\n

How to Train Your Dragon <\/em>also includes a couple of interesting twists that one does not find in such films.\u00a0 The first serves to \u201cde-monsterize\u201d the dragons.\u00a0\u00a0 Just when we think that Hiccup\u2019s father is going to be the main roadblock to the budding friendship between Hiccup and Toothelss (and for a time he is), we see that the dragons are victims of an oppressive parental figure as well.\u00a0 They raid the Vikings\u2019 village not because they want to, but because they have to feed the insatiable appetite of their \u201cqueen bee,\u201d a massive beast seemingly more dangerous than a Night Fury.\u00a0 The second twist comes at the end of the film which has Hiccup paying a price for his heroism in ways that many protagonists of animated films often do not.\u00a0 The loses the lower half of his left leg in his attempts to both liberate the dragons and save the Vikings.\u00a0 As such, he becomes a mirror of Toothless, who lost part of his tail when Hiccup downed him at the beginning of the film.<\/p>\n

In the realm of animated films, Pixar may be king; however, with How to Train Your Dragon<\/em>, Dreamworks proves that it is a worthy challenger.\u00a0 This is a must see for adults and kids alike.<\/p>\n

How to Train Your Dragon <\/em>(98 mins) is rated PG for fantasy action sequences and is available on DVD and Blu-Ray.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"