Cast: Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera; Directors: Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders; Producer; Bonnie Arnold; Screenwriters: Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders; Music: John Powell; Editor: Maryann Brandon, Darren T. Holmes; Genre: Animation/ Adventure/ Comedy; Distributor: Paramount Pictures; Location: USA; Running Time: 98 min.;Technical Assessment: 4
Moral Assessment: 4
CINEMA Rating: For viewers age 13 and below with parental guidance
Hiccup is the last boy people would suspect to grow into a dragon slayer. Even his own father (Gerard Butler) who is chief of the Viking colony snickers at the idea that the small, fragile looking boy, despite his innate pluckiness, can ever amount to anything of use in the village’s persistent problem of defending itself against winged dragons. It is in fact a very ordinary, quiet, even pleasant village, except that it’s under constant attack by slick and vicious dragons of all shapes, shades and sizes. By some strange twist of fate, Hiccup gets to befriend the most feared dragon of them all which he found alone and injured on a secluded beach.
How to Train Your Dragon, in 3-D, is a visual feast for young and old, and food for thought for mature viewers. The segment on the young boys and girls being trained in the art of dragon slaying is a particularly interesting one, showing dragons in varying degrees of ferocity. There have been quite a number of taming-your-dragon movies shown lately since Avatar, but How to Train Your Dragon seems to be the one whose story is focused on the personal relationship between a dragon and a human being—and a young boy, at that. While the flawless animation is engaging, it’s the story that makes the movie worth the price of admission.
If you’re a father thinking of seeing this movie with your son, go. You’ll love it. Don’t be surprised if you see yourself in the Viking father with such high expectations of his son. Your son, most likely, will identify with Hiccup who may not seem all too docile but who seeks his father’s respect as well. The father here learns not to judge mere externals, but instead give his son space to be himself. The son, on the other hand, learns to follow his own nose, not to be strait-jacketed by his father’s and other people’s expectations, even those of his peers. Courage is the virtue highlighted here, as Hiccup tames terrible dragon, and goes against prevailing beliefs that try to bully people into wanting kill dragons instead of understanding them, and eventually becoming the dragons’ masters instead of their slayers.
