My Favorite Movies: #9—How to Train Your Dragon

9. How to Train Your Dragon (2010) 

Genre: Animated Adventure 

Directors: Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders 

Writers: Will Davies, Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders (screenplay); Cressida Cowell (book) 

Stars: Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera 

Awards: 2 Oscar nominations—Animated Feature, Original Musical Score 

Metacritic score: 74 

IMDB Ranking: #176

The bond between humans and their pets have been explored through stories in print and in film for generations, but the one that resonates the most for me, and which stands as my favorite animated film of all time, is Dreamworks' How to Train Your Dragon. I fell in love with this movie from the first time I saw the opening sequence, and it continues to thrill me again and again every time I watch it.

This is a movie about outcasts and the need to connect to another person (or pet) who truly understands exactly who you are and what you want. Our unlikely hero is Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), the only son of Viking chief Stoick (Gerard Butler). Hiccup is not Viking material. He's skinny, scared, and by all standards of Viking-ness, weak and useless. But he's wicked smart and a highly creative inventor in his job as the apprentice to village blacksmith Gobber (Craig Ferguson). 

The Viking's village is regularly attacked by a variety of dragon species, who routinely destroy buildings and steal livestock. The most deadly and feared of these dragons is the Night Fury, which has never been seen, captured, or killed. During the opening attack, however, Hiccup launches one of his contraptions and brings down a Night Fury.

He traces the path of the dragon and finds him injured and restrained by ropes but still alive. Hiccup draws a knife and tries to steel his courage for the kill, but he looks into the eyes of the dragon and sees himself. As he says later, "I realized he was just as scared as I was." Instead of killing him, Hiccup releases the dragon, who runs off into the woods.

Hiccup finds the dragon and realizes that he's missing one of his tail-fins, which renders him flightless. With a steady supply of fish, Hiccup uses his curiosity and intelligence to make a connection with the dragon, whom he names "Toothless" after his first direct encounter. What he discovers next is that not only is Toothless highly intelligent, but he is also willing to allow Hiccup to befriend him. Hiccup uses his skills to craft an artificial tailfin connected to a saddle, and together, they learn how to fly as a team, which results in one of the most thrilling scenes of the movie.

In the meantime, Hiccup is also subjected to Dragon Training, in which young Vikings learn the conventional village wisdom about the nature of dragons and how to kill them. What Hiccup discovers through Toothless, however, is that everything they think they know about dragons is wrong. He learns how to tame, train, and control them, and as a result, ends up dominating the training course. 

A female Viking girl, Astrid (American Ferrara), is jealous and frustrated by Hiccup's success, so she follows him into the woods, where she stumbles upon his secret friendship with Toothless. Rather than let her return to the village to tell the others, he shows her what he has learned. Angry and resistant at first, she comes to see what Hiccup already knows—the dragons are not their enemies but pawns in a much larger, more dangerous arrangement.

Unfortunately, Hiccup is declared the winner of Dragon Training, and as such, is expected to kill a dragon in front of the whole village. When Hiccup refuses to do so, his attempts to show the others the truth he has learned about dragons results in disaster. Toothless is captured by Stoick and used as a tracking device to find the dragon's home island, where the monstrous Dragon Queen awaits them. Hiccup and Astrid convince the other teenage trainees to use the dragons as allies in order to save their parents from certain death, which propels us into the thrilling climax of the movie.

The true joy of this movie is in the relationship between Hiccup and Toothless, and all the best scenes are of the two of them together. For anyone who's ever been lonely or felt like they didn't belong with the "cool kids," the idea of having a pet like Toothless is irresistible. Their love for each other is the strongest bond they have, and it allows them to connect first with Astrid, then, little by little, with the rest of the village, but most especially his father. This is a movie about the importance of belonging and how one love—even for a pet—can change our lives in ways we can't imagine.

The end of the movie is simply perfect. Just as Toothless lost his tailfin, Hiccup loses his left leg below the knee in the final battle. They are both a little crippled, but together, they fly higher and faster than any of their friends. The bond between Hiccup and Toothless literally transforms the entire village from a besieged war compound into a place of light and joy.

This is a movie that needs to be experienced in a large theater in 3D. The flight and fight sequences use 3D technology in a way that takes full advantage of that visual medium. The musical score by John Powell is comparably thrilling and adds to the overall emotional impact of the film without being manipulative or distracting. In addition to the adventure, it's written with humor and wit throughout the script, featuring a cast of comic actors that in addition to Baruchel and Ferguson includes Jonah Hill, T.J. Miller, and Kristen Wiig.

The only flaw in this film was that it was released the same year as the brilliant Toy Story 3, which predictably won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. That doesn't matter to me, though...not every great movie wins an Oscar, and sometimes, they lose to equally wonderful films. No other animated movie, and few other live-action films, are as dear to my heart as this one.