She’s a minx. You just know it.
The classic How To Train Your Dragon (2010) is a master’s class in the basic kid-against-all-societal-norms story form. The protagonist is the young and runty son of the chief of a Viking village, named Hiccup. His father, Stoick the Vast, must direct the defense of the village, which is assailed periodically by their enemies, a collection of flying dragons that carry away the villagers’ sheep and even the occasional villager; it’s implicit that Hiccup’s mother is dead.
Hiccup, being smaller than your average Viking, has to make up for his shortcomings in the usual way: being smarter than everyone else. In his role as intern to Gobber the Belch, village blacksmith and all around engineer, short a leg and an arm himself, he’s had the opportunity to construct a weapon of war: a machine that will fling a net hundreds of feet.
And, tonight, the dragons are arriving.
The night is lit with great belches of fire, and the cries of sheep who are experiencing flight for the first, and perhaps last, time. But for all the fires, when Hiccup hears an attacking dragon, all he can see are the flames it shoots, and can only use that for targeting.
The next day he finds an excuse to leave the village and hunt his prey, and finds to his shock the net in an unused valley with a lake, and in it? A black dragon, injured and befouled, of a description unknown to him or the village. It’s time for the kill! These things have killed man and beast! This one is helpless and easy prey for the knife.
Too easy. Hiccup can’t do it, and, instead, releases it.
And does he become the prey, instead?
The audience can guess; the kid has displayed bravery, intelligence, poise, and, most importantly, forgiveness to the dragon which supposedly threatens him. Their sympathy is won; would any dragon, even Toothless, as the black dragon is named by Hiccup, dare to go against the audience’s wishes and devour he who released him?
Well, he’s awfully darn thing, all elbows, really, so Toothless spares Hiccup. Soon enough, Hiccup’s doing his darndest to not kill a dragon, much to the dismay of Stoick and Gobber and just about everyone else. Even if he does seem to be a magician with captive dragons.
There’s much more to this plot, including antagonistic teenagers with whom Hiccup begins training, and the winning of Stoic’s respect, and it’s all played very well. For those of us who love the obscuring of information until a key moment, this important element of story-telling is performed professionally.
The result is a story that should win the hearts of all but the most cynical. It’s a delight.
Recommended.
