How to Train Your Dragon
Among the three film I saw on the Lufthansa airplane today, “The Fantastic Mr. Fox”, “Shrek Forever After” and this film, I can easily say that this one was my favorite. It touched my heart, and more than any other children’s movie ever before, it is relevant to my interests.
See, the main character of this movie is an engineer and scientist! Hiccup (epicly stupid name) is smart little boy who fails in terms of muscle power to everybody else; and muscle power is what counts when fighting the dragons. Of course, what he attempts to do (unsuccessfully at first), is to devise machines to fight the dragons more effectively. Later, he designs and constructs a tail contraption for the injured dragon he found, leading to one of the most beautiful scenes of him riding him. I found that scene so touching! Finally a children’s film that shows how technology saves the world! Or so I thought. XD Seriously, I consider this a rather good sign – a hero can just as well be somebody who is not physically strong nor cute or attractive, but gentle, sociable and sophisticated.
Unfortunately, in terms of content, this little film also has a problem. This is a spoiler, so don’t read this paragraph if you still want to see the film:
It is wonderful that Hiccup learns about the dragons and then tames them, so that they can finally coexist with humans, but did they really have to turn the dragons into pets? It has something imperialistic (to some degree), especially considering how smart the dragons are in the story. Perhaps I am overly sensitive about this point, but oh well. It’s a natural way to end the story, and so I accept it.
Luckily enough, I probably would never have seen this film if it weren’t for the airplane. I would totally want to see it again… Our children are going to have such an eclectic number of great films to choose from!