Berk island Vikings fought fire-breathing dragons for centuries. It’s just what they had to do to survive. A scrawny teen, Hiccup, is not quite the dragon-fighting type. And he would be all right choosing a less-testosterone-requiring vocation if it wasn’t
Berk island Vikings fought fire-breathing dragons for centuries. It’s just what they had to do to survive. A scrawny teen, Hiccup, is not quite the dragon-fighting type. And he would be all right choosing a less-testosterone-requiring vocation if it wasn’t for one thing: His village’s burly chief is also his father.
DreamWorks released “How to Train Your Dragon” last week, a Nordic fairy tale loosely inspired on the eponymous book by Cressida Cowell. The fantastic tale tells the story of an unlikely hero who develops an unlikelier friendship with a dragon.
The practical joke in his village, Hiccup dreams of becoming a real dragon-slaying Viking. When he actually downs a dragon, no one believes him. He finds the downed dragon, only to discover it is a legendary and elusive breed called Night Fury.
Without the heart to kill a tangled up, defenseless dragon, Hiccup frees the creature, which slowly offers its loyalty to the skinny teen. Hiccup is the first Viking who realizes that dragons are largely misunderstood by humans.
As their friendship grows, the unlikely pair may be the key to defend the Viking village from the dragons that really pose a threat to humans.
Filmmakers Dean DeBois and Chris Sanders are the same who created “Lilo and Stitch,” an endearing animated tale of family values and friendship set on Kaua‘i. It’s no surprise that the charming dragon, named “Toothless,” strongly resembles Stitch.
The movie’s plot is simple. A teen overcomes his lack of testosterone, finds ways to break down stereotypes and win his father’s love, and ends up helping his town to ally with a supposed enemy, thus fighting off the real enemy, the bad dragons.
Filmmakers chose to avoid as much as they could anthropomorphizing the dragons, which makes it slightly more believable that dragons coexisted with humans in a recent past. We know it is fantasy, but not entirely a far-fetched one.
Dragons may have actually existed. Pterodactylusses and pteranodons are the most commonly-known flying dinosaurs. These Jurassic-period creatures replaced earlier Triassic-period and smaller flying reptiles.
It was in the Cretaceous period that flying dinosaurs became terrifyingly huge. South Americans tapejara and tupuxuara had a wingspan of 17 feet. Later in that same period, the quetzalcoatlus and zhejiangopterus had a wingspan exceeding 30 feet. Now say dragons never existed.
The whole fire-spitting trick may have been a myth, but there are fish today that discharge electricity. One can only imagine if one of those fishes evolved into a reptile, and could do the same out of the water. That could be a recipe for arson.
Paleontology aside, “How to Train Your Dragon” is an entertaining movie. Perhaps the biggest problem with it is that it’s too entertaining. The amazing flying sequences are just way too much. They’re cool all right, but they fill in too much screen time, maybe in an attempt to make up for the lack of a little more complex plot.
Dragons narrowly miss each other and jagged cliffs, dodging fire and projectiles, thus giving an idea how romantic — and life-threatening — aerial dogfights in World War I may have been.
We can only imagine Red Baron downing yet another ally biplane, while gremlins feasted on the falling pilot’s face. Gruesome. But hey, the movie has its gruesome moments too. Be prepared to cover your little ones’ eyes when the real battle starts.
That said, don’t be surprised if in the very near future a video game fashioned after the movie hits the market.
Hard-working actor Jay Baruchel lends his voice to Hiccup. His nasal voice is somewhat annoying, and you’ll probably wonder why someone didn’t offer him some sinus medicine.
Hiccup’s manly father is brought to life by the voice of burly actor Gerard Butler. It’s just kind of confusing to hear Vikings speaking English with a Scottish accent. Imagine Cherokee Indians speaking Spanish with a Chilean accent. It’s that bad.
On the other hand, America Ferrera graces the heroine, Astrid, with her sweet, melodious voice. Astrid is cute, skinny, blond, and has a strong personality. Ferrera is a gorgeous, curvy, brunette, and has already shown a remarkable talent on the silver screen.
North Shore dragon-slayer fans Molly Mindel, Dani Grainger and Chan Hsu came all the way to Lihu‘e just to watch the movie.
Chan said she wanted watch the movie “because it looked really cute.” She’s also a fan of Ferrera and animation movies.
Dani’s sister saw the movie first and thought it was really good, which was a good enough reason for Dani to watch it. But she also had a second reason — she loves animation movies.
Molly, no surprise, also loves animation, and thought the concept of an animated Viking story was a good idea.
“How to Train Your Dragon” topped the box-office charts in its opening weekend, grossing over $43 million in over 4,000 U.S. theaters. The large numbers, however, could be a little worrying for a $165-million production.
Numbers aside, the movie is guaranteed entertainment for the whole family. And that’s all that it is, so don’t expect anything further other than your children asking for an action figure or a possible video-game release in the near future. Enjoy the fun.
