HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON

How to Train Your Dragon, an animated film directed by Chris Sanders and
Dean DeBlois, is based on Cressida Cowell's novel of the same title, one in a
series of eight children's novels. Those who were enchanted by the flying
sequences in Avatar will experience the same exhilaration here as Hiccup
rides Toothless between mountain peaks. Equally uplifting is the father-son
reconciliation which is handled with just the right emotional heft.

Although it is touching to see the loving relationship that develops between

the boy and the black dragon, it is quickly overshadowed by battle sequences
in which these two become heroes. Supposedly this victory over a super
gigantic dragon will end the warfare that has been the central dimension of
Viking life. Every viewer will have to decide for him- or herself whether the
new peace between the dragons and the Vikings will last (we split on this in
our household). Can warriors change or will the need for enemies and the
excitement of battle always lurk in the shadows of this village, as in our world

Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) is a slight and scrawny Viking who lives in
Berk, a mountainside village where his fierce, machismo father, Stoick
(Gerard Butler), is tribal leader. The boy is apprenticed to Gobber (Craig
Ferguson) whose main task is to keep him out of trouble. It's obvious that
Stoick doesn't think his son has the stuff to be a real Viking warrior.

The village has been dealing with a "dragon problem" for a long time. These
huge fire-breathing beasts periodically descend upon the village to snatch up
all the livestock and destroy the crops. The Vikings only have clubs, swords,
and spears to fight them off. The village teens go to a special training camp
to learn how to kill dragons.
During one dragon attack, Hiccup sneaks out and uses his own specially built
weapon against a dragon. He thinks he might have hit it but isn't sure until
the next day when he is wandering in the nearby forest and comes upon a
young black dragon with green eyes. Hiccup realizes he is injured and can't
fly away. What's more the dragon is scared, just as he is. Hiccup brings some
food and much to his surprise, the boy and the beast bond. Hiccup discovers
another way of seeing the world through the dragon's eyes. Now his
challenge is to convince the other kids in his dragon-fighting class, especially
Astrid (America Ferrera), and his father that everything they thought about
the dragons is wrong.

The first film introduced us to an awkward Viking boy named

Hiccup (Jay Baruchel)—who's also the son of a fierce Chieftain—
and a reputedly dangerous dragon named Toothless. On Hiccup's
craggy island of Berk, young people were trained to kill dragons,
but Hiccup befriended Toothless after he initially wounded the
Night Fury dragon, and even created a prosthetic tail for him.
Following their example, the Berkians learned that they can
befriend and be befriended by dragons.

The film's breathtaking images provide a fitting accompaniment

to the characters' emotional struggles. Master
cinematographer Roger Deakins served as a consultant on all
three movies and I’m guessing he played a part in developing the
exquisite quality of natural light, particularly in the flying scenes
and a stunning phosphorescent-lit encounter. The visuals keep us
inside a rich world of fantasy—the variations in dragon species
continue to dazzle—one that is always grounded in human fears
and feelings that are very real and very moving. 
Long ago up North on the Island of Berk, the young Viking, Hiccup, wants to join his town's
fight against the dragons that continually raid their town. However, his macho father and
village leader, Stoik the Vast, will not allow his small, clumsy, but inventive son to do so.
Regardless, Hiccup ventures out into battle and downs a mysterious Night Fury dragon with
his invention, but can't bring himself to kill it. Instead, Hiccup and the dragon, whom he
dubs Toothless, begin a friendship that would open up both their worlds as the observant
boy learns that his people have misjudged the species. But even as the two each take flight
in their own way, they find that they must fight the destructive ignorance plaguing their
world.

 A Viking boy called Hiccup (voice: Jay Baruchel) introduces his village of Berk ("it's
been here for seven generations, but every single building is new"). The village is
attacked by dragons, who steal food (mostly sheep) and set things on fire (hence all
the new buildings). The villagers grab weapons and try to fight the dragons off.
Despite being told by every adult in sight to go indoors, Hiccup hauls out a bolas-
shooting cannon he made himself and shoots a dragon out of the night sky. (As
assistant to the village blacksmith, Gobber (voice: Craig Ferguson), Hiccup has
access to tools and materials and knows how to use them.) The dragon lands in the
woods some distance form the village and no one believes that he hit anything, so
it's the next day before Hiccup can go looking for it. It turns out to be a rare and
deadly Night Fury, but Hiccup can't make himself kill it. Instead he releases it --
whereupon it also refrains from killing Hiccup -- and it flies off through the trees.

Hiccup discovers that the dragon (which he eventually calls Toothless because of its
retractable teeth) has holed up in a steep-sided valley because it can no longer fly
more than a few feet at a time. While sketching the dragon, Hiccup realizes that it's
missing a tail fin. He makes a prosthetic tail fin out of leather. The new fin helps, but
Toothless can't control it and inadvertently takes Hiccup for a ride, giving him a clear
idea of what's needed to help the dragon fly right. In a series of workshop and test
flight scenes, Hiccup builds and perfects a saddle, a control mechanism for the tail
fin, and a safety harness.

Meanwhile, Hiccup's father Stoick (voice: Gerard Butler) has signed him up for
dragon training with Gobber, which is very different from the training he's already
doing with Toothless: he's going to learn to fight dragons. At first, he's the worst
student in the class. Since Hiccup has always been an accident-prone klutz, this
comes as no surprise to his classmates Astrid (voice: America Ferrera), Snotlout
(voice: Jonah Hill), Fishlegs (voice: Christopher Mintz-Plasse), Ruffnut (voice: Kristen
Wiig), and her twin brother Tuffnut (voice: T.J. Miller). (Hiccup's a little sweet on
Astrid.) Before long, Hiccup is able to use some things he's learned while working
with Toothless to soothe and manage the school's practice dragons. (It turns out
dragons are just big kitty-cats: they like to be petted, there's a kind of grass that's
like cat-nip to them, and they love fish (but hate eels).) When Stoick returns from a
failed search for the fabled nest of the dragons, he's surprised but thrilled to hear
that his son is doing brilliantly at dragon training. He gives Hiccup a horned helmet
made from one of his dead mother's breastplates. But Hiccup, as usual, is unable to
get around his father's expectations and speak frankly, so he can't explain that his
success at dragon school is unlikely to lead to the slaying of any dragons.

When Hiccup subdues a practice dragon, unintentionally earning the privilege of

killing it before the entire village, he's horrified and decides to flee with Toothless.
However Astrid, having noticed Hiccup's frequent disappearances and secretive
behavior, is suspicious. She follows him to the hidden valley and sees Toothless.
Unable to explain his relationship with the dragon, Hiccup takes her flying, and she's
captivated. But they get caught up in a flock of dragons returning to their nest
carrying food. The dragons fly inside a mountainous island and drop the food into a
pit, which turns out to contain a huge, terrifying, and very hungry dragon that eats
the smaller ones if they don't bring it enough food. Hiccup and Astrid and shocked to
realize that the dragons have been stealing their sheep to keep from being eaten
themselves. When they get home, Hiccup convinces Astrid not to reveal the location
of the dragon nest. Before she goes, she punches him in the arm and says "That's
for kidnapping me." Then she kisses him and says "That's for everything else."

Everything goes wrong at the dragon-killing ceremony. Hiccup discards his weapons
in an attempt to show the Vikings that dragons only fight to defend themselves, but
Stoick and others intervene and the dragon attacks. Toothless comes to the rescue
and is on the verge of killing Stoick when Hiccup calls Toothless off. Despite Hiccup's
protests, the angry Vikings chain Toothless up. When he ineptly tries to explain,
Hiccup lets it slip that Toothless took him to the nest of the dragons, and Stoick
resolves to use Toothless to find the nest again. He won't listen to Hiccup's warnings
about the giant dragon. He loads Toothless on his ship and the Viking fleet sails off
with all the warriors in the village, disowning Hiccup and leaving him behind. When
Hiccup wonders aloud why he didn't kill Toothless when he had the chance since it
would have avoided all of this, Astrid challenges him to explain why. In doing so,
Hiccup comes to an epiphany about his moral character, his personal strength and
Astrid's faith in him. Inspired, Hiccup and his classmates mount the practice dragons
and fly off in pursuit of the fleet.

At the dragons' island, the Vikings use catapults to break open the side of the
mountain in which the giant dragon is trapped. When it comes out, Stoick realizes
that he's made a mistake. He resolves to fight it himself to buy the other Vikings
time to escape; Gobber volunteers to join him. While Stoick and Gobber prepare to
sacrifice themselves to distract the dragon, the kids arrive to join the battle. They do
manage to distract the giant dragon a little, but it sets the Vikings' ships on fire.
While his comrades keep the giant dragon occupied, Hiccup tries to rescue Toothless
(who's still in chains) from the burning ship, but they end up under water and Stoick
rescues both of them. Then Toothless and Hiccup go after the giant dragon together.
They draw it up into the clouds and away from the Vikings, trying to get it to crash
on the island. In the end Toothless releases a blast into the giant dragon's open
mouth and it crashes and burns, apparently taking our heroes down with it -- we see
Hiccup fall toward the fire as Toothless tries desperately to catch him. On the
ground, a heartbroken Stoick approaches the wounded Toothless wondering what
has become of his son; Toothless opens his wings to show that he saved Hiccup.
("Well, most of him," Gobber remarks cryptically.)

Back at home, Hiccup wakes up and Toothless urges him out of bed. Hiccup finds
that he lost his left foot in the battle with the giant dragon. However, Gobber has
made him a new one, ingeniously spring-loaded. (Hiccup and Toothless now have
matching disabilities.) They go out into the village, which is full of swooping,
frolicking dragons; the Vikings now treat them as pets. Astrid greets Hiccup with a
kiss. Supplied by Gobber with a new tail fin prosthetic and saddle for Toothless,
Hiccup takes flight with Astrid and his friends as he exults at the new alliance of
Vikings and Dragons.