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Dreamworks: How to Train Your Dragon

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We just got back from seeing Dreamworks "How to Train Your Dragon" and I cannot recommend this movie enough.

The main character is Hiccup - an atypical viking boy who is "too smart for his own good". He has a problem - his village is attacked by dragons - regularly.

He devises a solution - a new weapon, scorned by his elders (who tell him he needs to stop thinking and be more like them). In the midst of the attack, his new weapon manages to take down one of the fiercest dragon breeds of all, but nobody sees it.

He seeks out the dragon that had been downed, but discovers that the dragon shows some signs of awareness - and fear - and is unable to kill the dragon he has downed. He frees it - and the dragon, presented with the chance to kill him instead, also does not do so.

In every situation presented, Hiccup uses his mind to solve the problems he faces. He reasons where to find the dragon, how to befriend it, how to give it an artificial horizontal stabilizer to allow it to fly again, and how to befriend other dragons. The final, dramatic battle was a scene worthy of Ragnar Danneskold (sp?) - a combination of the strength of the dragons he's befriended and the mind behind them.

Dreamworks has produced a true story of the mind with this movie - and oh yeah, the 3d effects were fantastic too. :D

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  • 6 months later...

For myself, I really liked the visual style of the movie. The story itself though I took away a completely different meaning, and didn't like it.

SPOILERS

SPOILERS

1) the lesson it seems to be teaching children is one of appeasement

2) the gist seems to be, if someone is hurting you and stealing from you it is only because someone is hurting from them and stealing from them..so gang up with your enemy on the bigger guy

3) am I the only one that finds the beginnings of romantic relationships in children's movies taking a disturbing turn? This one was awful. Boy kidnaps and terrorizes girl until she says she's sorry and falls in love with him. She falls into a pattern of hitting him then kissing him. Played for laughs of course... but still...

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For myself, I really liked the visual style of the movie. The story itself though I took away a completely different meaning, and didn't like it.

SPOILERS

SPOILERS

1) the lesson it seems to be teaching children is one of appeasement

2) the gist seems to be, if someone is hurting you and stealing from you it is only because someone is hurting from them and stealing from them..so gang up with your enemy on the bigger guy

Where do you get "only" from the story?

3) am I the only one that finds the beginnings of romantic relationships in children's movies taking a disturbing turn?

I wouldn't classify this as a Children's movie.

This one was awful. Boy kidnaps and terrorizes girl until she says she's sorry and falls in love with him.

Why did boy "kidnap and terrorize girl"? Was it he who initiated the force? Or did she initiate it by threatening to expose the dragon when the dragon posed no threat to the village?

She falls into a pattern of hitting him then kissing him. Played for laughs of course... but still...

Meh - lighten up. ;)

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Why did boy "kidnap and terrorize girl"? Was it he who initiated the force? Or did she initiate it by threatening to expose the dragon when the dragon posed no threat to the village?

No, she did not initiate the force. Technically speaking he was at that moment a traitor. Dragons were a real threat to the village and had the boy not captured and trained it it would've been just like all the others.

So, good for him and all... but still... I don't see that I would want kids picking up the moral lessons of this movie.

Also.. what the hell is up with making the hero look like a squirrelly little emo hipster?

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