I will start off my broad critiques with a film I have loved for over a decade. It is still my favorite film, so it just felt right to cover it first. This will be the first in my series of "The Score" posts. These should be a broad discussion of the piece of media. I will try to focus on what worked and what didn't. In the end, I will give a personal score to each piece of media I discuss in this series. Without further adieu, let's jump into the story that remains my favorite of all time.
First, I will rapidly run through my scoring categories.
Categories:
- Impact/Personal History (10): This story kickstarted my full-time passion for storytelling. It was the first story I can recall where I empathized so much with the protagonist and wanted the friendship he developed with Toothless. It shook me to the core. I absolutely adore this film and the lasting impact it had on my life. Many of my best memories and deepest friendships have been positively impacted by How To Train Your Dragon.
- Presentation (9): The music, cinematography, 3D (back when I watched it in theaters), voice acting, character design, and animation (though now slightly dated) have all held up incredibly well.
- World Building (7): Toothless is the best part of this world-building. What an epic dragon. They set out to make the ultimate dragon and I feel they nailed it. The society of Berk is fun and vibrant. But overall it is a relatively typical, solid medieval fantasy setting.
- Aesthetic (6): While I adore how Toothless looks, I have always felt the overall dragon designs are a bit cartoonish. While I also like the character designs for Stoick and Gobber, I do have to note that the discrepancy between the look of the adults and the teens is a bit too stark. Plus I don't like Fishlegs' look... especially standing next to more normal-looking characters. I understand the rationale, but I do think it hurts the aesthetic. That being said, the village, dragons, and Vikings do all gel well together *overall*.
- Protagonists (10): Hiccup is admirable, likable, clever, relatable, morally convinced and brave. He's driven by real and tangible desires but also is willing to sacrifice them. He grows as a character and is an absolutely wonderful protagonist. Toothless is mysterious, adorable yet terrifying, threatening yet reassuring. He is a brilliant friend for Hiccup and shares the spotlight with him incredibly well.
- Antagonists (6): The Red Death does its job to unify the cast against a single threat. However, this isn't anything outstanding. Stoick could be considered an antagonist, and I love him in that role. The moment he disowns Hiccup is incredible, especially with the moment of heartbreak he experiences after leaving Hiccup alone in the hall.
- Themes/Depth (8): Pacifism, Empathy, Moral Conviction, Our Relationship With the Other, Generational Differences, The Father-Son Relationship, and the Cost of Changing The World are all explored. While it isn't the most thematically deep or harsh, it explores many ideas deftly and extraordinarily well. I love the themes of HTTYD and I think it handles this type of writing just about perfectly considering it is a PG family film.
- Uplifting (10): I love this story. The fact I find Hiccup so easy to empathize with makes his friendship with Toothless incredibly tangible. The joy of seeing conviction and self-sacrifice change the world is wondrous. Seeing a father and son reconciled is heartwarming. This is a film I always walk away from uplifted by.
- Tension (7): There are some very tense scenes. I think HTTYD is just about as intense as a PG film can be. Which I admire. Hiccup's first encounter with Toothless, Toothless taking Hiccup and Astrid to the Dragon Nest, Toothless pinning Stoick and going for the kill, Hiccup falling into the explosion of the Red Death's demise. All of these scenes sell the peril of this story very well.
- Pacing/Length (8): There is no part of the first movie I find slow or dull. I think the climax may go a little too quickly. Training all the Ring dragons with the teens feels relatively rushed in the third act.
- Emotional Resonance (9): The triumphs sell themselves. The moments of helplessness make me feel helpless. The moments of grief and fear are deeply sobering or terrifying respectively. I think HTTYD almost perfectly pulls the audience through its emotional paces due to Hiccup's efficacy as a relatable protagonist. It also helps that HTTYD is a relatively simple narrative. This makes it easier for me (and I assume many others) to follow the emotional beats.
- Destination Clarity (9): In the very first act, Hiccup is shown to want friends, romance, and especially the respect and love of his father. This sets expectations quite well.
- Consistency (9): The one inconsistency I feel harms HTTYD is the pacing and rushed nature of the final act. Aside from that, I think practically every part of the film maintains high quality through the entire run-time.
Quality Notes:
I do not think HTTYD is a perfect film. But it was and still is a perfect film for me. I would go more into the film, but I have dedicated a whole blog to this one story.
I will start with what doesn't work for me.
My only real gripes with the first film come with the rapid pace of the final act. As mentioned, all the teens learning to train dragons and ride them into battle in the course of one scene feels rushed. The accent difference between the teens and adults is rather odd and makes the world-building feel less solid. Finally, while I like Astrid, I do feel like the kiss add the end feels oddly obligatory and out of place (considering it is in front of the entire village. To me as comes across as awkward). This ties into the rapid pace of the final act. I like their relationship much better in the Gift of The Night Fury short as it feels like it has had the necessary time to organically grow. However, I am not against the romantic element to the story, and I do believe Astrid works very well as an initial driving goal for Hiccup, later becoming a friend and the one Viking who believes in him. Her scene with him overlooking the docks is brilliant, but I suppose that should lead me out of the cons section.
To hit the highlights of what works for me.
Hiccup was incredibly relatable to me. A dorky, snarky, somewhat insecure and self-deprecating person surrounded by a hyper-macho society. Growing up in the South, I had red-neck friends and family. But I never fit in. I disliked the idea of hunting. I never enjoyed or did well in sports. But I did love art, dragons, and science. As such Hiccup was the most relatable protagonist I had ever met.
Toothless. I love stories that deal with a human reaching out to the "Other". I genuinely think part of this is because of my inherent humanity. I believe humans are meant to reach out towards a Being beyond ourselves. Something other than us. We have a God-shaped hole in our soul. So while I'm not saying I see Toothless as a spiritual allegory, I think he fits that human desire. It reminds me of the lines concerning Aslan in Narnia. "He is not a tame lion." As such, stories with an inherently other and dangerous character befriending a relatable protagonist really resonate with me. I'm sure you'll see me discuss this topic again in a lot of different stories.
I really appreciate the handling of Hiccup and Stoick. Stoick is concerned for Hiccup's safety. Hiccup wants to please his Father. Both of them care for each other, so seeing them finally reconcile at the end was heartwarming.
HTTYD delivers its narrative insanely well. The flying scenes range from tense and spooky, triumphant, or romantic and sweet. So much of this is sold by the brilliant cinematography and the music. The first film still has some of the best flight scenes in film.
The film also balances a fine line that is being a "Family Film". The amount of drama, tension, stakes, themes, and sincerity conveyed by this film is genuinely impressive. This film stands the test of time and is a fully engaging story both for adults and yet is still appropriate for children.
Finally, the "Forbidden Friendship" scene deserves multiple posts all on its own. It is a master class in dialogue-free storytelling. It is humorous, tense, beautiful, and magical all in one five-minute scene. The animators did a phenomenal job with Toothless's ability to emote and express himself. The angelic, building score in this scene by John Powell is still a contender for my favorite track of all time. The shift in lighting to convey the passage of time leads into a beautiful final shot bathed in a purple hue. The camera itself dances in a circle around the scene. It is all so well crafted. This is the make-or-break scene. If this scene works for the audience, they will come away loving this movie and believing in the bond between the boy and his dragon. And all of this from a scene that goes on for several minutes without a word being said.
Final Personal Score: 11/10
(ha ha... I promise this is the only time I will break my 1-10 scoring system)
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