How To Train Your Dragon

Whee! I love How to Train Your Dragon- and not just because it's about Vikings. Because, actually, it's not about Vikings. Vikings aren't actually an ethnic group. The word Viking means "to go raiding" and applied to any Northern European boat-borne band of robbers. The people in this movie lived on an unnamed island and didn't rob anybody. Plus, they decorated with Celtic symbols and had Irish-ish accents. But I digress.

The truth is, I'm hard put to explain what I like about this movie. From the opening scenes, you pretty much know exactly what is going to happen. It falls prey to my pet peeve, "It's ok to be different - as long as everybody else copies you in the end," fallacy. It also pulls on the old saw of the unsupportive father who just doesn't understand and doesn't come around till the end of the movie (see Happy Feet). There is no historical or cultural information embedded in the story, no educational value.

CommonSenseMedia rates How to Train Your Dragon ON for age 8. We watched the movie on DVD at home, so it was visually less intense than it would have been in 3D at the theater. The dragon attacks could have been scary, but neither of our girls found it so. They were both found the scenes exciting and fun, and our 2 1/2 year old Princess Pea even shouted instructions to Hiccup when she thought he needed help.

Rotten Tomatoes gave it a whopping 98%. And I agree with them. Despite its flaws, it is such a fun movie. The traditional plot is so well-told. The characters, although almost completely lacking in depth, are so well-drawn that you can almost smell them. Even though the story brings very few surprises, it feels refreshing and new. Stylistically, it is different from most of the other kids' movies out there.

 Despite the formulaic plot structure, the story manages to do some really good things. The "difference" that keeps the main character from fitting in is his empirical, scientific, approach to understanding the world around him. He questions things, makes direct observations, and tries to understand why the things he sees don't match up with what he is being told. The love interest, voiced by America Ferrera, is strong, intelligent and dependable, and walks away from explosions.  The father comes around at the end of the movie, but he does it before everyone else, instead of after them. When everyone comes around at the end, they don't just accept the differences of the main character, they accept the differences of an age-old enemy, and everyone's lives are improved as a result.

And, like I said, the movie is just really fun. Did I mention the main character's helmet is made out of half of his mother's breastplate? It's a matched set with his dad's.