A hapless young Viking who aspires to hunt dragons becomes the unlikely friend of a young dragon himself, and learns there may be more to the creatures than he assumed.
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.Written by
Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)
Many of the flying scenes are inspired by combat and aerobatic aircraft. Toothless performs many recognizable aerobatic maneuvers such as loop, snap rolls and combinations. For example, when Astrid is taken for her spin, Toothless performs a loop while being "filmed" from near his wingtip. This is very similar to countless sailplane films with cameras mounted on the wingtip. See more »
Goofs
The first prints of this movie showed Hiccup's drawing of a Night Fury with its tail intact, when the drawing was dropped onto the Dragon Book. This was a continuity error, since part of the tail fin on that drawing had been erased in a previous scene. Many digital theaters had a corrected version of the movie, showing that erased tail, by mid April 2010. (The DVD and Blu-Ray discs also have the corrected tail at the Dragon Book scene.) See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Hiccup:
[voice-over]
This is Berk. It's twelve days north of Hopeless and a few degrees south of Freezing to Death. It's located solidly on the Meridian of Misery. My village. In a word? Sturdy. It's been here for seven generations, but every single building is new. We have fishing, hunting, and a charming view of the sunsets. The only problems are the pests. You see, most places have mice or mosquitoes... We have...
[aloud, as he slams the door against an attacking Monstrous Nightmare]
Hiccup:
...
See more »
Crazy Credits
The title doesn't appear on screen until the end. See more »
Alternate Versions
The 2019 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray printing add the 2013 Universal Pictures logo and omits the closing 2002 Paramount Pictures logo. See more »
There are a lot of excellent reviews out there, I will just discuss a single point. What got to me the most in this movie is the message I got out of it, I got it from a single line uttered by the hero and it just burned in my memory, it's about how when we look deep in the eyes of our enemies -the ones we fear the most- we will see that they are afraid of us just as we are afraid of them, we might realize their humanity and that they are not what we thought, monsters.
This is definitely one of the best 2 animation movies this year, with Toy Story 3 being the other one, tough job for the academy awards this year, and hope this is the case every year.
It's nice to see beautiful animation movies challenging Pixar's, it definitely benefits the viewer the most. How to train your dragon - Highly Recommended.
34 of 39 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
| Report this
There are a lot of excellent reviews out there, I will just discuss a single point. What got to me the most in this movie is the message I got out of it, I got it from a single line uttered by the hero and it just burned in my memory, it's about how when we look deep in the eyes of our enemies -the ones we fear the most- we will see that they are afraid of us just as we are afraid of them, we might realize their humanity and that they are not what we thought, monsters.
This is definitely one of the best 2 animation movies this year, with Toy Story 3 being the other one, tough job for the academy awards this year, and hope this is the case every year.
It's nice to see beautiful animation movies challenging Pixar's, it definitely benefits the viewer the most. How to train your dragon - Highly Recommended.