Warning:
Naughty language, kids.
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So before I start, I
have to say that once again, the music in this movie in A+. So from now on I
will be doing a music rating on every movie I review.
HTTYD: 9/10 dragons
The movie starts with a
lovely narration from our main character, Hiccup. He basically talks about how Viking
life sucks, even their names are terrible. The narration leads into a dragon
attack in which the dragons try to steal the Viking’s livestock. We see Hiccup running
around and everyone is like: “No.” You can already tell he’s not the most
popular guy in the village. Gerard Butler catches him and tells him to get inside.
Gerard’s character is named Stoick, he’s a tough guy. Whoa, shocking.
We discover that Hiccup
is a blacksmith apprentice who works for Stoick’s BFF, Gobber. As he’s still
narrating there is a cool kid shot in which we find out who is most likely to
be mean to Hiccup and which girl he has a crush on. Hiccup goes on about
wanting to make a mark by killing a dragon, but Gobber is firmly against the
idea, along with the entire village. Hiccup is stubborn though, he even builds
his own gadgets and the skill comes in handy throughout the movie.
Hiccup goes over the
different breeds of dragons. There are seven in this movie: the Deadly Nadder, the
Gronckle, the Hideous Zippleback, the Monstrous Nightmare, the Terrible Terror
(not introduced in the beginning of the movie but still relevant), and the Night
Fury. It’s obvious that the Night Fury will be the main dragon because it’s so
mysterious and badass. So in his quest to be a real Viking, Hiccup decides to go
for the Night Fury. Reasonable choice, dude. Once Gobber leaves to fight,
Hiccup sneaks out with his net throwing wheelbarrow thing hoping to catch a
dragon.
By some miracle (i.e. the need to move the
plot forward) Hiccup hit the Night Fury. But while he’s celebrating he attracts
the attention of a Monstrous Nightmare and a chase ensues. Stoick rescues him, albeit annoyed by the
task. Oh, and we find out that Stoick is Hiccup’s dad; obvious drama device. Hiccup also accidentally gets stuff destroyed and
the captured dragons escape with the livestock. No one is happy with him. He
gets sent home despite his insistence that he hit a Night Fury, but he sneaks
out anyway because yolo.
There’s a town meeting
to discuss going after the dragon nest again, a quest that apparently never
goes well. But Stoick, also the village leader, threatens everyone with the
responsibility of looking after Hiccup, and that gets everyone raring to go.
It’s supposed to be funny but upon further analysis it’s sad. I like him. He’s
awkward and smart, what’s not to like?
Anyway, Stoick tells Gobber
that he has to stay and train the new recruits, meaning the cool kids. In
retaliation, Gobber persuades Stoick to put Hiccup in the train program to
prepare him because he will try no matter what. He’s like his dad that way.
It’s also nice to see the friendship between Stoick and Gobber. Even the
relationship between Hiccup and Gobber is shown, and it’s clear that Gobber is a
longtime family friend.
Meanwhile, Hiccup is
out in the forest trying to find the Night Fury; but just like with everything
else, he’s pretty shit at it. Look at his map, what the hell is that? I can
just hear Merida’s voice, and it’s saying: “Aw, wee lamb.” You know Merida,
right? The main chick from Brave. But
thanks to the fact that the story needs to keep moving, he manages to find it
after some self-loathing and getting hit by a tree. He pulls out a tiny knife
that looks to be extremely effective, and has a moment of victory until the Night
Fury is like: “I’m still alive asshole.”
Then is gets intense
and Hiccup tries to kill him but can’t for reasons he doesn’t yet understand so
he cuts the Night Fury free. It tackles him and we get a gorgeous eye shot. Seriously,
there’s so much detail. I love animation so much. So the Night Fury leaves, but
its flying is wonky. What’s wrong with the dragon? Hiccup, you fucked him up.
Hiccup gets home and
his dad tells him he is going into training while Hiccup tries to tell him he
can’t kill dragons. His dad is not listening. Stoick insists about him wanting
to kill dragons, and Hiccup keeps trying to say: “No, dude, I seriously know I
can’t.” But Stoick wins and leaves to find the nest. They don’t have the best
goodbye ever. Stoick just doesn’t appreciate who his son is; he only focuses on
who he wants his son to be. I just get really emotional over father/son
relationships.
The next day brings dragon
training with the cool kids and Hiccup. The cool kids are: Ruffnut and Tuffnut
(twins), Fishlegs (dork), Astrid (love interest), and Snotlout (Jerk). They are
not happy with Hiccup being there. Gobber is a great teacher because the first
thing they do is fight a Gronckle. They all get blasted with fireballs, and
last two are Hiccup and Astrid and we see that she is annoyed by Hiccup’s
incompetence. Hiccup almost gets killed but Gobber saves him. Gobber also
teaches them about dragons and how they work, but he’s also teaching us at the
same time. One thing he said that stick with Hiccup is that: “Dragons always go
for the kill.”
But Hiccup is like: “Wait
a minute.” He goes back to the forest and once again finds the Night Fury who
is trapped a ravine thing. But it’s nice ravine, it has a lake and everything.
He just can’t get out because he can’t fly. The first connection they have is
the eye contact after Hiccup is loud trying to draw him (hint: with only one
tail fin thing). It’s like: “Hey, I remember you.”
By the time he gets
back to the village it’s dinner time and Gobber is going over who did what
wrong. So of course, the conversation turns mean towards Hiccup who is sitting
alone. I think that’s why people love Hiccup so much, they can relate, which
makes me sad. Why can’t we all just love each other and hang out or have orgies
and shit? I feel like the world would be happier that way. Back to the movie:
we are introduced to the Book of Dragons,
which goes over more types of dragons and we learn how violent the Vikings
think dragons are and how little they know about the Night Fury. It makes you
want to meet all of the dragons; some of them are really fucking cool.
There is a short scene
of Stoick and company on the ships outside of a fog bank of doom. They go in
and there is an intense shot of the fog lighting up with fire, showing the
silhouette of a dragon before the scene cuts. Shit is going down.
It’s training day two: and Hiccup is asking
about Night Furies and getting distracted in the Deadly Nader maze. Basically
in every training scene, the audience learns more about dragons. Today’s
lesson: blind spots. Astrid is on a roll, she’s the best and not interested in
Snotlout’s douchey advances. Hiccup once again gets in Astrid’s way but she
manages to beat the Nadder, and then proceed to yell at Hiccup.
After training, Hiccup goes
back to the ravine thing. He comes bearing fish as a peace offering and the
Night Fury sneaks up on him much like a cat. It makes Hiccup get rid of his
knife and then it’s like mean dragon is gone and is replaced with an adorable
creature with dog and cat behaviors that can retract its teeth so it can
be…toothless. It’s the cutest scene ever. Toothless, the now named dragon, throws
up the fish body for Hiccup to eat; which he does. It’s nasty. Then he tries to
mimic Hiccup’s smile. IT’S SO CUTE!
There is a montage of
cute as Hiccup tries to pet Toothless but he won’t let him. Toothless tries to
sleep but Hiccup tries to pet again. At one point Hiccup is drawing toothless
and so Toothless tries to draw him. It looks big and elaborate but it’s just
squiggles. More cuteness. But Toothless is proud and won’t let Hiccup step on
it. At the end of the day Toothless lets Hiccup touch his snout before he runs
off. They’re bonding! I mean the music was kind of cheesy but it worked.
Hiccup goes to dinner
and Gobber telling the story of how he lost his hand and foot. Snotlout gets
passionate about it. His line made me laugh for five days. We also learn that a
downed dragon is a dead dragon and Hiccup has a light bulb moment. Also, the winner
of the training program gets to face off against a Monstrous Nightmare in front
of village. This is important.
Next is a montage of Hiccup
working and building stuff. Whoa, it’s a tail for Toothless. Toothless’ face is
priceless when Hiccup puts it on him. He distracted him with fish and Hiccup
learned that dragons don’t like eels. Toothless tries to fly with Hiccup still
sat on his tail and when the tail isn’t stretched taut, Toothless falls.
The
next training session is against a Zippleback. It isn’t going well until Hiccup
wins by scaring the dragon back into its cage with a concealed eel. No one
knows that though and their faces are amazing. Reaction shots are the best. Hiccup
is still terrible with physical and fighting stuff, but he’s using his smarts
and inside knowledge. Four for you, Hiccup.
Back in the shop, Hiccup
makes a saddle and pulley system for the fake tail. Cue montage. This one is a
series of intermixed scenes of Hiccup winning at training with his secret
knowledge and how he and Toothless are improving their flying system. It’s back
and forth with improvement on both fronts. People actually like Hiccup now,
except Astrid. She wants to win the chance to fight the dragon but Hiccup is
stealing her thunder. She almost catches him sneaking off to see Toothless, but
he’s stealthier than we give him credit for. At another point, the latch that
holds Hiccup to Toothless breaks so he has to sneak Toothless into the village
to fix it. Astrid almost catches them again, but Toothless is fast. The point
is that she knows something is up.
I’m ending this one here.
It’s a weird place to stop but I don’t care. See you next week. Don’t forget to
yolo.
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