How to Train Your Dragon 2010

This movie is a cliché story about a kid finding a monster and trying to convince all the adults that it's a nice monster. The outcome is predictable and the story is fairly overused.

It's also my favorite movie of all time.

I first watched this movie when I was eleven years old and since then have seen it literally dozens of times, and I still watch it at least twice a year. I'm a sucker for the "making peace with alien creatures" trope and this movie does it better than nearly any other story that has attempted it. This movie is full of heart from start to finish, and it paid off in every way.

First, there's the dragon himself. Toothless is a perfect character in this movie. This changes in the later films when he becomes a mascot rather than the focus, but I digress. It's clear through the interactions Hiccup has with him that he's not just an animal in the process of being tamed, but a curious creature who is trying to figure out Hiccup in the same way Hiccup is trying to figure out Toothless. This makes their bond develop naturally in both directions, rather than feeling too quick or convenient. The most impressive aspect to me is that he's not anthropomorphized at all. Most creatures you're supposed to like are given human traits in order to make them more relatable, which I hate because why on earth would a creature vastly different from us act in a human way? Toothless does have a lot in common with dogs and cats, but he's certainly better than most "relatable" fantasy creatures. Toothless is the standard I hold and compare all intelligent creatures in stories to. Unfortunately it's rare that they come close.

Toothless isn't the only character I adore in this movie, as every character this movie chooses to focus on are fantastic. Stoik is amazing in this movie, acting as an antagonistic force while still feeling like a truly caring father who only wants what's best for his son. Hiccup himself is very likeable, one could say he's too perfect despite everyone saying otherwise but he's put in enough situations where his "Gary Stu"ness doesn't matter that I barely notice.

Now let's talk about the one part that I have issues with, the ending. The ending serves exactly the purpose it wanted, but it's that very purpose that I take issue with. The fact that the dragons were invading because of some big bad that you can pin all the blame on is much too simple in my opinion. I know this is a movie with limited run time and it's targeted towards children, but think of how much more interesting it would be if the dragons simply didn't know any better and it took a collaborative effort between the humans and dragons to make peace with each other? That would have made for a much more interesting second movie/TV series then the ones we got. Again, kind of a personal thing so it doesn't lower my score, but thought it was worth mentioning anyway.

So while I understand why other people don't care much for this movie or even call it bad or unimpressive, it has left a major impact on my life and even defined it in many ways. As a result I cannot in good faith give it any less than a 10/10.