How To Train Your Dragon
I don't normally watch Dreamworks, because yeah. I got this one on DVD for cheap and God help me, I'm going to see #2 in a proper cinema.
You can find yourself a proper review of the film elsewhere, god only knows the internet is probably full of them. I'm going to talk about my own personal opinions on the story.
How To Train Your Dragon works on a lot of the same themes as Digimon Tamers. Comparing the two of them beyond that is useless, since HTTYD is a Dreamworks film with all that entails, while Digimon Tamers is an early noughties franchise anime of 50+ episodes.
I could use more words than fit into an LJ post to explain why it is that Digimon Tamers is so fucking unique and subversive not only in its franchise or in its genre, but possibly also of children's stories in general. How To Train Your Dragon, meanwhile, felt like very conventional American animation. Our hero is a smartalec underdog who is a disappointment to his family and his tribe due to his unmanlyvikingly build and lacking macho points. He uses his nerdy ways to save the day and the village and in the end he gets the girl and is celebrated as a hero as the community acknowledges that their old idea was wrong and his new idea is right. And then the circus travels on but at least Heimlich is a real butterfly, whatever. I've never had a problem with predictable stories.
My problem is Hiccup, and my problem with him is mostly that he's not Takato Matsuki. The worst thing is that I really liked him! I really thought he was breath of fresh air, except for the... snarking, and the whole being super convinced about the superiority of his own ideas and then eventually being proven right about it. I think I might've been projecting a bit of the resentful nerd stereotype onto him; I watched the film in two sittings that were a month apart, and I'm also pretty sure that Hiccup's initial idea was proven wrong (in the beginning, he wanted to use machines to kill dragons). I should probably watch the film again before I talk more about this, but I didn't like it that much.
Another point I'd dwell on for longer if it wasn't already past my bedtime: That whole thing with animals being an acceptable target for men displaying soft skills. It also crops up in Brother Bear, another animated film with an agenda about redefining the definition of manly.
In short, I guess you could say that the film was cute but the story felt old. The only part that truly impressed me was the sequence where Hiccup befriend Toothless, but I liked this film tons better than anything that's come out of Dreamworks the last fifteen years.
Two more things:
1. I wonder how a society consisting of 200 men and two women of reproductive age has any children at all
2. DEAR AMERICAN ANIMATORS DOING SCANDINAVIA PLEASE STOP IT WITH THE NORTHERN LIGHTS DURING SUMMER. NORTHERN LIGHTS ARE ALMOST NEVER SEEN SOUTH OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE, AND THE ARCTIC CIRCLE WOULD BE THE BORDER TO THE PARTS OF THE WORLD WHERE SUMMERTIME MEANS MIDNIGHT SUN MEANS IT DOESN'T GO DARK AT NIGHT MEANS NORTHERN LIGHTS CANNOT BE SEEN. JESUS CHRIST, THIS IS NOT A HARD CONCEPT TO GRASP.
You can find yourself a proper review of the film elsewhere, god only knows the internet is probably full of them. I'm going to talk about my own personal opinions on the story.
How To Train Your Dragon works on a lot of the same themes as Digimon Tamers. Comparing the two of them beyond that is useless, since HTTYD is a Dreamworks film with all that entails, while Digimon Tamers is an early noughties franchise anime of 50+ episodes.
I could use more words than fit into an LJ post to explain why it is that Digimon Tamers is so fucking unique and subversive not only in its franchise or in its genre, but possibly also of children's stories in general. How To Train Your Dragon, meanwhile, felt like very conventional American animation. Our hero is a smartalec underdog who is a disappointment to his family and his tribe due to his unmanlyvikingly build and lacking macho points. He uses his nerdy ways to save the day and the village and in the end he gets the girl and is celebrated as a hero as the community acknowledges that their old idea was wrong and his new idea is right. And then the circus travels on but at least Heimlich is a real butterfly, whatever. I've never had a problem with predictable stories.
My problem is Hiccup, and my problem with him is mostly that he's not Takato Matsuki. The worst thing is that I really liked him! I really thought he was breath of fresh air, except for the... snarking, and the whole being super convinced about the superiority of his own ideas and then eventually being proven right about it. I think I might've been projecting a bit of the resentful nerd stereotype onto him; I watched the film in two sittings that were a month apart, and I'm also pretty sure that Hiccup's initial idea was proven wrong (in the beginning, he wanted to use machines to kill dragons). I should probably watch the film again before I talk more about this, but I didn't like it that much.
Another point I'd dwell on for longer if it wasn't already past my bedtime: That whole thing with animals being an acceptable target for men displaying soft skills. It also crops up in Brother Bear, another animated film with an agenda about redefining the definition of manly.
In short, I guess you could say that the film was cute but the story felt old. The only part that truly impressed me was the sequence where Hiccup befriend Toothless, but I liked this film tons better than anything that's come out of Dreamworks the last fifteen years.
Two more things:
1. I wonder how a society consisting of 200 men and two women of reproductive age has any children at all
2. DEAR AMERICAN ANIMATORS DOING SCANDINAVIA PLEASE STOP IT WITH THE NORTHERN LIGHTS DURING SUMMER. NORTHERN LIGHTS ARE ALMOST NEVER SEEN SOUTH OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE, AND THE ARCTIC CIRCLE WOULD BE THE BORDER TO THE PARTS OF THE WORLD WHERE SUMMERTIME MEANS MIDNIGHT SUN MEANS IT DOESN'T GO DARK AT NIGHT MEANS NORTHERN LIGHTS CANNOT BE SEEN. JESUS CHRIST, THIS IS NOT A HARD CONCEPT TO GRASP.