How to Train Your Dragon is based upon the beloved children’s book by
Cressida Cowell and directed by the duo who previously brought Lilo & Stitch to life, Chris Sanders and Dean
DeBlois. The story
follows daily life upon the small Nordic island of Berk, a place where dragon
slaying is the ultimate profession, and the movie’s opening scene quickly
introduces the audience to a dragon attack upon the community. We first meet
the protagonist, Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), who is the unlikely son of the island’s
most capable dragon slayer, Chief Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler). Poor Hiccup
is in constant yet futile search for his father’s approval, so he attempts to
shoot down a Night Fury, a species so fearsome that no one actually knows what
it looks like (because, naturally, no one has seen this creature and lived to
tell the proverbial tale), aside from a purplish streak across a starry sky.
Surprisingly, Hiccup does strike his intended target, but his father doesn’t
believe him and even scolds his son for disrupting the actual dragon slaying
taking place. So, Hiccup finds himself dejectedly wandering through the woods
when he stumbles upon the wounded Night Fury. Over time, he earns the trust of
the creature and bestows upon it a name, “Toothless.” Slowly, Hiccup nurses
Toothless back to health and eventually saddles him up and teaches the creature
to fly again. So, Hiccup learns the tricks of taming dragons and becomes the
star of his dragon-slaying class, much to the dismay of his fellow students,
which include the somewhat fetching Astrid (America Ferrera), Snotlout (Jonah
Hill), Fishlegs (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), and troublesome twins Tuffnut (T.J.
Miller) and Ruffnut (Kristen Wiig).
