"How To Train Your Dragon" - OR I once again leaving a movie wishing dragons were real
I've been watching a lot of kid's movies lately, and this one did a beautiful job of capturing adorable and a sort of fun-and-games atmosphere with a lot of real human conflict and emotion.
- Astrid! She was perfect. And her character has a nice commentary on the nature of war ( "It might be our parent's war now, but it's going to be ours soon"). It was sort of subtle, but there's a lot of power in that subtlety.
- Hiccup was a likeable protagonist, and I lol'd a couple of times as it sort of nerdy-snarky narrative voice. It was fun.
- The overall message about understanding someone/something else was never overtly stated like I thought it would be, and I think that helps get the point across more clearly. "They aren't monsters, we just need to learn how to speak their language"
- Can I just fangirl a little bit about how Toothless was designed from an animal movement/behavior standpoint? I saw strong bird, cat, and dog characteristics in his movements/behaviors, and I can tell the designers took elements from those three animals (and more! like him hanging upside down like a bat) and created an all new creature that anybody who has pets/watches animals closely would have been able to relate to. It was freaking brilliant.
- I wasn't expecting Hiccup to lose his leg, and this movie has so much love from me for doing that. It's something that I don't think a lot of other kids movies would have been willing to attempt, and they did it beautifully.
I'll make a real entry about what's going on in my life and so on soonish.
- Astrid! She was perfect. And her character has a nice commentary on the nature of war ( "It might be our parent's war now, but it's going to be ours soon"). It was sort of subtle, but there's a lot of power in that subtlety.
- Hiccup was a likeable protagonist, and I lol'd a couple of times as it sort of nerdy-snarky narrative voice. It was fun.
- The overall message about understanding someone/something else was never overtly stated like I thought it would be, and I think that helps get the point across more clearly. "They aren't monsters, we just need to learn how to speak their language"
- Can I just fangirl a little bit about how Toothless was designed from an animal movement/behavior standpoint? I saw strong bird, cat, and dog characteristics in his movements/behaviors, and I can tell the designers took elements from those three animals (and more! like him hanging upside down like a bat) and created an all new creature that anybody who has pets/watches animals closely would have been able to relate to. It was freaking brilliant.
- I wasn't expecting Hiccup to lose his leg, and this movie has so much love from me for doing that. It's something that I don't think a lot of other kids movies would have been willing to attempt, and they did it beautifully.
I'll make a real entry about what's going on in my life and so on soonish.