The Case on How To Train Your Dragon (2010)
Back in the Spring of 2010, a time that feels like it was both yesterday and 57 years ago, Dreamworks Animation released their 19th feature film. It was a computer-animated fantasy epic set somewhere in the North Sea. It followed a scrawny Viking named Hiccup, and his best friend, a dragon named Toothless.
How to Train Your Dragon is considered by many to be the best film that Dreamworks Animation has in its collection. In fact, Rotten Tomatoes ranks it as their highest-rated film from the studio out of 42 features. It’s a beautiful story about friendship, filled with humor and absolutely breathtaking music. And, of course, this movie has a LOT of dragons.
So come ride with us to the Land of Berk, as we learn about How to Train Your Dragon.
SUMMARY
Hiccup, a young Viking living on the Isle of Berk, wants to prove himself as a dragon slayer. The Vikings of Berk are constantly battling the winged creatures as they destroy their homes and steal their livestock. Hiccup’s father, Stoick, wants his son to live up to the family’s reputation as a long line of fierce fighters, but Hiccup isn’t exactly the son that Stoick expected. While attempting to kill a dragon, Hiccup accidentally encounters the rarest dragon of all: a Night Fury. He then befriends the dragon and discovers that there may be a lot more to the animals than he thought.
THE BOOK
How to Train Your Dragon is based on a very popular children’s book series, written by British author Cressida Cowell. As a child, she spent a lot of her time in the summer on an uninhabited island off the West Coast of Scotland. She talked about these summers on her website saying, “The house was lit by candle-light, and there was no telephone or television, so I spent a lot of time drawing and writing stories. In the evening, my father told us tales of the Vikings who invaded this island Archipelago twelve hundred years before, of the quarrelsome Tribes who fought and tricked each other, and of the legends of dragons who were supposed to live in the caves in the cliffs. Vikings believed in dragons. They thought they were magic because they could exist in all four elements: air, fire, water, and earth.”
Cowell based the town and land of Berk on this island, using picture references from Cressida’s childhood. However, Berk is much more fantastical.
Cressida was consulted during the film's creation but she largely tried to let the film become its own. The one major difference between the two is that Directors and co-writers, Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, made the Vikings and dragons enemies so that there would be a bigger conflict to solve.
One of the major similarities between the two stories is the relationship between parents and children. Cressida was very interested in how parents and children could love each other so much and yet be two totally different people. This is shown within the film as we follow the bond and differences between Hiccup and his father, Stoick.
MAKING OF
How to Train Your Dragon was directed by Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders. Both men were already animation veterans, having co-written and directed Lilo and Stitch among other projects. They also co-wrote the screenplay for HTTYD with writer Will Davies.
The men worked well together, sometimes writing scenes separately and bringing them to each other for edits.
The animators decided to make the film look as if it had been filmed and not animated. This meant that the quality of light had to appear more realistic. They brought in legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins to help them visualize certain scenes. Deakins loved helping so much, that he stayed on for the entire project.
The movements, camera work, and lighting all contributed to making each scene appear as if the filmmakers did not have complete control. They even tried to overexpose some spots in the scenes to show imperfections.
The Visual Effects Supervisor, Craig Ring, explained that there were a lot of complex designs created for the film, especially in the opening scene. HTTYD begins with a chaotic battle between the Vikings of Berk and the dragons. The team had to design the fire, catapults, houses, and of course the characters as well. At first, the directors wanted the film to open without narration, but after several versions were created, they realized that the audience might be confused if they had not read the books.
Matt Baer, who was the head of effects, explained that the most challenging part of the film was designing the different types of fire that each dragon breathes. Computer animation gave the team the freedom to use any kind of fire possible, and Craig Ring wanted the fire to be so flammable that it could burn the dirt.
Even more expensive than animating fire was filming the characters as they interacted with water. Vikings are known for sailing, so there had to be a couple of scenes with characters on the water. One scene required rain, but that proved to be too much of a challenge. So, they animated the scenery as if it were wet and had just experienced a rainstorm.
Dreamworks used an entirely new rendering system to make sure that the clouds in the film looked as realistic as possible, with light scattered through them.
As a team, Ring and Baer almost never said no to all of the crazy ideas that the team dreamt up for the film. They were just so excited to make it all work!
Speaking of the opening scene, HTTYD wastes no time establishing the story. The film opens with narration from Hiccup, played by Jay Baruchel. Jay was thrilled to be part of the film and loved that his character has a similar build to himself.
The undercurrent of the entire movie is the relationship between Hiccup and his father, Stoick. The audience learns early on that the two characters do not have much in common, although Hiccup desperately wants to make his father proud.
Scottish actor Gerard Butler brought the massive Stoick to life. It was important to him that Stoick not be seen as a villain, but just as someone who doesn’t understand his son. His character is meant to represent all things Viking: strong, fearless, and focused on the survival of his people.
Another important relationship in the film is the budding romance between Hiccup and Astrid, played by America Ferrera. After getting the part, she immediately bought the book.
Astrid avoids the stereotypes of romantic leading ladies. She’s strong and independent, and she provides important guidance and support for Hiccup throughout the film. The filmmakers purposely made Astrid the most serious and capable kid in the group, mirroring the other adult Vikings. When she accepts Toothless, it shows that the rest of the village will be able to come around as well. Astrid is the person that convinced Hiccup that his inability to kill dragons is a strength and not a weakness.
HTTYD isn’t just a feel-good fantasy film, it also has a lot of humor.
Scottish actor and TV personality Craig Ferguson brought some comic relief as Gobber, a friend of Stoics and the man tasked with teaching the next group of dragon fighters. Ferguson and Butler were already friends in real life, so their chemistry for the film came naturally.
While taking lessons in dragon-fighting, Hiccup spends time with a group of Vikings his own age. Besides Astrid, the group is generally a comedic and bumbling bunch, though they like to tease Hiccup for his lack of fighting abilities. When filmmakers heard Christopher Mintz-Plasse’s voice, they knew he would be perfect for the role of Fishlegs, the dragon geek of the group.
Fishlegs is responsible for showing Hiccup the different kinds of dragons
Jonah Hill lent his voice to the cocky Snotlout, while Kristen Wiig and TJ Miller voiced the twins Tuffnut and Ruffnut. Sometimes, the actors were able to record all in the same room and could improvise lines. This made the relationships between them seem more real.
Designing Toothless
If Toothless seems to act familiar to a common animal that may be in your household, it’s because he is very similar. While Simon Otto and Takao Noguchi worked closely designing Toothless, it was Gabe Hordos, the supervising animator on Toothless, that really worked on his mannerisms and behaviors. In order to do this, he took a lot of inspiration from his newly adopted cat!
Simon also led the animator team through a “flight school.”
This basically consisted of studying different flying creatures, and seeing how they moved through the air. This made the flying feel more real because it was based on real physics.
At this time there had already been dragon movies and so it was decided early on that there needed to be something that made this dragon story different. This prompted the team to design a dragon unlike anything audiences had ever seen. They looked at large cats and other mammals instead of large reptiles, specifically focusing on how large cats stare at other animals. The team also came up with the concept of a part-mechanical dragon.
The most central relationship in the film is the one between Hiccup and Toothless, which reinforces how dangerous ignorance and misunderstanding can be. During Hiccup’s first interaction with Toothless, we find out that Hiccup permanently damaged Toothless’ tail, making it so he cannot fly on his own. This scene was the first one to be fully animated, and it set up the concept for the entire film. This is the pivotal moment when Hiccup ultimately decides that he cannot kill dragons.
Because of Toothless’ missing part, Hiccup must rig a mechanical tail that allows him to fly. The directors described it as having a Miyazaki quality to it.
To give Toothless different emotions they would change his eyes and ears (plates because they weren’t really ears.)
To incorporate 3D into the movie they really took advantage of when Toothless was flying.
Designing the Rest of the Dragons
In the original stories written by Cressida, she has built a world with many dragons that differ from each other. She was inspired to do this because her father was a bird watcher and this helped her formulate that there could be different types of dragons.
The movie furthered this idea and had their animator Nico Marlet design thousands of drawings of dragons. These designs can also be seen in the Book of Dragons that Hiccup flips through and also in the ending credits.
The book of dragons was animated a little later when it was brought up that the world should be expanded to show more dragons than are actually seen in the film. The team liked that the book gave a ghost-like vibe to the scene when Hiccup reads it.
A typical dragon contained about 4000 controls. These controls would be the wing, leg, face, etc movements. If you think about it like a marionette, that’s a lot of strings to pull!
Sean Fennell and his team were responsible for the crowds of dragons that appear in the film. The crowds department has a really tough job that often gets overlooked. They do the same thing that regular animators do, but they do it hundreds of times for many more characters. They developed the behaviors for the dragons (flying, breathing) and then essentially rubber-stamped them onto the character models.
The film ends with a large-scale battle, and the filmmakers knew it would be difficult to believe that all of the characters made it out unscathed. So, they made the decision that Hiccup would lose the bottom half of his leg. When they showed the incomplete film to Steven Speilberg, he made a comment that the relationship between Toothless and Hiccup in the final act felt more like “a cowboy and his horse.” He suggested that when Hiccup wakes to find that he has lost his leg, Toothless is there with him and helps him walk. The filmmakers loved the idea and fought to put it in the final cut.
During the first screenings, adult members of the test audiences overwhelmingly loved the ending. They made the comment that no matter what they do, do not take out Hiccup’s injury in the end. One boy at the screening reportedly said, “Hiccup lost his leg but gained so much more.”
Because of this, Hiccup now understands Toothless on a deeper level, having to alter his way of life because of an injury. In a way, they complete each other emotionally and physically. The loss of Hiccup’s leg is never treated like something terrible or shameful.
It’s also rare for a film protagonist to have a prosthetic limb. This provided some much-needed representation for people with prostheses.
MUSIC
John Powell composed the music for the film. His music breathes depth and atmosphere into the story. We personally consider this to be one of his best scores, along with the other two films in this franchise. Powell has composed for other animated greats like Kung Fu Panda, Rio, and Ferdinand.
Robin loves this music so much, that she walked down the aisle to “Romantic Flight,” the theme music that plays when Astrid and Hiccup ride Toothless for the first time.
Jónsi (YOnsi) Birgisson, an Icelandic singer performed the song for the end credits. He created the song in two days because he loved the movie so much!
There are times in the film however that do not have any music at all. Randy Thom, one of the sound mixers, made a strong argument that the audience needs a break and so there are scenes with no music. It brings seriousness and a heaviness to the conversations during these scenes. We can see and hear this clearly during the point when Hiccup and his father Stoick are talking before Stoick heads out the first time to find the Dragon lair.
AWARDS/ RECEPTION/ LEGACY
The film is the first in an incredible trilogy, as the other two films are also considered to be some of Dreamworks’ best work.
The first film won several Annie Awards but unfortunately not the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film.
There are also several different series based on the films. Like, Dragons: Riders of Berk, Dragons: Defenders of Berk, Dragons: Race to the Edge, Dragons: Rescue Riders, and Dragons: The Nine Realms. There are also many short films, comics, and graphic novels.
How to Train Your Dragon has a staggering 99% on Rotten Tomatoes. With an estimated budget of $165,000,000, it received a worldwide gross of $494,879,471.
FUN FACTS
The filmmakers at Dreamworks like to change the title card to be different at the beginning of each film. For this movie, you can see an outline of Toothless flying toward the moon just as the “Dreamworks” appears on screen. Craig Ring came up with the idea to do the title sequence that way, and it can often go unnoticed.
The plates on Toothless’ head look like ears, but they are not actually ears! The animators use them to signify emotion.
There were three ships that went out to find the Dragons’ lair the first time but only one came back. Animators piled people in it to hopefully imply that everyone made it back but all on only one ship.
In an early thought about the movie they were going to have the older lady be a sage and mystic in a more magical version but they quickly decided not to.
One of the animals being carried by the dragons to the “Red Death” is the hippo from Madagascar!
*Spoiler* The “Red Death” dragon is 5x bigger than he really is so that when Toothless and Hiccup are trying to get away near the end they can have a really nice shot of them flying up through the spines.
How to Train Your Dragon deserves its place among the best animated films of the last 20 years. It’s a beautifully animated story about two unlikely friends that make each other the best possible versions of themselves, while convincing others to change their perceptions. The film follows a protagonist that doesn’t fit the classic mold of a hero, and yet his bravery and kindness prove that that’s exactly what he is.
This film touches on complex ideas, like the feeling that we aren’t good enough, or that there’s something wrong with us if we don’t do what’s expected or what everyone else is doing. This movie teaches us that it’s okay to not kill the dragon, no matter how many people tell you that you should.
If you want to hear more about our favorite dragons, you can find our episode on The Case of How to Rate Your Dragon where we discuss our Top 10!
SOURCES:
DVD Commentary and Special Features