Yes, this is the third thing I’m writing on this franchise. In all honesty, outside the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this is probably my favorite franchise of all time. But that’s not the point. Today, I want to talk about the second movie in the trilogy.
How To Train Your Dragon 2 doesn’t get the same praise as it’s prequel. But it is a brilliant movie in it’s own right, with an amazing score, excellent visuals, and a very, very good story. And that’s what I want to talk about. What makes the story so special.
Spoilers for those who haven’t seen it (but why haven’t you? It’s 7 years old.), the story follows Hiccup as he tries to defend Berk from an outside threat while attempting to come to terms with the fact that he’s going to be Chief. It is, in essence, a journey of self-discovery. After the events of the first movie, dragons are now commonplace, yet our boy is still looking for where he belongs. In the cliff scene with Astrid (which is one of my favorites in the whole movie), he tells her that his father wants to make him the new Chief. Ordinarily, this would be exciting news, but Hiccup doesn’t know how to react. He doesn’t feel like he belongs in his father’s world. And because he’s never met his mom, he doesn’t know where in the world he fits in, or who he is. Much later, he runs into his mother and for a brief moment, everything in the world, in his world and his life, makes sense.
Eventually, Hiccup realizes that he’s not one person, he’s not exclusively his father, or exclusively his mother. He learns that he “has the heart of a chief, and the soul of a dragon.” The reconciliation of those two parts of him work to resolve the internal turmoil inside him. And yes, his father’s death may have sped up the process, but the point still remains. Hiccup Haddock, going on this long trip of self-discovery comes to realize who he is, and that Astrid was right. What he was searching for was always inside him. He just had to see it.
So why the title? Because, on the day I turned 22, I decided to watch all three movies, and after the second one I realized something: at this point in his story, Hiccup Haddock is a lost soul. And there is no shortage of us in the world. People just looking for a place where we fit in. Where we don’t feel like outsiders, where we don’t have to pretend to be who we’re not. And in one of animation’s greatest feats of emotional wish-fulfilment, we get to experience that with Hiccup. We get to feel like there is a place for us too, somewhere in this messed up world.
How To Train Your Dragon 2 is a great movie for a lot of reasons. But in my opinion, one of the biggest is that it allowed a lot of people to see themselves in, and escape into a world with hope that everything would eventually be alright.
