How to Train Your Dragon

DreamWorks Animation’s 2010 film How to Train Your Dragon, directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, adapts Cressida Cowell’s 2003 children’s book but substantially reshapes its world and plot. It follows Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, the undersized son of Stoick the Vast, chief of the Viking island of Berk. Berk’s people have fought dragons for generations, and Hiccup initially seems ill suited to their warrior culture. During a nighttime attack, he uses a bolas launcher of his own design to bring down a rare Night Fury.

He discovers the wounded dragon in a forest cove and learns that it is not the mindless enemy depicted by Berk’s traditions. Hiccup names it Toothless and secretly returns to feed it and study it. Because the projectile damaged Toothless’s tail fin, Hiccup builds a replacement and later a harness that lets the dragon fly when Hiccup controls it from aboard. Their test flights establish the film’s central friendship while Hiccup conceals it from his father and peers.

Stoick enrolls Hiccup in dragon training with other teenagers: Astrid Hofferson, Snotlout Jorgenson, Fishlegs Ingerman, Ruffnut and Tuffnut Thorston. In the arena, Hiccup applies observations from Toothless rather than brute force, calming or outmaneuvering dragons such as a Deadly Nadder and a Gronckle. His unexpected success wins notice but worsens the tension with Stoick, who believes dragon fighting is essential to Berk’s survival. Astrid eventually follows Hiccup to Toothless and sees that the boy and dragon trust one another.

The plot turns when Stoick discovers the secret and takes Toothless captive. Using the Night Fury to locate the dragons’ nest, Stoick sails with Berk’s warriors to destroy the enormous Red Death that compels the other dragons to gather food. Hiccup and his friends defy the adults by riding the training dragons into the battle. Toothless is freed, but the Red Death nearly kills Hiccup during its attack. Toothless carries him away before the creature crashes and burns.

Hiccup awakens to find that he has lost part of his left leg, an injury that parallels Toothless’s damaged tail. The final scenes show Berk accepting dragons as companions and Hiccup using a prosthetic foot while flying with Toothless. Jay Baruchel voices Hiccup, Gerard Butler voices Stoick, America Ferrera voices Astrid, and Craig Ferguson voices Gobber. John Powell’s score received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score, while the film was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars.