Movie: How To Train Your Dragon ***

How To Train Your Dragon was bundles of fun. Yes it rehashed tons of cliches: wimpy kid trying to impress his macho dad; independant chick falling for wimpy kid; highschool loser becoming the popular kid; finding your own voice rather than trying to be like everyone else...etc. However! It does so using Scottish Vikings and Dragons, not to mention great visual effects. The movie is definitely a kids movie, but it has a lot of heart and is a lot of fun. Plot wise there isn't anything exceptional about it, but the voice acting is smart and quick. One of my favourite moments is when Hiccup (the above mentioned wimp) is presented a helmet by his father...but the helmet is made from his dead mother's breast-plate...his dad has the matching pair- "Keeps her close." Surprising moments like this make the movie stand out among other childrens movies, though I must reiterate that the visual style is truly excellent. it combines cartoonish proportions with incredible detail - the same way Sergio Aragone's Groo comics did.

One thing irks me though, and it's a common thread in most Disney/children's movies: defying tradition to find your own way. I struggle with this. I see tradition as a really healthy thing, something our society needs more of. It's something that grounds us and gives a sense of community, and not just contemporary community, but a community through the generations. However, traditions can err, and like the dragon hating vikings, can be driven to extremes by a lack of understanding of the "others" real position. Hiccup, because he is different, is forced to cope with reality in a way that isn't traditional, and in doing so brings peace to his people. That's great, but underlying it is an implication that all tradition is blind and unwise. Often in movies the person who is unable to let go of tradition is made to be the bad guy or made to look the fool. And there are times where they truly are one or both. Is interests me that the only time someone standing for tradition is the good guy - Sir Thomas More in A Man for all Seasons for instance - it is not because he is supporting tradition necessarily but because he is a man who listens to his conscience. More is essentially the inverse of Hiccup, defying where everyone is going because his conscience deems it right. It's the same formula. I love A Man for all Seasons and recommend it highly, but it again bothers me that our society so highly favours following one's own conscience as supreme to any sort of status quo. Yes, it's inspiring. Yes, it's very modern and progressive. But what will it lead to if we throw out all tradition. Hell, we nearly have. Will we be better off?