DreamWorks has historically not had the best luck when it comes to advertising their movies. From their earliest releases to their most recent (especially the horrors of that first Trolls trailer), DreamWorks, much like their once rival animation company Pixar, have terrible trailers that paint their film as lazy, generic, annoying, and terribly unfunny with ridiculous concepts. Even though both companies have made great films behind these trailers, the likelihood of Pixar succeeding was higher than that of DreamWorks, who did still have successes, but subsequent failures did leave people feeling a little sceptical at times. Films like Kung Fu Panda, The Prince of Egypt, Madagascar, and Megamind were painted as far worse than they would actually turn out to be, and another that was stuck within this camp was the 2010 film, How to Train Your Dragon. In Viking times, the village of Berk is constantly under attack from dragons, raising the people of this village especially their leader, Stoic (voiced by Gerard Butler) to houses a deep hatred for the creatures and does everything within his strengths to wipe them out. Stoic’s son, Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) is an outcast among the other Vikings for being weak, scrawny, and for not being anything like his more naturally gifted father. Wanting to get his father’s approval, Hiccup (through his own mechanical prowess) builds a device that shoots down one of the deadliest dragons known to man, a night fury, but upon finding it, can’t bring himself to slay the trapped animal. Upon learning where the dragon, which he later nicknames Toothless, is stranded due to a damaged wing that prevents him from flying away on his own, the two slowly start to form a bond, leading Hiccup to discover that dragons may not be the cold-hearted predators they’ve been raised to believe their whole lives. At the same time, Hiccup is being trained to fight the dragons and through his research with Toothless, discovers non-lethal ways of apprehending them, which will later put him into conflict with his father’s steely ideals on the topic. With his father refusing to see the truth and with the discovery of a nest of dragons held under the command of a gargantuan dragon that has the potential to wipe out all vikings who venture near its den, what can Hiccup do to change his (and the rest of his villages’) mind? Based on a series of children’s books written by Cressida Cowell from 2003 to 2015, How to Train Your Dragon, despite horrible trailers, is one of the best DreamWorks movies ever released, being a huge hit with critics, audiences and at the box office, spanning into several different sequels and spin-offs and further cements the failure of Dreamworks’ marketing department.

While the films clearly took inspiration from the books, the movie did try to say they were going into their own direction and changing things up to make it less kid-friendly and not as overly sweet and whimsical (which is ironically the opposite of how these usual ”book-to-film” transitions pan out). The trailers for this movie, as previously stated, were not very good; presenting the film with an overly comedic tone, voice actors and an atmosphere that feels way too modern for the time period its replicating, and a plot that looks riddled with lazy overused cliches. The story’s reliance on these all-too-familiar tropes including the outcasted child trying to prove themselves, a father figure who refuses to listen, a world that remains prejudice to something that is revealed it doesn’t need to be, forced comedic characters, etc, it really wasn’t helping itself out and felt like it was being submerged in Dreamworks’ specific style and drowning out any unique components that would come from the original source.  However, the movie proves to not only be far more than these basic tropes and cliches map it out to be, but it actually makes for an incredible well told, well directed, and well-paced story. A lot of this most likely comes down to who was behind the directing chair for this film, Chris Sanders, who co-directed the film along with Dean DeBlois (who would later go on to direct the two sequels in 2014 and 2019). Sanders as a filmmaker has worked on projects like Lilo and Stitch and The Croods; films that have incredibly generic and cliché-filled narratives, but ones that always manages to bring something new and wholly likeable out of them to the point that they feel fresh from most people’s perspectives, and How to Train Your Dragon was no different. Despite all these cliches still being prevalent in the plot, it feels much more natural and just how this narrative should naturally play out (nothing feels forced in or included as an excuse to pad out the plot or add a false conflict). Even if its stuff people have seen before, its handled in such a way that makes it feel fresh and no scene ever feels out of place either, it’s all beautifully paced throughout and the running time of roughly only 98 minutes results in a pretty brisk watch. The film is still overtly comedic and at times the modern dialogue and voice actors can feel a bit out of place, the film holds an atmosphere that feels fitting to the Viking time period and allows itself to have softer quiet moments that make it more than just a non-stop fantasy adventure flick. The only time when things start to go downhill is during the third act, where they have to fight off against a threat that isn’t properly explained or built up strong enough to really feel like a fulfilling endpoint, concluding the film on a note not on par with what the rest of it was doing (although the epilogue is quite effective).

A surprise element that would come from this franchise once it evolved into a trilogy is that this story actually evolves its character between each movies to the point that they truly feel changed come its conclusion. While it has been done in other places prior, it hadn’t been done as openly in mainstream western media so it’s refreshing and exploring them in their infant stages is pretty cool with hindsight of how things would go later on. Sadly, most of the side characters (mainly the other teens voiced by people like Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kristen Wiig, T.J Miller, and Jonah Hill) are pretty one-note annoyances, drawing back to the overly comedic modern tone that this film didn’t need, but they thankfully don’t stick around long and are only utilized when they need to be. Also, the main threat for the story is this giant dragon that seemingly has control over the other dragons, and it’s never fully explained how this things works, why it’s doing what it’s doing or why it’s such a big threat. It’s nice that the movie didn’t rely on a flat-out villains as this narrative didn’t really need one as of yet, but for what is essentially the final physical conflict of the movie, it still feels unexplained and like a tagged-on element only to have a final climax. Thankfully, the rest of the cast are great and are portrayed wonderfully by very strong voice talent. More important sides roles like Hiccup’s Girlfriend, Astrid (voiced by America Ferrera) and his mentor, Gobber (voiced by Craig Ferguson) leave their mark as more than just basic characters and have good scenes throughout the film, and Stoic as a character could very easily be relegated into the ‘’angry father who never listens to his kid’’ archetype, but the film is smart enough to play him more than that and they make him a really interesting character. As a lead, Hiccup could easily be annoying with Jay Baruchel’s unique-sounding voice, but the writing keeps him engaging, relatable and you genuinely want to see things improve for the better between him and his father. Toothless’ fantastic animation and design make him as adorable as he is cool-looking, and for a creature that could very easily just be used to sell merchandise, the amount of personality he has just through facial expressions alone is great. The best relationship in the movie is between these two, as the slow but gradual progression the two make is believable, the manner in which both bring something out in the other is charming and leads to a great conclusion with both of them working together when they take to the skies, and for what is essentially a basic ”kid and his pet” scenario, it doesn’t feel rehashed or lazy.

For a movie over ten years old, this film still looks pretty amazing because the visuals were a big part of making this film. The makers of the film even got help from Roger Deakins, a cinematographer who worked on movies like The Shawshank Redemption, Blade Runner 2049, 1917, and Skyfall, when constructing the visual depth for the movie in order to make it look as authentic as possible and truly capture a live action feel to the whole project. It’s nice to see how mature they wanted to take certain parts of this story, even down to how they composed the visuals in terms of shooting the lighting, textures and even details in the environments, it showcases how despite still containing their usual kid-centric atmosphere, they were taking this film a bit more seriously than just another standard kids’ comedy. While there are times when some of the character designs can look goofy and cartoonish (mainly most of the background Vikings and the dragons), the main characters and the dragons of focus are animated very nicely and carry that DreamWorks character flair while still moving like realistic people. The flying scenes in this movie are also outstanding. This was considered one of the best films to see in 3D for how well it captures the feeling and weight behind moving and flying through the air, emulating a true feeling of experiencing this flight first-hand and being in the moment to the point where it actually can turn your stomach in the best way possible. While the movie is mostly light on its action set pieces, the way these scenes are done takes advantage of its visuals and results in some pretty cool shots and set pieces (again even though the climax is still messy from a writing standpoint). The musical score by John Powell is also incredibly strong, with an epic scale that emulates a Scottish feel and fantastical melody behind its instrumentation but is still distinctly its own thing and not reminiscent of any other fantasy story. The humor for the film isn’t especially strong, coming across as too modern and improvisational to feel authentic within this Viking environment. It’s an element that feels the most stereotypical for the company and does hold it back from acting as a perfect package for what it’s trying to accomplish (probably coming from fellow screenwriter, Will Davies, writing for movies that don’t have the best track record like Johnny English, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, The Real McCoy, Ghost in the Machine, and Dr Jekyll and Ms Hyde) but it thankfully isn’t a distracting element or results in anything overly annoying.

Much like how Kung Fu Panda shocked the world with how a story about a Kung Fu-fighting Panda with the voice of Jack Black could lead to an engaging, funny, and emotional trilogy, How to Train Your Dragon took a generic outline for a narrative and constructed a movie that felt fresh, emotional, honest, and large in scale despite its limited running time. Seeing this movie develop its own trilogy that would also tackle much bigger themes and plot lines than you’d expect from the premise and even the original book series, is truly impressive and demonstrates how much great content can come from something if the right people behind and in front of the camera understand how to turn something familiar into something unique. Even looking back against its follow-ups, this movie is still wonderfully paced and directed, features memorable characters, a smart screenplay that knows how to evolve its base idea from being cliched while staying true to its roots, and visuals that still hold up to this day. Despite some of its faults, it proved everybody wrong, training our brains to not always put trust in these kind of trailers.

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