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Ten years, what is the concept? Ten years ago, I was still a primary school student; the mobile phone screen ten years ago was not half as big as it is now; the WeChat ten years ago... Oh, sorry, there was no WeChat ten years ago. And ten years ago, I happened to see this movie, and I can't forget it.
"How to Train Your Dragon" has a total of three parts, and it can be regarded as one of the representative works of DreamWorks Animation. It was directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, who also directed many classic animation works. In the era when 3D movies were just emerging, "How to Train Your Dragon 1" was undoubtedly the first time to use 3D techniques to present a gorgeous fantasy world to the audience. Looking at the three parts, the performance of the first part is particularly amazing, the second and third parts seem to have a little less inner taste, and the narrative is slightly mediocre. From this point of view, choosing to end this magnificent story in How to Train Your Dragon 3 is a good choice. After all, it is not a thing to take risks every day, and the great rejuvenation of the nation has to rely on industrialization (funny). Next, I will focus on "How to Train Your Dragon 1", because I think that if you take another look at this lovely toothless, you will also finish the last two.
There are essential differences between Chinese dragons and foreign dragons. Although I don't dare to guarantee the ticket, when it comes to the Chinese dragon, the image that comes to everyone's mind should be similar. In our culture, the dragon is a symbol of dignity. This is not the case with foreign dragons. Most of them are evil. Not surprisingly, they should have wings and usually have traditional fire-breathing skills. And in the beginning, the Vikings on Bork Island thought so too.
The male protagonist of the movie is named Hiccup. He is thin and looks like the male protagonist of Riman Asahi. Both his appearance and personality are incompatible with the Vikings on Bork Island.
It takes about seven minutes at the beginning of the film to present us a battle between Vikings and dragons, and this battle is presented from the first perspective of the protagonist Hiccup. In just seven minutes, the history of the island, the customs and the characters in the entire movie have been presented to us in a complete and unobtrusive manner, laying the background of the story. This alone shows the director's skill. The most important thing is that the director has quietly presented to the audience the two main contradictions that run through the whole film. The first is the conflict between the Vikings and the dragon, and the second is the protagonist Hiccup and the body. For the conflict between the patriarch's father Stoick. It is said that contradictions and conflicts are the most critical part of plot development and character building, and in my opinion, this is the most brilliant and fascinating part of this movie.
Going back to the story, a little joke during the battle was Hiccup's claim that he used the machine he invented to shoot down a Night Fury, an extremely powerful and mysterious dragon. But Hiccup didn't give up looking for the Night Fury he shot down because of everyone's ridicule. After some searching, Hiccup finds the Night Fury captured in the woods. However, in the face of this readily available trophy, Hiccup hesitated. After all, instead of killing the dragon, he cut the rope on it. The Vikings and the Dragons have been incompatible with each other for a long time. With this background in mind, it's hard to imagine why a Viking would make such a choice. But the film's performance here is not abrupt at all, using the change of Hiccup's demeanor to explain to us why he gave up the easy loot, and also took 'one small step for a man' for the reconciliation between man and dragon.
At this time, Stoick is planning to find the dragon's lair and prepare to clear the dragon. Before leaving, give Hiccup to his good brother Gobber and let him learn how to fight dragons. The next part is my favorite part, how Hiccup and toothless trust each other, Hiccup makes a tail for Toothless, flies with it, and travels the sky with the heroine riding a dragon. (Riding a dragon to tease the girl, I would like to call it a unique skill) In the process, they accidentally found the old lair where the dragon lived, and also discovered the secret of why the dragon wanted to destroy and plunder the human village. As the heroine said in the movie, "You are the first Viking who does not choose to kill a dragon, but you are also the first Viking who rides a dragon." Hiccup realized the trust between humans and dragons for the first time. , to resolve the shackles of hatred that the Vikings have continued from generation to generation. It is worth mentioning that the soundtrack of this section fits the plot amazingly, thanks to the Hollywood soundtrack master John Powell. This section of the wall crack is recommended to be eaten with headphones, delicious juice.
Here I must mention the character of the heroine, which I have to say is very pleasing. She has the bravery of Vikings, but she is not stubborn, she is frank but not hypocritical, her character is cheerful but her mind is delicate, and she is very successful overall.
However, the good times did not last long, and the Stoick expedition failed and returned with a broken ship. And Hiccup, as the winner of the training, according to tradition, must kill a dragon in front of the whole island. Hiccup decided to show in this battle that the dragon was not as scary as they thought. He put down his weapon in front of the dragon, but fell into danger because of his father's interference. At this time, Toothless came to save him. It was also caught by people. The rhythm of the plot thus changes from a relaxed and comfortable to a tense and exciting climax stage. Under the pressure of his father, Hiccup revealed the story of the Dragon Nest unscrupulously, which also prompted the Vikings to launch an expedition to the Dragon Nest again.
At this time, Hiccup was trapped on the island. With the encouragement of the heroine, he rode the dragon with a few friends who were training together and flew to the battlefield. On this side of the battlefield, Stoick found a huge dragon king and understood why Hiccup stopped it. After a thrilling battle, Hiccup and Toothless also seized the Dragon King's weakness and defeated him (with nothing left to burn). In the final explosion, Toothless hugged Hiccup tightly, saving his life.
The outline of the story is roughly like this, and the following is a detailed analysis of the film. Of course, as an animated film, its social significance and practical significance may be relatively lacking, but after all, it is not for this meal, duck need not say it. The analysis focuses on its storytelling aspects. I have to say that, as an animated film of less than 90 minutes, it tells a story worth 120 minutes, but there is no sense of narrative urgency at all. The plot arrangement of "How to Train Your Dragon" is undoubtedly extremely successful. From the perspective of positioning, How to Train Your Dragon is embarrassing as an animated film, because in general understanding, the audience of animated films is generally young people or teenagers, or adults with children (manually funny), As a cartoon, "How to Train Your Dragon" has a very strong story. Young children may not be able to understand it, and adults may not be interested in cartoons. But to this day, reviews of How to Train Your Dragon are almost uniformly positive, and the reasons are intriguing.
In fact, it goes back to the two contradictions mentioned at the beginning. The first is the conflict between Vikings and dragons. Hiccup is an outlier among the Vikings. He has no strong body, no courage to move forward, and no decisive decision to kill. He can only be slaughtered in front of the dragon. But he did not inherit the stubborn hatred of dragons from his ancestors, and he had extraordinary curiosity and hands-on ability (it's a pity that this kid didn't go to college). And it is this kind of character that gives people a chance to truly understand the dragon. Different from many traditional movies with an alternate world view, such as Marvel's superhero movies, most of them have an evil villain, and the dark side of human nature is often the driving force of the storyline, this movie is very simple. The film does not highlight Hiccup's hatred for dragons, nor does it intrigue. Although there is a big villain, the core of the story is to tell the story of mutual understanding between two creatures, humans and dragons. Although this kind of narration does not have the exhilaration of some movies, it has a long aftertaste and gives people a long-lasting impression.
The second contradiction is between Hiccup and his father Stoick. His father is an older Viking, brave, strong, and responsible. From any point of view, he is a respectable old village chief and an old father, but it can be seen from the movie that he is very stubborn and desperate. To eradicate all dragons. (In fact, there is a foreshadowing here, because Hiccup's mother does not appear in the entire film, and everyone can guess why, this is a later story.) But Hiccup does not meet the standard of a Viking from head to toe. The film's psychological portrayal of Stoick is extremely delicate. From the helplessness at the very beginning, the hatred that iron is not steel, to the relief and joy when I learned about Hiccup's achievements in how to train the dragon, the anger and disappointment after learning the truth, to the emotion and pride of sending my son to fight, and finally seeing his son survive. He cried with joy, and in the middle of these emotions was a father's worry and deep love for his son. The most unforgettable is a dialogue between the father and Hiccup at the end:
"I'm sorry...for...for everything."
"Yeah...me too."
"You don't have to go up there."
"We're Vikings. It's an occupational hazard."
"I'm proud to call you my son."
Such a stubborn father sincerely apologized to his son, worried about his son's danger, and was sincerely proud of his son's bravery. This dialogue is very precise in the handling of emotions. The change in Stoick's attitude as a father is not only young people, even some old fathers should be moved by it.
In conclusion, the unclear positioning is not a bad thing for this movie, because it has achieved the best of the family. It can not only attract children through the cute Toothless and the refreshing feeling of playing the boss, but also through the world view and plot. The young audience can even move the old fathers who bring their children to watch through emotional performance. Just two words, great.
In fact, for most people, the reason for liking a movie may be very simple. For this movie, it may be because of the cuteness and cuteness of Toothless, the candy and dog food between Hiccup and the heroine, or the novel setting of the story, it doesn't matter. Because a movie can have so much to like about it, it's rare in itself. Of course, this movie also has some shortcomings. For example, if you look closely, you can find that there are only a few dragons in the whole movie. Perhaps due to the limited production capacity of the year, the so-called dragon group is just copied from these types of dragons with different colors. (No matter what other dragons do, is Toothless cute?) But this doesn't affect it from being an excellent work. It's just like if you like a person, you will tolerate his shortcomings. It's a natural thing.
At the end of the film, Hiccup supported Toothless, Hiccup lost his left foot, Toothless lost his left tail, and one person and one dragon slowly walked to the door. This scene is really the finishing touch. They both lost something, but they both gained each other. Maybe this is the arrangement of fate.
Zhang Jiajia once said, "The beginning of a story is always like this. It's a meeting, and I'm caught off guard." And the story of Toothless and Hiccup is like this. Go watch such a movie if you have time. After all, everyone's heart is worthy of having such a dream - riding a dragon and flying.
by Toothless
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