How To Train Your Dragon – Because Friendship is More Important than Anything

Warning:  The following post contains the following:

1. Complete and utter fangirling

2. A crapload of gifs

3. Art geekery

4. Incoherent spewing of adoration (that may contain spoilers if you haven’t seen the movie.)

4.5.  If you haven’t seen the movie – GO SEE IT NOW!!!!!!!!  No choice!

Once more, this is why I listen to my friends…because they put me in touch with things that I usually don’t see or am not all excited to see.  When the movie How to Train Your Dragon (hereafter to be referred to as HTTYD for brevity’s sake) first started televised advertisments, I saw it and thought “meh, looks sort of stupid.”  But then one day my friends Kayla and Anila and some of the others in our group were going to see it after school…and I wanted to hang out and figured it was a movie, so why not? 

My thoughts during and after the movie were something like this: Wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, HOW COULD I HAVE EVER THOUGHT THIS MOVIE LOOKED STUPID!!!

We saw it in 3-D, and to this day, I maintain that the only time it is worth chucking an extra five dollars at the ticket window for 3-D is if there are awesome flying scenes…in other words, a movie like this one.  The flying sequences are amazingly animated (well, everything is amazingly animated, but especially those) and I just sat there with my friends, with this movie streaming from the screen, and infecting our brains with thoughts of adorableness.

So, why do I love HTTYD so much?  God, where do I start?!  Let’s start with the obvious: Toothless.  Now I’m sure that everyone that’s seen this movie and loved it has the same reaction “Toothless is just like my cat/dog ____ !”  For me, Toothless is my dog Elsa.  Now, Anila and I have several times talked about whether Toothless is more like a dog or a cat, and I agree that he’s much more like a cat…that being said, my dog doesn’t think that she’s a dog at all… If, after this movie, you don’t want a friend that’s as loyal as Toothless, then there’s something seriously wrong with you.

The bond of friendship that grows between Toothless and Hiccup as the story progresses is absolutely beautiful, and that very one shot when Hiccup has been knocked unconscious and is falling toward the billowing flames from the Green Death (the giant dragon that the duo have to fight to save their tribe of vikings who stupidly decided to storm the dragon’s nest…) and Toothless is diving to save him…well, words can’t describe how beautiful that split second is. 

This story isn’t just about a boy and his dragon, it’s about two outcasts that help each other attain that which they want most dearly – at first for Hiccup it’s to be accepted among his peers, and for Toothless it’s to feel the joy of flight again – but really what they needed the most was each other.  And in the end their story was beautifully mirrored, both broken, both holding the other up.

In a way, there’s almost a gay undertone to this movie.  Not in that I think Hiccup/Toothless is an item (but believe me, a lot of people on DeviantArt think so...again, rule 34) but in that the story is about a young boy who isn’t accepted by the rest of his tribe, it certainly has parallels to the acceptance that a lot of young people that are realizing their sexuality want.  A repeating conversation in this movie is:

Stoic: “You just need to stop being…this”

Hiccup: “You just gestured to all of me.”

But in the end the conversation changed to:

Stoic: “Turns out all we needed was a little…this”

Hiccup: “You just gestured to all of me.”

He goes from being the thing that everyone wants to change so much to the person that others both accept and treasure. 

From an art perspective, there is so much to love about this movie.  (Prepare for serious art nerdiness here…)  Whenever I see HTTYD, I am just blown away by the detail of the animation in every single thing.  Whether it’s from the minute scales on Toothless’ head to the tiny scar that is on Hiccup’s chin, the detail is there.  I mean, look at the picture below…do you see the reflection in Toothless’ eye?  Now look closer, what do you see?  Yes, those reflections are of the trees behind Hiccup.  Ladies and Gentlemen THIS is how to do proper animation!!!

Another thing that really sets HTTYD apart from other animated movies is how the movie is lit.  It doesn’t have whole sets completely lit from top to toe showing the entire thing, there are times where the sets are allowed to just fade into darkness when the scene calls for it, especially since the main source of light in scenes that were set indoors were candles.  The art director in charge of HTTYD actually brought in a cinematographer to help with this…and it shows.  The world that the story of HTTYD takes place in is so vibrant, and the lighting really brings this across. Another place that this is evident is in the cove area that Toothless first crashed in which later became more or less his home.  I remember being very impacted visually by the rays of light that shown, almost magically, through the foliage.

Even the concept art for this movie is above exceptional.  Now, as someone that’s interested in possibly perusing a career in illustration and/or concept art, I’m always checking out the art that went into films.  I have so many “art of” books in my room I can’t remember all of them from the top of my head.  I say that so that when I say that the concept art that the world of HTTYD sprung from is particularly fantastic, it means more then just “oooh, pretty picture!”  Oftentimes concept art will have a certain unfinished feel to it – not the case here.  The concept art below could have been used as the cover of a book!

Speaking of art, there is some seriously amazing fanart related to HTTYD!  I think that it really says something about the quality of the movie itself that it has such a large amount of more mature artists doing fanart dedicated to it. 

Have I mentioned that I absolutely LOVE the music!  John Powell has delivered a soundtrack that is mysterious and enchanting, that soars above the clouds, and pounds as frantically as a fearful heart when the story calls for it.  Do I listen to it to calm down after a long day?  Yes. Do I listen to it to get ready for a test?  Yes. Do I – just yes, I listen to this soundtrack All. The. Time.  The song “Coming Back Around” is my power-up song.  When driving alone, I will turn up the volume and just feel the music as it crescendos and goes into the drum section.  

HTTYD is also a bonding point between my friends and I.  We are all mutually in love with this movie, and when it came out on DVD, we had a sleepover and watched it twice in a row (once normally, once with the commentary).  We would probably have watched it more, but honestly we were all just far too tired for that.  Even now, with all of us scattered at different colleges, it’s stayed a bonding point…and we’ve already decided that we’re going to be having a HTTYD party/sleepover again once we all arrive back home this Christmas.

Every time I watch it, I get something new.  Every time I watch it, it fills me with happiness.  Every time I watch it, I geek out. 

Fullmetal Alchemist (aka Why I Should Listen to My Friends)

Last spring, my friends Kayla and Anila (of The Cuckoo’s Nest and Keep Calm and Om Nom, respectively) sent me the link to read a manga online, insisting that I absolutely MUST read it.  It was for a series by the name of Fullmetal Alchemist, which I had heard of before but wasn’t all that interested in reading. Over the next few months, the conversation went something like this:

ANILA: “Rae you absolutely have to read FMA, it’s SO GOOD!”

ME: “m-hmm…maybe.  I’m really busy right now with AP Studio Art though…”

Two Weeks Later

KAYLA: “Rae, have you started reading FMA yet?  There’s some crazy stuff in there!”

ME: “I can’t right now, I have five art classes all with projects that need to be finished and really don’t have the time…”

Four Weeks Later

ANILA: “Rae, you’ve finished your AP studio art portfolio, so get START READING FMA!!! Four volumes, that’s all I’m asking you to read!”

ME: *resigned* “Fine, fine, I’ll read four volumes, but that’s it!”

And so I read the first volume and a half, and over and over I was geeking out over the pen and ink technique, and was so distracted by the art that it was taking me about seven times longer then it really should have.  Eventually I said, “ah, screw it,” and watched the FMA: Brotherhood anime instead.

OH. MY. GOD. 

First off, thank you Anila and Kayla for pressuring me and pressuring me and not letting up until I actually buckled…you were right.  There, I’m not going to say it again.

For those who do not know – which would be ridiculous as the only two people that I know are following this blog are the two friends aforementioned in this post – FMA is a story about two brothers, Alphonse and Edward Eleric, who try to resurrect their mother using a taboo form of alchemy, and instead end up losing their body, and arm and leg, respectively.  Honestly that super, super basic description doesn’t even do the story justice.  It’s also a story of loyalty, of good versus evil, of a corrupt government, of frenemies, of alliances and espionage, and of how much one will sacrifice for the greater cause. 

In short, it’s just damn good.

Even in the anime I was stunned by the quality of the animation and the detail.  Although it was not as detailed in the inking (I loooooove pen and ink), it still was exceptional in the varying line thickness and the color palette that many American animators could do well to learn from.  More then anything, however, I was impressed by the backgrounds.  I know it may seem strange that I was looking at the backgrounds when there is so much going on with the characters, but the painted backgrounds are so truly magnificent that I have to give them a shout-out.  I actually was jumping up and down in excitement when I was trying to explain this to one of my friends…art nerd, okay?  Give me a break!

As of now, I’m currently working on actually reading the manga (on a much smaller screen as to avoid the massive art geeking out that was occurring earlier) and it is just as exciting the second time around.  So, to anyone that is in the tiniest bit curious about Fullmetal Alchemist (Brotherhood, if you’re watching the anime), go, watch it.  Read it.  Just experience it.