Everyone likes the red-haired reluctant dragon slayer and loves the suspiciously stitch-like dragon buddy. But it wasn’t always like that…
The movie and book (and I’m talking from a learned perspective, having experienced both) are so wildly different that if you changed the names of the characters and places, it would be quite hard to consider them as having stemmed from the same inspiration.
The Book: How to train your dragon, by Cressida Cowell
Summary
In the book, the humans and dragons are at peace, though not as equals. The dragons are considered pets, and are quite small. The main character, a smallish Viking with a longish name (Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the third, Heir and Hope to the Hairy Hooligan Tribe) and his ten classmates must complete a rite of passage to be accepted as full members of the Viking tribe: catch and train their own dragon.
Problems start for him quickly when he catches one of a common species of dragon, and this one in particular has only one thing spectacular about it, its peculiar smallness. This would be fine if Hiccup was anyone else, but being the chief’s son, he’s pretty much doomed. To make matters worse, said dragon is stubborn, temperamental, and ignores everything he says.
That isn’t even the worst of things, though, as a gigantic sea dragon has recently washed up on the island and is threatening to devour the entire village.
Review
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, despite the fact that it was intended for audiences half my age. Maybe it was the humorous take on everything, or maybe the surprisingly dark epilogue, but I think it was mainly that… I dunno why. I just liked it.
The Movie: How to train your dragon, by Dreamworks entertainment
Summary
The Vikings have been at war with the dragons for three centuries, ever since said Vikings moved to the island of Berk, which is actually a nice place despite Hiccup’s claims that it “snows nine months of the year and hails the other three.” The dragons have regularly attacked the village, burning down houses and taking the livestock. (As a result, despite the length of time the village has been there, every house is new.)
During one such raid, Hiccup, who has a gift for all things mechanical (though he sucks in just about every other area) tests out his new bola-launcher on one of the offending beasts. By pure chance, he manages to snare the most dangerous and elusive breed and it crashes on the other end of the island.
Unfortunately, for the remainder of the battle, he proceeds to screw everything up in his haste to tell someone, and no one believes him when he does. So he decides to go find where it landed, kill it, and then bring back the body to prove it.
He finds it, and there’s a few tense moments where he debates on whether to kill it or not, and at the last second cuts it free. It scares the crap out of him, then flies off.
To make a long story short, he ends up doing a dangerous balancing act of hiding the dragon, whom he nurses back to health, and appearing halfway competent in the training classes, which are essentially “How to kill a dragon” (unfortunately, he fails, going from completely hopeless to top scores)
Things get worse when his father, the chief, discovers the dragon’s nest and sets out to end the war once and for all… in favor of the vikings.
Review
In all actuality, this wasn’t bad either. Perhaps the mandatory love interest didn’t add anything to the story, but when do they ever? It was quite enjoyable for the most part, and I was surprised at the end… it had a twist that was darker than you’d expect in a family movie.
Comparison
While both are quite (Meaning here: Extremely) different, both versions are good in their own respect. Maybe I’d be happier if they’d kept more from the book, (namely, the Green Death’s post-mortem poem) but at the same time, beggars can’t be choosers.
Book: 9.5
Movie: 9.5
Comparison: 7.0
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