How to Train Your Dragon 2

As I said in my review of the first film, I was really slow to get around to watching How To Train Your Dragon. I wasn't going to make that mistake twice, so I went to see the sequel the night it came out. I did make one mistake though, and that was forgetting that the creators of this series don't pull their punches. Ever. It's so easy to say "it's a kid's movie" and forget that some people are smart enough to know that kid's entertainment doesn't need to be stupid or simple or well, not emotionally devastating. The animation is, of course, beautiful. Hiccup, Astrid, and most of the rest of the vikings of Berk are hilarious and wonderful and multi-faceted.

This movie has a LOT going for it. Hiccup's inventions have only become more complex and amazing, and he's embarking on a quest to map out their world. He happens upon a dragon hunter who is delivering dragons to the unimaginatively named Drago Bludvist. Bludvist is of course building a dragon army for conquering the world, or something. Let's be honest, that part of the story wasn't particularly well developed or original. Was it thirst for revenge? I don't even remember.

Because the thing is, the real main plot here are the relationships between the characters we know, and one significant newcomer - Hiccup's mom, Valka. Hiccup and his father Stoick have assumed she was killed many years ago, but instead she's been hiding out and rescuing dragons, creating a gorgeous sanctuary. Valka and Astrid are fantastic, and should be held up as examples of nuanced and interesting female characters for other screenwriters.

Name any two characters among the main set (Hiccup, Stoick, Valka, Astrid, and Toothless to be specific) and their relationship is amazing, multi-faceted, and interesting. Stoick and Valka have something that is absolutely beautiful and completely unexpected in a movie of this type. Love of this type isn't really something that's shown in "kid's" movies. Or honestly movies at all. Hiccup and Astrid still have a relationship that feels like a partnership, and the two of them model something really positive that again, is rare for teenage characters.

But obviously the centerpiece is Hiccup and Toothless, as it should be. Toothless is absolutely the star, to no one's surprise, and he makes everyone want their own dragon. I don't know how to warn you about the plot without being full of spoilers so I'll just say this: be prepared for utter heartbreak if you love these characters. I was crying harder than I have at a movie in a very long time, and almost everybody in the theater was quietly sniffling. This is an AMAZING movie but it hurts, so don't watch it if you're looking for a fun, simple, uplifting time okay? This franchise is too complex for that, and yes that's absolutely a good thing but you know, full of tears. Hiccup goes through a lot of emotions, but for once he doesn't really have much time in the wallowing "I'm being a stupid idiot" phase that most male protagonists go through after this kind of thing. Seriously, sorry for the vagueness.

Now, the movie wasn't 100% perfect. Several of the side characters actually grated on my nerves more than a little, and Bludvist is really wasted and kind of boring (especially because they got the super talented Djimon Hounsou for his voice). And honestly there was one particular twist regarding Astrid that I thought would be awesome that they didn't go for, and I really wish they had. But honestly, I will be there on opening night for the third movie, expecting it to break my heart even worse.

The Last Unicorn Screening Tour

Last week on August 12th I was lucky enough to attend one of the screenings of the amazing new Last Unicorn Screening Tour. When they announced the tour last year, I was hoping that they would bring it to D.C. since most events like this come my way eventually. And they didn't disappoint, one of their first stops was The AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, Maryland.

The tour is really fantastic for people who are fans of the movie, and I would suggest to anyone who is a fan of fantasy or animation as well. Or even 1980's movies, since it was shown as part of a retro 80's lineup at AFI. They're actually showing a brand new digital print of the film, so it's clearer and more gorgeous than has been seen on screens since 1982 when it premiered. I actually asked my mom and she told me that we didn't go see it in the theater when it came out, so this was my first time seeing it on the big screen. It was very beautiful, and like all good films there are a lot of things that you'll probably discover that you'd never noticed before.

The best part though is that the author, Peter S. Beagle, was there to do a Q&A session after the show as well as sign items and meet fans both before and after the film. I've actually met Beagle before, several years ago at Dragoncon in Atlanta, Georgia. I bought a new copy of his first book, A Fine and Private Place, and spoke to him for a while about why I loved it and how it reminded me of some very specific good memories. Meeting him was one of my favorite experiences at that convention, because he really took the time to talk and came across as a very genuine and charming person. But I had been under the assumption that I had been lucky to come to his table when there wasn't a line, and that's why I got the personal attention.

I learned last week that this wasn't the case, it's actually that Beagle is always wonderful to his fans. He will take the time to talk to you, learn a bit about you, tell you a story, and make you feel like the most important person in the entire line. This time we talked about screenwriting, and he gave me the best piece of advice about the film industry I've ever heard: "Just be patient. If you're patient, you'll outlive the bastards." It's my new motto.

Photo from lastunicorntour.com

The Q&A was also wonderful, he spoke about several other books he had written and his experiences throughout the years as an author. I hadn't realized how many different types of writing he had done, or how often his works have been adapted to other formats. I really enjoyed him telling a story about why he wrote "Come Lady Death." Apparently, he was in a writing workshop with someone who hated fantasy in all it's forms. When another woman wrote a fantasy story, this other member of the group ripped into it simply because of it's genre. So Beagle went home and wrote the best fantasy story that he could to submit for the next week. He said that the other gentleman grumpily told him it was a well written story, but that he hated it anyway. "He also taught me that I could write a story in a day and a half if I was angry enough."

I've had some similar experiences in writing workshops, so I definitely appreciated the sentiment.

There was also a raffle and giveaways of I think five or six items, mostly copies of Beagle's books. I didn't win anything but I was okay with that because the bulk of what was given away I already owned (and I had several in my bag at that very moment to get signed later).

The tour is going to be in Southern California next, and some of the shows are sold out but you can still get tickets to a few at the tour's website. I spoke briefly with Connor Cochran of Conlan Press and he said that they hope to return to many of the cities where they've brought the tour because often people have found out about the screenings too late to get tickets, and they've been sold out in quite a few cities. So keep your eyes peeled, they may come to your city and if you missed it they might come back and give you a second chance. It's well worth it. Just make sure you give yourself plenty of time for the autograph line, so that everybody gets their one on one time (including you!)

Brave (kinda)

I feel like there's no point in reviewing Brave because apparently nobody else has bothered to. Apparently, the memo that I missed detailed that all reviews of Brave should instead be either sexist or about sexism. Or, absurdly, accuse Merida of being a lesbian. Because, you know, that's important. I can see why some people are going off on other tangents. Brave is a movie the wouldn't really inspire people to wax poetic about it or build a major fandom, or anything like that. It's a good movie, it's indeed a very good movie. But that's about all it is. Personally, I think that's okay. I enjoyed the film, I thought the visuals were beautiful (though it took time for the animation style to grow on me) and the voice acting was amazing. Merida was a fun character, I enjoyed her, she reminded me of me.

Only, you know, if I was any better at archery. But that's another point for another day.

My point for today though, is that it takes two combinations of things for Brave to hit home: you have to be a girl that can identify with Merida on some level and you have to have a specific kind of relationship with your mother, and probably be old enough to understand why your mother was how she was when you were a teenager.

I saw one post that got it right, Brave is a movie that doesn't shy away from the fact that teenage girls aren't perfect and are often terrible. And that mothers of teenager girls are often terrified for them and don't know how to communicate with them. And that in the end, once you get through the teenage years, everybody can see the other's person's perspective a little better and it forms a particular kind of relationship. If you've lived through that, and felt that, then Brave will probably make you cry (it did me, that's for sure).

If you haven't, then there's nothing wrong with you, you just had a different type of family and that's awesome.

The problem lies in the fact that outside of masterfully presenting this mother/daughter dynamic (which is rare enough to be worth praise), the movie doesn't really press the envelope anywhere else. Which is why critics are so distracted.

About half the reviews talk about how poorly the movie treats men. Most of the rebuttals to those comments are "that's how women have to live every day, qq more newb." Which is fair, except for the fact that Brave doesn't marginalize it's men. They're all pretty well drawn out for supporting characters. Merida's suitors are comic relief, but they all have charms to go with their faults. The triplets are crazy and "get away with murder" but they're also really smart and resourceful and even without lines they have a depth when you think about their relationship with Merida.

As for the people trying to make a case that Merida is a lesbian because she likes to shoot arrows and doesn't want to marry a guy that she probably couldn't even carry on a conversation with...there's just nothing for those people. I've got nothing, I can't even contemplate how stupid and terrible life must be for them, having so few brain cells. The point of the movie was about choosing your own fate and your own life, and creating it yourself. To force Merida into a stereotype because it makes your brain feel a little better is to go against everything it stands for. Who knows what kind of person Merida is attracted to, I doubt she even knows. But she'll figure it out and it might be one of the guys and it might be another princess, and the world will keep turning on.

Oh, and to the person who said that Merida still wasn't a good role model or a positive step for women for being the protagonist because she's still a princess...go lock yourself in a tower. In fiction, women can be depicted as princesses as a metaphor for the responsibilities and struggles we face because of stereotypical gender roles. One would think a media or literary critic would understand that much, that's like Women's Lit 101.

How To Train Your Dragon

I was very late to the party when it came to this movie. I knew that I wanted to watch it because so many people had such good things to say about it. But at the same time, other things seemed more important to rent and it never made it to the top of my Netflix queue. I ended up watching it on a very long international flight. I wasn't in the mood for anything too depressing or dramatic, and wanted something that I felt was almost guaranteed to have a happy ending. I'm very glad I picked How to Train Your dragon. I knew of the book that the film was (loosely) based on, and I wasn't sure how in the world they could manage to make a film out of it. But they did an amazing job, and the characters they created were so multi-dimensional.

The world was well realized, and the different types of dragons were fun and well done. And of course, Toothless was quite possibly the most ridiculously cute dragon ever animated. The story seemed perfect for any age, even the more frightening bits didn't seem too frightening for smaller children (though I'm not always the best judge of that). I think even adults will identify with Hiccup's struggles to fit into a world where he knows that he can't be what's expected of him.

I was especially impressed with the fact that this was a hero who struggles and wins through intelligence, curiosity, and learning. Hiccup doesn't just read up on dragons from the texts he's given, he tests the knowledge, finds what is and isn't true, and writes down his findings accordingly. He's a behavioral scientist, and it's awesome. He doesn't figure out that he really needs to summon his courage and hit things in order to win against the people who don't believe in him (the typical male coming of age story) but he has to get more intelligent and learn to be more strategic.

Overall, I highly suggest everybody watch it. But especially parents should watch it with their kids. These are the kinds of lessons our media should be teaching them, but it's done in a way that's not just fun and entertaining, but very well written and animated as well.


**SPOILER ALERT***





I have to spend some time talking about the end of the film, because I think it's also extremely powerful and deserves praise. Hiccup is able to tame and ride Toothless because he accidentally injures the dragon's tail, rendering him unable to fly. Hiccup designs a prosthetic tail fin that he can control to help the two fly together.

After the final battle of the film, you know that something bad has befallen Hiccup, but when he wakes up you see that he has lost a leg. One of the trainers for the kids is missing an arm, so this isn't unusual in the world they live in. But I think it's a very powerful moment that will teach kids amazing things without even trying. When Hiccup gets out of bed, walks on his new leg, and then discovers that it is designed to help him better control Toothless as they fly, kids will internalize a lot of great information. That you don't need a whole body to be a whole person, that you can and will do that things that you love even after an accident or injury. That Hiccup and Toothless are the same people after becoming disabled. The movie doesn't make any heavy handed statements about this, it doesn't try to teach a lesson, it doesn't become a "very special episode." Hiccup and Toothless just are. I don't know that I've ever seen a depiction of disability in children's media that was done as well.

Flashback: He-Man

It's hip right now for people to be nostalgic for things that were awesome when they were kids. I guess that was always the deal, but now that the "cool kids" have moved on to reminisce about the 90's, I'm left with the older generation reminiscing about the 80's. When I was young, my favorite thing in the world was He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. I had all the toys in teh first run, I had books, episodes on VHS, the whole nine yards. I was obsessed. So when Netflix put most of the series in their streaming library, I was really excited but still kind of scared. More than once, I've been bitten by my own nostalgia. My sister and I refer to it as "Eerie Indiana Syndrome" because we both independently rented Eerie, Indiana after remembering how amazing we thought it was when we were kids. Only, it really wasn't very good at all.

Part of me was really afraid that He-Man would be the same, and I wasn't sure if I was ready for something that was so important to little 4-year-old me to be ruined like that. So I hesitated. But I eventually caved when I was up late one night working on something and needed to put on a show for background noise.

I pretty quickly found myself ignoring my work to pay attention to the show. Now, I'm not going to start talking about how He-Man was better than anything we've got on TV today. It's clearly not, it is exactly what you think of it. It's cheesy, it's a glorified toy commercial, and it's every 80's cliche you can find.

But there's something there, underneath all that. There's a reason this show has endured and that it's been brought back at least once. There aren't massive fandoms for a lot of other cartoons from it's time, but it sticks around through something beyond nostalgia.

Basically because it was better than it had any right to be. For me, the draw became the female characters. Who would expect in a show like He-Man to find such strong role models? Maybe that's why they were able to make the women so awesome, who knows. But between The Sorceress, Teela, Evil-Lyn, and Queen Marlena, there are a lot of awesome women. Yes, I include Evil-Lyn because she's a pretty awesome villain.

Queen Marlena is especially amazing. Little girls watching the show didn't necessarily notice it outright, but they were presented with a queen who was not just a great mother and wife, but also an astronaut. Her episode would have aired around the same time that Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. Later in the show, she has opportunities to fight and even fly her old plane again and she proves she shouldn't be underestimated.

Teela is the Captain of the Royal Guard, and nobody ever makes any mention of her gender or of that being a weird job for her to have. She just is Captain of the Guard and Prince Adam's bodyguard. Even though they play with the love interest angle a little bit for her, because it was a show aimed at such young kids and because the toy company resisted any kind of continuity she was never shunted into a love story.

It doesn't surprise me at all that one of the writers on He-Man was J. Michael Stracyzinski who also wrote Babylon 5. He is a writer who just writes women well, but has never made a big deal out of it or even gotten a ton of praise or recognition for it. If you ever get a chance to listen to his commentary tracks on episodes from He-Man and She-Ra, you really should because it's eye opening and will give you a new appreciation of the show.

Listen, He-Man is still pure 80's at it's heart. The animation is dated and full of rotoscoping and reused footage. Most of the male characters look way too alike so they could use the same molds for the toys (and Teela and Evil-Lyn have the same outfit for the same reason). And yes, it doesn't make any sense at all that people don't realize that Adam is He-Man unless you throw in a little Grayskull magic. But if you're looking for something a little retro to show your kids or you think today's animation isn't up to snuff, then it wouldn't be a bad idea to see what they think of He-man.

And if you remember it fondly, don't worry, it's safe to watch again. Though you'll find yourself making a lot more off-color jokes than you probably did as a kid.