"How to Train Your Dragon 2"

By Matt Duncan
Coastal View News

In the first “How to Train Your Dragon” a scrawny little kid named ‘Hiccup’ (Jay Baruchel), who lives among the biggest, brawniest people ever, finds a dragon and ends up winning the adoration of his tribe by, you know, saving all their lives.

That first “How to Train Your Dragon” is pretty good. The second is better. It is just as gripping as the first. But it is more mature and complex. It’s not perfect. Indeed, some of the best things about it are seriously flawed. But this movie tries. And it raises some good questions, particularly about leadership, machismo, and gender roles. We tend not to think about these sorts of things when we go to a kid’s movie. But with all those Disney princesses and princes out there winning hearts and minds, it’s high time we did.

There are two main female characters in “How to Train Your Dragon 2”. First, there is Astrid (America Ferrera), who is Hiccup’s young love interest. Astrid is a strong, independent person. She is focused and driven. She cares about her people. She is loyal and trustworthy.

So when Hiccup tells Astrid that his dad, Stoick (Gerard Butler), is going to name him as the next chief of their village, and when Hiccup expresses not only hesitancy but in fact complete lack of interest in the job, and when Astrid points out all the right things about how to do the job, you think to yourself, “Yeah, Astrid should be the chief! Hiccup is a good guy and all, but Astrid is the true leader here.”

This is confirmed when a tribe of vicious dragon hunters, who are capturing dragons in order to make them into a devastating army, threaten Hiccup and Astrid’s village. It is Astrid, not Hiccup, whose first instinct is to stay with and protect the village. Hiccup, on the other hand, runs off. (To be fair, Hiccup runs off to negotiate with the enemy, which is a noble goal. But I take it leaders are not supposed to run off in moments of crisis.)

After Hiccup takes off, he runs into the second main female character. Her name is Valka (Cate Blanchett). SPOILER ALERT: She is Hiccup’s mom. Everyone thought she died when Hiccup was just a baby. But it turns out she ran off with some dragons because her husband would not listen to her when she insisted that dragons are, at heart, peaceful creatures.

Like Astrid, Valka is strong and independent, focused and driven. She cares about her community—which, in this case, happens to be a bunch of dragons—and will do anything to protect them. In fact, what Valka has been doing instead of hanging out with Stoick and Hiccup is fighting for her dragons against those guys with the dragon army.

However, once she is reunited with Hiccup (and eventually Stoick), Valka realizes what she has been missing. She wants back into her family’s lives. She wants to return. And it’s just in time, too. For their common enemy is marching toward them hell bent on death and destruction. This once-defunct family has to bind together with the rest of their tribe to fend off their attackers, or else they will all be reduced to ashes.

It is great to see strong, independent female characters like Astrid and Valka in a kid’s movie. These are complex, compelling characters that shun the princess dresses without divesting themselves of feminine traits either. They don’t have to be men in order to lead men. They are kind and caring. They are protective, but they are also peacemakers. Unlike most of the men in their tribe, war is not their first and only solution to every threat. Now you tell me who the true leaders are here.

Yet, as much potential as Astrid and Valka have, alas, their talents are somewhat wasted by the creators of this movie. Valka plays a pretty big role in the beginning and middle of the movie, but once her husband shows up on the scene, she kind of fades into the background like a dutiful wife. And in a combat scene where Valka gets in trouble and is about to get killed, we get the predictable trope of her savior husband coming along to rescue his poor, little lady. And what about Astrid? Where does she go? Is she going to end up chief of the village? Don’t count on it.

Ugh, it’s too bad. These are missteps. But at least it is clear that “How to Train Your Dragon 2” is trying to address the position of women in kid’s movies. And although they fail in some key respects, they at least introduce us to the right sort of characters. And they certainly get us thinking about things we should think about.