Friday, October 25, 2013

How to Train Your Dragon – Where the Book and the Movie Diverge



Hiccup is an unpopular teenage nerd who finds it hard to fit in with the rest of the clan, the warlike Vikings whose world seems to revolve around nothing but dragons. Being the son of the clan chief makes it harder for the future hero to live up to his people’s expectations and, until the fateful encounter with Toothless, has a well-earned reputation for making a right royal mess of things. And that’s the point at which How to Train your Dragon the movie departs from the book it is based upon. 

Here’s a brief overview of the differences and similarities between the book and the movie.

How to Train Your Dragon – The Similarities

Everyone who’s read the book series and watched the movie says that the only connection is that the storylines of both have to do with Vikings and dragons and the complicated relationship between the two species. But there’s a slight exaggeration here. While the book and the movie are quite radically different, several important characters that appear in the book have been retained in the movie version, albeit in a slightly tweaked form. Characters such as Hiccup, Toothless, Stoick, Nadder and Gronckle appear inboth versions and remain fundamentally unchanged.Also, the end result of all the action in How to Train Your Dragon – book and movie – is quite similar. The Vikings and the dragons eventually learn to overcome their mutual distrust and co-exist in harmony.

How to Train Your Dragon – The Differences

Film adaptations of books often take great liberties with the text and that’s particularly true in this case. The relationship between the Vikings and the dragons is a case in point. The Vikings in the book treat the dragons as hard-working pets that go out and hunt for their owners. Their high intelligence makes them slightly uncooperative, difficult to control and unwilling to obey their masters without a struggle. How to Train Your Dragon the movie portrays the relationship between the two species as openly antagonistic – Viking youth are trained to repel dragon attacks and hunt down these fearsome fire-breathing creatures.

Besides, there are characters that appear for the first time in the movie – Astrid and Ruffnut for instance. The romantic angle is non-existent in the book, though Hiccup’s best friend is a sword fighter aptly named Camicazi. Some of the major characters have been eliminated in the movie – Hiccup’s mother Valhallarama and Snotlout’s sidekick Dogsbreath the Duhbrain. All in all, the movie is a radical departure from the book series.

How to Train Your Dragon –The Verdict on the Movie

Audiences voted with their feet for this one, making the movie a critical and commercial success, with a sequel How to Train your Dragon 2 in the pipeline. The movie was fantastic in terms of storyline and character development. Kids loved it because it’s a story about how the power of friendship can replace unjust old traditions with sensible and fair new ones – a sentiment most of us sympathize with.