Family and life lessons in animated film How To Train Your Dragon 2.
Still courtesy of Aceshowbiz.
It’s summer, and this year it’s a hot one. If you are a parent and are unwilling to take the heat another day at the pool with your kids, why don’t you take them to see How to Train Your Dragon 2? Sure it’s an animated film, but don’t let that deter you. This film has some important lessons for kids and adults.
1) It demonstrates non-traditional families in a positive way.
As in the first movie, the protagonist Hiccup comes from a single parent home. Not enough movies (kid movies in particular) demonstrate that children from single-parent families turn out alright. Especially lacking are movies depicting positives examples of children who were raised solely by their fathers. How To Train Your Dragon 2 challenges the stereotype of the insufficient single-parent father, by showing Hiccup both as a successful inventor and a confident dragon rider.
2) Fear and mistrust are hard to overcome.
Hiccup’s mother is initially terrified when she meets her son and her husband for the first time in twenty years. She left home (albeit slightly unwillingly) to protect Hiccup from her non-conformity and out of fear that her husband would be unable to accept or love her because she loves dragons. However when she encounters her husband, he loves and accepts her the way she is. But she doesn’t trust this love— cue to the song that reminds her that he would walk on fire to be with her.
3) Love and life are fleeting.
Does this seem like a harsh message to send to kids? Well How To Train Your Dragon 2 subliminally portrays this ephemeral message rather than delivering it as an in-your-face reality. With the death of one of the characters, How To Train Your Dragon 2 concludes that a life full of love and bravery is quite possibly the greatest legacy a person can leave behind.
