THE MANY DRAGONS OF DREAMWORKS (2010-2019)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: (1,3,4) *fair,* (2) *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, sociological*

My belated viewing of Dreamworks’ DRAGONS animated teleseries—which went under at least two different cognomens—prompted me not only to re-screen the three HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON movies, but even to read the first of the Cressida Cowell books on which the franchise was based. Assorted online essays exist to explain just what characters and elements the animated works took from the books, so I won’t be reading more than the first book, nor touching on Cowell for more than a point or two. My primary concern was to see whether or not the cartoons shared the same mythos-orientation as their source material. Both utilize a lot of jokes, particularly of an anachronistic bent (i.e., archaic Vikings with names like Stoick and Snotlout). However, Cressida’s first book is a straight comedy, lacking any of the adventurous elements of the Dreamworks concept. And although both serials pivot upon the viewpoint character of skinny nebbish-Viking Hiccup Haddock, he’s the sole star of the first book, while he participates as one member of a superordinate ensemble in all the Dragon-works I’ll examine here. (No plans to review the two or three DRAGONS shorts floating around.)

I’d already reviewed the first HOW TOTRAIN YOUR DRAGON film in this post, and my re-screening doesn’t appreciably change my verdict. I’m now aware that for all the changes wrought by Dreamworks, the movie/TV franchise remains indebted to Cowell’s core concept: that nebbish-Viking Hiccup saves all of his people on the icy island of Berk by having a unique understanding of the ways of dragons. However, although Book-Hiccup’s special bond with his dragon Toothless foregrounds many aspects of their movie-versions, in Cowell’s world the Vikings of Berk have been training the local dragons for fun and profit since before Hiccup’s birth. In the first film, Hiccup’s people continually seek to extinguish the creatures, who continually raid the island’s crops. Thus, in the first film Hiccup plays the role of the culture-hero, being the first to relate to his dragon on a personal level and shows his people a new way to understand the natural world around them. The movie doesn’t escape a certain amount of preachiness, but makes its best argument without words, in a scene where Hiccup “coverts” warrior-maiden Astrid to the wonders of dragonkind by flying her into the clouds on the back of his winged mount Toothless.

The teleseries followed, foreshadowing the events of HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2. The DRAGONS series has a number of advantages over any of the movies, not least being able to build up all of the characters in the ensemble. By the time of the series, Hiccup and his teenaged friends have become the forefront of a dragon-riding defensive force for Berk (though a couple of adult characters have also mastered the art, not least Hiccup’s overbearing father). The first movie centers largely on Hiccup, the tough Viking-girl Astrid (as well as Hiccup’s romantic interest), and Snotlout, who’s less the bully-boy of the book and more “that guy;” the fellow who always says the most inappropriate thing at the worst moment. The portly Fishlegs becomes the Group Nerd who furnishes explanations of all things dragon-ish, while the brother-and-sister twins Tuffnut and Ruffnut become far more prominent in terms of furnishing copious quantities of comic relief. (They’re much funnier in the TV show than in any of the films.) The show also develops the temperaments of the other dragon-mounts, showing how the “pets” mirror their owners, not least the dragon of Snotlout, who’s just as irascible as his rider. Further, the romance of Hiccup and Astrid is given more time to flower, mixing both humor and sentiment in equal proportions, and for the first time the franchise develops some provocative villains.

But the most mythic aspect of DRAGONS is the way the writers build upon Cressida Cowell’s science of “dragonology” (my term). Many if not most episodes revolve around the teen adventurers either encountering new dragon-species or learning important new facts about the creatures they already know. The pro-ecology theme benefits by giving these made-up monsters their own reasonably credible biology and ethology, making all the theoretical spadework engaging and entertaining. This aspect of the series fits into the epistemological pattern I’ve called “cosmological,” since the presentation of all these dragon-factoids draws upon the real-world patterns of biological investigations.

The events of the series’ six seasons wrap up and are directly followed by the events of HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2. None of the enemies or support-characters introduced on the TV show cross over into the remaining two movies, though other elements from the program translate well enough: Hiccup’s acquisition of a magical fire-sword and the courtship of the goofy Ruffnut by both Fishlegs and Snotlout. However, Hiccup is almost the sole focus of the story. Though over the years Hiccup has made peace between man and dragon with his “dragon whispering” skills, he now encounters a negative version of himself. This is Drago Bludvist, who can mesmerize any of the various species into joining his army of dragons. He’s also as dedicated to war as Hiccup is to peace, but Drago’s motivations are thinly explained, though one line, where he talks about the pleasure of showing the strength of his will, suggests that he knows his Nietzsche pretty well for a 12^th-century Viking. Despite Hiccup’s having at least justified his existence to his demanding chieftain-father, DRAGON 2 has a new emotional arc for the main hero and his dad, as well as introducing a new arc involving the recovery of Hiccup’s believed-to-be-dead mother. The script for DRAGON 2 pours on more sentiment than comedy, and the results are at best a mixed bag.

Though Drago Bludvist is defeated in Part 2, in Part 3—subtitled THE HIDDEN WORLD—there are still more villains throughout the world outside Berk, villains dedicated to both the hunting and exploitation of dragons. Though the Dragon Riders continually liberate mistreated dragons from evildoers, Hiccup realizes that he can’t confine all the dragons in the world to the small island of Berk. But the hero has heard stories of a mysterious “Hidden World” far removed from the world of men, and the A-story deals with his attempts to find a safe place for the dragons while fighting off the depredations of Grimmel the Grisly, who’s not much of an improvement over Drago Bludvist. There’s also a substantial B-story revolving around the interaction of Hiccup’s dragon mount Toothless, who may desert his owner to mate with a female dragon of his own species. The resolution of both plot-lines—yes, both get a happy ending, what a surprise!-- may be derived loosely from the conclusion of Cressida Cowell’s first book, in which her narrator claims that the dragons removed themselves from human sight but may someday appear once more. HIDDEN WORLD is certainly an improvement on the middle film, with more impressive battle-FX and better use of Hiccup’s ensemble, particularly by allowing both Snotlout and Ruffnut many opportunities to provide wacky humor.

Cowell’s Hiccup calls himself a “Hero” at the first book’s conclusion, and he deserves the description. But book-Hiccup is not a combative hero, since he succeeds more by guile than by force. Though all of Dreamworks’ Dragon Riders advocate peace, they’re also quite willing to kick a lot of butt in its pursuit—and despite all the stuff about people and animals getting along, the butt-kicking is a big part of the franchise’s appeal.