More Than A Kids Movie Podcast - Episode 1 - How To Train Your Dragon

In this episode, Matthew is joined by Tyndall, Ralph, and Ross, as the movie loving nerds discuss Dreamworks' How To Train Your Dragon. Tyndall gives a brief synopsis of the film and the group shares their first impressions. All four had seen the movie as kids, and unanimously agreed that the movie still held up today. But what set this movie apart from other animated movies of the time that don’t hold up as well? To answer this question, our speakers dove into five important aspects of the movie: Humor, themes, subtlety, layers, and censoring.
When discussing humor, the crew agreed that there were some characters in the film that could be seen as a vehicle to provide jokes for kids. However, they also agreed that those characters are still relevant to the story and provide needed levity.
Moving onto themes, Tyndall, Ross, Matthew, and Ralph all gave differing opinions on what they thought the main theme was, displaying how strong How To Train Your Dragon is in that department.
For subtlety, Ross argues that the film’s simplicity actually strengthens it. They also reaffirm that the film has many complex layers to it that keep the simple story interesting.
During the section about censoring, Ross and Tyndall get into a debate about the upcoming live action Remake for How To Train Your Dragon, and also whether it should have more violence. Tyndall believes that the remake could make the story feel more real, while Ross fears that the movie will be another soulless cash-grab.
To conclude, the group gives the movie a 5 out of 5 on their rating scale, and recommends the movie to anyone, any time, any place.