Project Geekology
Embark on an epic journey with Anthony and Dakota as they delve into the vast realms of geek culture, from cherished classics to cutting-edge creations. Join us for an exhilarating adventure of exploration and nostalgia, as we unearth hidden gems and reminisce about the moments that have shaped us. Welcome to the ultimate celebration of all things geeky!
Project Geekology
How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
Ever wondered how battling hurricanes and visiting Disney World could lead to an enchanting discussion about dragons? Let Dakota and Anthony take you on a wild ride through their contrasting experiences with Florida's intense weather and theme park escapades, setting the stage for a heartfelt exploration of "How to Train Your Dragon." We draw from our own stories to highlight why this DreamWorks classic stands out in a world where Disney often steals the spotlight. Expect a blend of personal tales and film analysis that brings a unique perspective to the conversation.
Tune in as we navigate the buzz around a new Avatar game promising to shake up the gaming world with its prehistoric setting, while also taking a nostalgic look at the charm of "How to Train Your Dragon." As a newcomer to the dragon-filled universe, Dakota shares his fresh impressions and discuss how this film marked a significant shift in the landscape of animation and cinema, coinciding with the rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Alongside Dakota and Anthony, we weave through the world of animation and its ongoing evolution.
Friendship, tradition, and empathy take center stage as we dissect the bond between Hiccup and Toothless, and the cultural tensions it defies. Join us in a narrative journey through Hiccup's groundbreaking approach to dragons, his relationship with his father Stoic, and the unity it inspires in his Viking village. With a blend of humor and insight, we unearth lessons of understanding and collaboration that resonate beyond the screen. And don't miss our enthusiastic recommendation of this family-friendly film, along with a teaser of what's next: "Shrek." Let's gear up for another adventure, where you just might find yourself laughing in a swamp.
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This is Berk. It's 12 days north of Hopeless and a few degrees south of Freezing to Death, but you know what we have? We've got podcasts. Welcome to Project Geekology. Today, we are discussing how to Train your Dragon, the 2010 film, and this is my second time seeing it. I actually saw how to Train your Dragon for the first time, probably about a month or two ago, and me and my wife really loved that. We watched all three of them, but we're excited to or I was excited to at least jump back into this world once again. Uh, for the podcast, but I'm one half of your host, dakota, and I'm joined, as always, with anthony and how to train your dragon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, the I've seen the movie maybe a couple of times now, like since it's come out. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a really cool movie. I I know that it's so easy to get caught up in like the disney animation that you forget that there's other studios out there and like dreamworks is like maybe the next like big one. But yeah, like we have movies like this, we have movies like, uh, shrek from them there's also illumination. They do despicable me and the minion movies. So there's uh, there's a lot of good animation out there, and how to train your dragon is definitely one of those. I feel like that's one of those movies, especially when you're like on the older side, that it's easy for this one to like pass you by and it's it's an enjoyable movie. It's it's fun. I enjoyed it. And yeah, dude, like we're going to talk like so much about it in this episode and I'm pretty stoked about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'm. I'm very excited about talking about how to Train your Dragon and all the fun stuff that the movie has in store. But before we get into any of that, Anthony, what have you been up to, my friend?
Speaker 2:Well, you know I was talking to you. We're recording this a little bit on the later side, mostly because this past week one, Dakota was feeling sick so he couldn't really record, and two, I live in florida and we've been dodging tornadoes the past couple weeks. I mean dodging hurricanes that have brought tornadoes these past couple weeks, and so you know but everything tornado canes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly the. It was insane. This like past one brought so many. Uh, milton brought a lot of tornadoes and it kind of like stretched as far as really like far south and you get a tornado.
Speaker 1:You get a tornado Essentially.
Speaker 2:I mean, the entirety of Florida was dotted with tornadoes and, like the most random spots, there was a record, I think, like the most tornadoes in the state at any given like for any given day.
Speaker 2:I would, I would believe it. And it's not like it was concentrated in one spot, it was everywhere. Yeah, that's what was insane, but everything's good on my end. I know that people in the direct path were, you know, a little messed up, but I don't think quite as bad as Helene was, and so I'm I'm a little bit happier for that. And I know that people are starting to kind of, you know they're starting to get their power back and you know I know a couple of people had their homes, or a handful of people had their homes destroyed by like tornadoes and stuff. So it's sad for that but yeah that's the reality of Florida, you know.
Speaker 2:for all of you that want to move down to Florida, remember we have hurricanes down here. You know there are these massive storms there's a whole season.
Speaker 1:It's a whole season.
Speaker 2:The thing is is that it's not, but it's not a small season, it's not like it's a little three-month thing, it's six months long, dude. So half the year is hurricane season, dude. So if you're thinking you're going to be walking down the street, nice fall weather, it's humid and hot here. There's also the chance that you there's a natural disaster headed your way. So, um, I guess you can at least know that it's coming on like places that have like earthquakes, earthquakes I know there's, there's kind of happen.
Speaker 1:They usually happen pretty instantaneously. There's there's really no planning for an earthquake, right, but um, you can evacuate before a hurricane, you know exactly, exactly so.
Speaker 2:And the thing about a hurricane is that it's it's almost like a. I say it, it's like the world's worst lottery, because it moves up and down and it's like, okay, where am I going to hit? I'm going to go down here, I'm going to go up there, I'm going to go down in the middle, I'm going to go this way. It's like the jackpot that you do not want to win, because it's just it's like a needle that moves so much and so, yeah, I know it sucks there's also.
Speaker 1:There's also a certain level of excitement about it, just because you know something big is about to happen. Um, and maybe excitement is the wrong word, but it's that anticipatory, um anxiety, yeah that just it brings out, um, your like adrenal levels like super high, just because you're you're constantly watching the news, you're constantly like, okay, is it still a category five, is it down to a four, is it down to a three, whatever?
Speaker 1:right right so there's, there's, there's a little bit of that going on at all times. So I, I grew up in florida, so I, I know the, I, I know all about that and I actually believe it or not.
Speaker 2:I narrowly avoided milton because I was in disney world oh, oh, I do remember you saying that you're on a trip. That's why this episode's coming out a little bit on the later side. But yeah, I remember that you said you're on a trip. That's crazy, and you know what? Disney World was open that Wednesday, right before the storm hit. I think they were open for like half a day or something like that.
Speaker 1:They closed at like 1 or 2. No, I wasn't present during Milton.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you were gone by then.
Speaker 1:I left on Monday. It arrived Wednesday night.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we did have a pretty bad storm system over us at that time, though, too, it was raining.
Speaker 1:It was not a pleasant time to be in Disney World, so we were taking my in-laws to experience the parks. They haven't been on a vacation in over a decade, so it was just like let's just do something short and sweet. We'll go to two parks, there will be a rest day in between. We'll plan out all the dining stuff, you don't have to worry about it. It was nice for the most part, besides the fact that you know I got sick on the trip. Everyone else was kind of like recovering from a sickness. Yeah, um, and it was raining the sunday. We were in animal kingdom pretty much the entire day yeah it.
Speaker 2:So even like down here, like you know, because so orlando, the orlando area where disney is, is about like four, four to five hours away from where I live, it's north of me and you know, even for us down here it was raining, like really, really bad it was, it was storming, you know we had winds from it and you know, when Milton actually like arrived believe it or not, that that Wednesday it started to get a little windy, but like that next morning, wednesday night, and that next morning, dude it, it was like the perfect day, like it was sunny. There's a little wind in the air, like nothing really happened for us. I'm like, dude, this is insane. Like they closed us at work because they didn't know how bad the storm.
Speaker 2:Wait which which day? Wednesday or thursday, so thursday after the storm, so no, no like thursday, like the storm was like this the storm was still kind of like over Florida a little bit. We didn't do we got no rain from it. We got no rain from it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it kind of just sucked up all the humidity from you guys and brought it to the middle of the state.
Speaker 2:And so well, I think that the storm it was supposed to hit at like a four ended up hitting like at a three. It was supposed to hit at like a four ended up hitting like at a three, and then it completely, and then it started to kind of like disintegrate a little bit, and so we were technically supposed to be on like the dirty side of the storm, where, like there's a lot of, like you know, a bit of wind and rain, but like it started to fall apart and we didn't get that.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so what was so scary about Milton specifically was that it it grew from like a category one to a category five within 24 hours.
Speaker 2:It did. Yeah, it was quickly, it also.
Speaker 1:I think that broke a couple records in terms of like hurricanes in the Gulf, you know, like that was crazy.
Speaker 2:Well, well, and also, you know that's that's. Another thing is that hurricanes don't really formulate in the Gulf like that, Like it formulated right there in the Gulf. Most of the hurricanes come out from the Atlantic, out by Africa. This one, like just formulated right there in the Gulf, that's insane dude. And for it to grow as strong as it did where it formulated, was like it, was insane. You know, the waters must have been super warm there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah it just must have been like literally perfect, like like perfect. Uh, combination of elements to you know, make such a. It was a tiny storm, like in comparison to other storms, like size wise, but like the strength was so concentrated it was like a little espresso shot of a category five, you know, yeah, yeah it's.
Speaker 2:It was. We're like kind of, you know, just dodging things. I think that there's something kind of brewing out in the atlantic right now. I hope that that doesn't become anything.
Speaker 1:You know, I'm kind of getting sick and tired of dodging her.
Speaker 2:Uh, yeah, dodging hurricanes, man, it's just, it's sickening, yeah, that that we had, like you know, the beginning there was a couple like storms and then it got really quiet for a while and for some reason, like the end of like last month and like the beginning of this month, they've been really like just ramping up. There was a couple that were in the atlantic, that kind of like went out north. We had, yeah, a little bit of a system that didn't really develop too much. That went over florida and then, yeah, milton, helene and milton that you know helene got a good, got a good bit of you know florida, like towards the top, and then hit the carolinas, like really, really bad it.
Speaker 1:It ended up getting, uh, east tennessee a little bit too yeah, and the north carolina like the West Western North Carolina dude, they got wrecked. Yeah, like Asheville yeah, asheville's probably the coolest city I've ever been to. Yeah, I've been there. I went down, like during the 2017 eclipse, like we did a road trip into that area. Awesome food, awesome food, awesome concerts like literally, we went down the street. Every single place had live music.
Speaker 2:It was just such a cool little town had a lot of character to it, totally wiped off the map I went back in, I went to asheville, I think in 2022 I went there, I I went there in october 2022. So you know, know that the whole fall setting was going on. Oh, I'm sure it was beautiful. It was beautiful over there and we went to. It was me and my family. We went over there and, yeah, dude, there's breweries on every corner.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you'll see a corner where there's like four breweries, yeah, yeah, they're really cool, like you just places to hang out it's. It's really, yeah, yeah asheville is really cool.
Speaker 2:That I would love to you know once they kind of get, like you know, up and running. Yeah, um, I would definitely love to to go and they, they do deserve that tourism because they, they do offer a lot up in ashville.
Speaker 1:It's really cool anyway, enough of this hurricane.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes yes, enough of this I've been. What have you been up to like otherwise? So other than that I've mostly been uh doing some just mostly like gaming. I've I've been on another like world of warcraft stint so I've been playing that. I'm trying to get, I'm trying to like finally get my mage up to level 80, because my friend has been like you know like, hurry up, get to level 80. Because I'm in a guild with uh somebody I went to school with and uh, they do raids and stuff. So I'm trying to get up to finally get up to level 80 so that I can uh raid with them.
Speaker 1:Wow, okay, cool. Yeah, that's a good time Speaking about video games and basically what I've been up to for the past couple months. They recently announced a new Avatar game, like a AAA Avatar game. I don't know if you heard about it.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, yes, the one that's supposed to take place, like a thousand years before the events of Aang.
Speaker 1:So they gave more information about it. Apparently it's 7,000 years before Korra.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:So it's like super old in terms of like the Avatar universe, because we really only know about 10,000 years in the past, like what was happening Because that was the first Avatar was 10 000 years ago. So what does the world look like like 3 000 years after that, you know? So I'm super excited about it because it kind of like the premise just a heads up. It doesn't come out till like 2027, 2028. They said it's going to be next gen, so it might even be, um, you know, next generation of consoles. When that comes out?
Speaker 2:oh, yeah, yeah, that would be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that would probably be a six yeah, so they were saying that basically it's going to be an open world game where you can create a character that travels alongside as a companion of the avatar of that age. We don't know what kind of avatar, whether it's female, male or anything, but in that time there's some sort of geological turmoil where a series of super volcanoes create an ice age. Oh wow, it sounds sick. It sounds like the water benders are probably going to be the villains of that era, because they're going to be so extra like they're going to be in their element everywhere in the world. You know, the whole world is covered in ice, you know. So I'm stoked about that.
Speaker 2:It sounds really neat, so so pretty much take the intro to avatar and replace fire nation with the water tribes and then the water tribes attacked that's crazy. Yeah, you know I'll. I'll definitely hop on that. I know that there's like a did. Did that one avatar game come out? I never I never got it. The one that looks a little. It looks a little janky, but it seems like it could be fun, like I think you play Aang. It was supposed to come out, or it might have come out recently.
Speaker 1:It may have been relegated to a mobile game. I don't know which game you're talking about.
Speaker 2:Let me see.
Speaker 1:Was it an official game or was it like a fan creation?
Speaker 2:No, no, no, oh my gosh, it was. Yeah, it wasn't a mobile game. I don't know if you want to, if you want to talk a little bit more. Oh the um, I think I got it right here. The quest for balance, that's what it was called, and it came out a year ago. Oh my gosh, it got mostly negative on it's, on steam yeah, I believe.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I do remember that and yeah, I think I'm looking it up now. What even is it like? So is avatar, the quest for balance, worth it? It is a mess with clunky combat, way too many pointless puzzles and baffling choices for which scenes from the series to highlight. So I guess it's a recreation of the original series with just like clunkiness. So, yeah, I guess it's not worth playing oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so that that's what I was talking about. Yeah, I wasn't too sure about, like, what went on with that game. It looked a little clunky to me, but sometimes, you know, games look clunky and they end up being good, you know so.
Speaker 1:But yeah, and I wasn't 100 sure about that anthony, should we head over to bur Burke and talk about training dragons?
Speaker 2:Yes, I mean I don't know if you had a little thing, anything you wanted to add. I know that you've had some stuff that no nothing, nothing, I, I, I.
Speaker 1:the biggest thing that I um had going on was just taking my in-laws to uh taking my in-laws to uh walt disney world for a couple days.
Speaker 2:Just chill, it was nothing crazy sounds good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dodging milton, dodging milton. I left a couple days early from that. Uh, we left on monday, arrived wednesday evening but it was still like kind of hectic at the airport a little bit, you know, just like because people are trying to get out trying.
Speaker 2:yeah, I bet, like especially the tourists that are like you know what, what's going on here, let me get out. Yeah, I bet Especially the tourists that are like what's going on here, let me get out of here.
Speaker 1:What's crazy is that people actually book Disney trips for hurricanes so that they can just ride it out in the hurricane.
Speaker 2:That's wild.
Speaker 1:And then experience short lines before and afterwards. That's so wild, dude. Yeah, people are crazy. Anyway, guys, welcome to burke. It's a viking village 12 days north of hopeless and uh 12 degrees south of uh freezing to death.
Speaker 2:Sorry, I forgot the line you were saying that like you're pretty new to, to watching these movies, whereas, like I've seen, I saw the first one some years ago, maybe, maybe not the year that it came out, but I'm pretty sure I saw it maybe a couple years after that. But, like being new to, how do you how to train your dragon, like what are your overall thoughts, at least on this first one?
Speaker 1:so going into how to train your dragon. I kind of missed it, just because that year 2010, is the year that I graduated high school. It's where we graduated high school, so we were going into adulthood at that point. So this has a more childish animation style than some other stuff that was coming out at the time. Remember, this is also the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Remember, this is also like the height of, or like the beginning of, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so like we're growing into a Hollywood scene that's probably a little bit more mature, at least with our blockbuster stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And also this was the year that, or it was either this year, the following year or the previous year, sometime in like between 2009 and 2011,. That Toy Story 3 came out, which kind of was a very formative film for me, because the character of Andy went off to college the exact same year that you and I graduated high school. So it was like we were growing up with Andy and we were leaving our toys behind, so in a way, we were letting our childhood behind when that movie came out.
Speaker 1:So, I really wasn't particularly interested or even like conscious that there was a movie called how to Train your Dragon at this time, even though it received a huge cult following and is still a beloved franchise to this day. And speaking of Orlando and all that, maybe not Disney World, but across the street, over at Universal Studios, they're building a new theme park out there called Epic Universe, and one of the five lands in Epic Universe is going to be it's supposed to look like Burke, and they're actually going to have flying drone dragons that like flap their wings, that like go over everything, and there's footage of it. I don't know if you've seen the footage yet.
Speaker 2:I did, I did. It's like kind of like far off in the distance, but it looks pretty cool and like you can tell that it's a dragon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so there's good Universal has dragons.
Speaker 2:Disney's got to really step it up after Epic Universe. We need actual flying TIE fighters and X-Wings. Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we need the Millennium Falcon to actually lift off occasionally.
Speaker 2:The one in Batuu. It has to be able to actually leave the dock.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, imagine that, Dude, that would be crazy Dude, that would be insane. But yeah, so I'm, I'm really. I think that is what got me super excited to watch these movies, because you know, I heard about, you know them creating a super mario land, another harry potter land. Uh, oh, absolutely like a universal monsters land, that that actually kind of excites me, but it was the how to train your dragon.
Speaker 1:I was just like it was interesting, I don't know like I don't know anything about how to train your dragon, so I checked it out yeah, yeah, I'm actually like pretty excited for that because you know we're so that land it's, it's gonna be broken up into four.
Speaker 2:One is gonna be harry potter, um, and then you just talked about the the three being, um, how to train your dragon, universal monsters and mario yeah, it's funny that you say that universal monsters like kind of excite you, it kind of excites me too, because you know, those movies, like I feel like it's a time, it's time to like kind of bring that, those back, you know, because those are classics and I I've seen a couple of those as, as you know, as a younger kid, like you know, a creature from Black Lagoon and all that stuff, so it'd be cool. And then Super Mario Land, you know that would be cool. But yeah, yeah, you're right, like it's interesting that they went with the decision to do how to Train your Dragon. And you can kind of see why they went with that route, because it is, for the most part, like a pretty good movie this one at least. It is for the most part like a pretty good movie, this one at least. And then you go on to the rest of them and you see the character grow and yeah, like I really do enjoy that series.
Speaker 2:And, dude, like you know, what's insane about this movie is that it is stacked with cast. Dude, like the casting is stacked. It really dude, like the casting is stacked. It really is. It's insane. Like you have Jay Burchell that plays Hiccup, gerard Butler who plays Stoic, his father, america Ferreira who plays Astrid, jonah Hill, snotlout. Christopher Mintz-Palasi plays Fishlegs he legs, he's well known for being, was it mick lovin. You have tj miller, tough nut chris and wig as rough nut, um, david tenet's kind of like. In there he plays something called spite lout. That I don't don't really remember too much, but you know it's really this.
Speaker 2:This, the casting for this movie was like pretty stacked and like I don't think I really paid attention. I've always kind of heard, like you, you can tell like their voices, like you know you, you can tell when it's jonah hill, you can tell when it's um, you know, mick lovin, hiccup sounds just like it. You know the voice actors, it sounds just like the voice actors. It sounds just like him. You know it's Gerard Butler putting on a Viking accent. You can tell that. But I never really paid attention.
Speaker 1:Gerard Butler and Craig Ferguson. They both have such rich voices for Stoic and Gobber that they almost single-handedly put you in the mindset of, like an old Norse village. You know Absolutely. I think that that is like such a powerful way to use vocals to set the stage for the kind of movie and the kind of vibes that you're going for, that you're going for. One voice that I'm surprised by whenever I hear it is Roughnut, who's played by Kristen Wiig, because I don't hear Kristen Wiig when I hear that I can't picture her saying these things. But it is her. She just does a really good job of getting into that character.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, I was actually pretty surprised to see that was her too, because, yeah, it does not sound like her and TJ Miller doesn't sound like her and T T J Miller doesn't sound a hundred percent like himself either, but maybe a little bit closer to himself but the other sounds just like themselves. I, um, I didn't realize that Astrid was America. America Ferreira.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's another one where I can't. I can't visualize the face when I see or when I hear Astrid, but I don't know that America Ferrera has that unique of a voice where I would recognize her if she was talking right behind me.
Speaker 2:But Hiccup, his voice actor, jay Burcho. You know it's him. He has that like on. You know like he has like that kind of like nerd, like that nerdy. This is burke. Yeah, dude, you know it's him. Like it sounds just like him.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about hiccup, because you know, we, if you haven't seen this movie, let's let's kind of break down. Break it what, let's break it down, guys. So we take uh, the story is set like I said in this you know fantastical viking village that apparently is raided by dragons regularly. So, like none of the housing is new, uh, it's all like made of wood. It burns down every other day. But the, the vikings, are stoic, to use a word. They, they stand their ground, they're constantly battling and they've created a culture around fighting killing dragons.
Speaker 2:Fighting killing dragons yeah.
Speaker 1:So the entirety of this civilization is kind of built around the fact that their arch nemeses, these dragons that raid their village and take their sheep regularly, are the bad guys and their entire goal is to put a stop to them, find their nest, kill them and do away with them for good. And the main character, hiccup, who is very much not Viking-like in any stretch of the imagination. He's scrawny's, uh small he's, he uses his head more than he uses his hands, sort of thing, and is not prone to violence like the rest of the entire clan, is, uh, that's. That's the character that we're following for the majority of the film. But his father, stoic, is the leader of this village and he's basically just not living up.
Speaker 1:Like Hiccup is not living up to the family name and he's some people actually like consider him kind of like a curse upon the village because every time he shows up something goes wrong and you just kind of feel bad for the kid after a little while. Like, people don't want to see him. Like whenever there's a dragon attack, go back inside. We don't need you see him. Like whenever there's a dragon attack, go back inside. We don't need you.
Speaker 2:Like, please, you're gonna mess this up and I I think that's a fun way to start the movie right and and he's still trying to kind of like live up to his name in that like first initial kind of that, like raid that we do get to witness, he, he, he hits the Night Fury, which you know ends up being, he names, toothless.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Night Fury. That is one of the classifications of dragons that they have in this world and we go through maybe like 20 or so different designations throughout the entire series of dragon types, and Night Furies are the rarest right, because, like I mean, you only see the one, at least in this one, correct yeah, there's only.
Speaker 1:There's only one known night fury, and even then, like before the events of this film, it's considered so rare that nobody has lived to tell about it. So they don't know anything about this creature. But uh, it does hunt in the night, it's very fast and it shoots. It shoots like plasma balls it's like really cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's really sick. It's like a a mix between yeah, like plasma and like a sonic boom yeah, it's a really it's a really interesting fighting tactic.
Speaker 1:But you know some of the other dragons I forget the names of them off the top of my head but some of them are almost like bumblebees, like they're just kind of like buzz, like bumbling.
Speaker 1:Uh, fat round balls oh yeah, other ones like fully engulfed it's like a grobbler or something like that, like really a grobbler, yeah something like that, and and part of the fun of the series is that they, each of those dragon types, has a weakness that people will try to, you know, use in battle, like they can't see if they're right in front of you because you're in their blind spot, or this one, I don't know, but it's, it's really, it's really fun the way that and creative, the way that they were able to right, uh, make these fictional creatures more fantastical for this particular setting right and you know, as hiccup befriends toothless, you know, and kind of gets to like know him and gets closer with him.
Speaker 2:there's a lot of things that he notices that you know, kind of like weaknesses. You know, quote, unquote that he uses whenever he goes to these, like you know, to one is scratching below the jaw like a dog, using the shield to reflect light, kind of like with a cat, and just leading him in.
Speaker 1:Yes, so I noticed that there was a lot of cat-like the eel too. They hate eels. Oh yeah, they hate the striped eels For whatever reason. They're like very scared of it. But I noticed specifically with Toothless the Night Fury dragon. It's very cat-like. A lot of the in some instances like they take inspiration from, like how dogs interact with humans, but a lot of the mannerismsisms, especially later in the movies um, are based on cats yeah and I think that that is just very endearing, because you know, if anyone's watched the cat video, they're, they're the cutest things ever.
Speaker 1:But seeing it in a big form with, uh, with a dragon, is is really. I think it's a genius way to like visualize and contextualize them as creatures. So in that initial raid that is befalling Burke at the beginning of the movie, you have Hiccup who is being told to stay inside, don't get involved. Blah, blah, blah. He has created a sort of like a catapult system that shoots like a roped contraption I don't know how you would call it like a netting, almost right that uh, he can projectile, shoot at uh incoming dragons.
Speaker 1:So he goes out of his way. He sets his, his, uh, his trap up like on top of the mountain and he knows that there's a night fury. So he's like, he's like, oh, come on, come on, where are you, where are you? And then, like he hears it, and then he shoots and somehow, I think, on his first or second try, where are you? And then, like he hears it, and then he shoots and somehow, I think, on his first or second try, he gets it and he, like he, it looks like he kills the creature, it like, falls down, uh off into the distance. But what I like is that, like nobody believes him, that he, you know, felt the the most feared dragon type of all well, well, and it seems like that that's something that he's done before, because they're like, not again, you know, like oh yeah, he's just like lying like um, like the, the boy who cried wolf type deal.
Speaker 2:But like I don't think he, I don't think he, he was genuinely lying in those moments. He probably just thought he saw that he did something, you know throughout, throughout the entirety of it.
Speaker 1:Like the, the father has this deep sense of. I don't want to say it's loathing, but it's disappointment, you know like he's so disappointed in his son. Obviously he loves his son. He wants to protect his son. He doesn't want his son to die. But he has proven time and again that he is not a dragon hunter.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and you know for the most part that's like a strength for him. You know he goes on to, you know for everybody else like they're stuck with trying to kill dragons, but like Hiccup is more in, he's like, he's like a scientist, you know he's observing dragons, he's getting, he's, he's. Finally he hits the realization that everything they know about dragons is wrong and that they're really not these evil creatures, they're just afraid they're. They're. You know they're not raiding people because they want to.
Speaker 1:They're raiding, they're raiding these villages because they have to right, yeah, so during a particular raid, or or after that dragon raid, stoic like takes, you know, his, his viking army, and tries to find the dragon's nest, you know like to put an end to it, put a stop to the, the constant raiding of the village, once and for all. And it's while he's away that stoic goes and finds the body of the dragon that he presumes is either dead or going to die. And he finds toothless, or he finds a, a night fury dragon that he thinks that he's either killed or or not. And he, you know, that's when he realizes, oh, I can't actually kill this thing. He like holds the knife up to it. And there's that moment where, like, uh, the dragon like sees that he's about to be stabbed and he kind of just like gives up.
Speaker 1:And it's just like a heartbreaking little touch that the animators were able to capture. And I think it's that moment that Hiccup realizes, no, I can't, this isn't me, and he releases the bonds of the of the dragon, of the of the dragon. And one thing that is like pretty spectacular about this moment is that the dragon doesn't kill him on the spot. Right, he has the shot, he could very easily have done it, but he shoots a warning shot instead, just like stay away uh, right, it's like you know, kind of like you had mercy in me.
Speaker 2:You had mercy on me in this moment. So I'm gonna have mercy on me in this moment. So I'm gonna have mercy on you in this moment also. So it's like you know, like it was intelligent, like it understood that Hiccup wasn't going to hurt him, but more of like it's like okay, we'll go away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that starts their relationship. That starts Hiccup and Toothless's relationship. He calls him Toothless, his relationship. He calls him toothless because, like, when he's not eating or when he's not like angry his, his, when he's like, opens his mouth, it's just like his teeth are retracted yeah so it looks like he's toothless, and I think that's a pretty apt name.
Speaker 1:But it's these constant interactions with toothless. He's like giving him uh you know food, because his his wings are clipped, he can't properly fly, and he's studying the creature that he starts learning. Oh, I can't give him eels because he's deathly afraid of eels. Oh, he's willing to share. Blah, blah, blah. Oh, he likes the chin scritches. Stuff like that really starts to aid him when he's going through his dragon hunting trials in the village.
Speaker 1:Because, while all this is going on, he's in school to slay dragons and there's five other kids who, or four other kids who are much more adept at being able to oh no, there are five other kids. They're much more adept at being able to take down dragons, like one of them. I forget the names of the kids, but besides astrid and tough nut and rough nut there's uh, was it fish legs?
Speaker 2:which I think, like mclovin um, does the voice of uh his character was funny was because he, he would, uh, he would call out stats.
Speaker 1:Yes, so he was kind of the nerd. He was the nerd of the group, so he was just like this this dragon has like plus 20 defense. Uh, minus six, minus six vision something like that, you know yeah.
Speaker 1:That exhibition, something like that. You know, yeah, that was hilarious, I liked that a lot. I think it was at that moment that I realized, oh, I kind of understands this movie now, I kind of understand the world, and it was like a it's a subtle little thing that helped me understand. Okay, there are like different tiers of dragon, there are different types of dragon. They each have their strengths and weaknesses and I that's what it really got me into this series that that little moment right there.
Speaker 1:But during these almost like coliseum type matches where they're like testing out their strengths against captured dragons over the course of probably days or weeks, hiccup starts, you know, coming out of head out ahead like big. In the beginning he had no idea what he was doing. He was always in the way, he was always almost getting killed, yeah, or getting blown up, whatever. And then all of a sudden he, you know, starts pulling out all these tricks where he's able to essentially tame all of these dragons, put them back in their cages without harming them or getting harmed in return, and everyone's just like, oh, how's he doing that? Um, and astrid the, the, the main character played by, uh, america ferreira, is pissed because, she's clearly the the the toughest of those six kids you know, hiccup included.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and she would.
Speaker 2:She would have been like the, the head of her class, had hiccup not gone and like started doing all these like new tricks that nobody's ever heard of yeah, yeah, exactly, I know they're, they're, they're all kind of like like, wow, you know, the thing that that I do find interesting is that they, they chose him to be the one to like kill the dragon as like the last trial. But it's like you know, this man, this, this kid, really hasn't even killed any dragons during this whole thing, you know. So, right, so it's like you know. You know you can't really base everything, uh, what that he's done, off of like okay, it it's just more of like okay, he knows how to like get rid of them, not really like kill them, yeah. But it is interesting that, like you know, you finally get to the point where you know everybody finds out that no, he's not killing dragons, he's befriending them, and that kind of like it pisses people off and it kind of like freaks them.
Speaker 1:There's a brief moment where the father is extremely proud when he comes home from the raid, all beaten and dejected, and he finds out that his son is suddenly a dragon prodigy. He's like a dragon whisperer he can take down any dragon he wants and he's on track to kill his first dragon. So he's at the height of his being being a father within this like, uh, culture of killing dragons. And you know, suddenly, not only does he not kill the dragon, the night, fury, toothless, shows up. You know, once the dragon is enraged and goes to protect him, and yeah, I, I can't even imagine that, like, imagine, like you know, your worst enemy ever is suddenly your son's, like best friend.
Speaker 2:yeah and and like it's like one of the, the worst of the worst. It's a night fury, you know like one. That's like causes devastation, that's like the hardest to kill. It's like dude.
Speaker 1:This is a night fury man yeah, it's, I'm trying to find like a real world parallel, but there's nothing that like humans hate that much or like is attacking them that much. Maybe like like large cats uh, I'm thinking, you know, large cat, I know I'm thinking like like wild large cat, you know, like lions and tigers and bears Well, not bears, bears aren't cats. You know what I'm talking about. Anyway, yeah, I can't imagine the shock that his father felt and there's also like a devastating level of disappointment where there's a moment where Stoic actually says to him like you're no son of mine, and it's basically he's disowning him right then and there, because he's um disavowed their entire lifestyle of killing dragons right, right to to like befriending them and and getting to know them, which honestly, which honestly and and I know that you know, their viking way was, you know, okay, you got to kill what kill what is endangering us.
Speaker 2:But Hiccup went about it the right way by learning exactly how to deal with them and why they're doing what they're doing. He had like all that information. He found out that they were raiding villages to get their sheep so that they could bring it to this like humongous dragon that's in their lair that they're all afraid of, and if they don't bring a sufficient amount of food back, they get eaten themselves. So it's like, you know, in a way, it's like the you know the food chain. You know they're like, you know they had that top dragon was preying on them and so they kind of had, were forced to prey on the villages of the people.
Speaker 2:But it's like they weren't even really attacking the people. They were just trying to take the sheep. You know they're just defending themselves when they would get attacked. But you know, like I understand the humans, you know it's like, okay, we're getting attacked by these things, like what the heck like why? You know we're getting raided all the time they're taking our, our livestock. But you know, hiccup was able to like figure all that out and to and found out that dragons were really not that bad, and was able to like unite humans and and dragons against a common foe yeah, well, even before that, though, like stoic, zoic and Gobber had imprisoned Toothless for a time.
Speaker 1:Yeah and Hiccup let slip that they had gone and found this dragon's nest, and they're saying that only a dragon can find it. And that's when they get the bright idea let's strap Toothless down and have him guide us to the dragon's nest, and it turns out to be a terrible idea, like an absolutely terrible.
Speaker 2:Um could have ended the entirety of their their village idea right, but I mean, it was a smart idea to use toothless as the navigation though, because it literally worked it did work yes, but the fact of them going there, you know, kind of having been informed that there's something even more terrible than just like the, the regular dragons, that, um, you know, yeah, that was a terrible idea for them to go there in general, and so, yeah, uh, that that kind of yeah that sets up the, the vikings and the dragons against this humongous, like omega level threat.
Speaker 1:Hey, omega level dragon, yeah, just like, just like the mutants, um, the whole, no, okay, um I I love the moment that you see it in Stoic's eyes when he like breaks through the wall towards the den of the dragons and the massive, like monolith of a dragon just pops out. And it's just like both him and Gobber are just dumbfounded. They're Gobber smacked. The thing is massive. It's unlike anything they've ever seen before. Right, and the fear in stoic's eyes brings me such sweet delight because he was such a jerk to hiccup he was, he was.
Speaker 2:but I mean like it's like a you know what have we done, type thing, we should not have come here. But nonetheless they try. They're like we're here, we have to do what we have to do. And that's where was it? Hiccup and his crew, astrid and the rest of the kids. They decide to head out to help them out. And, uh, on dragon back. On dragon back.
Speaker 1:Yeah so that that, basically, was like the shift that the, the, the village of burke, needed was to see that humans and dragons can work together to take down foes that they couldn't imagine possibly taking down, which they eventually did, right, right.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, because Toothless, you know he doesn't fly back. He doesn't fly there on Toothless because Toothless is pretty much like a homing beacon prisoner at that time. And so, yeah, they get there. He saves Toothless because Toothless is on a ship that is like sinking and yeah, they have like that. You know that that, like last battle, where you know they all kind of like, you know, throw down the. You know it's the most of the battle is is between Toothless and Hiccup and this massive dragon, but the others do help out a lot too, along with the dragons that they fly in on and you know it's, it really is the. The naming for for this movie was just like brilliant man, like how to train your dragon, like I love that they went with that name yeah, it's almost like a, like a how-to guide or like a, you know, training dragons for dummies type of book.
Speaker 2:You know um, but it's yeah it like kind of reminds me of like. It's like a, the same type of like naming as, like you know, hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, that kind of thing okay, yeah, it has that vibe yeah, I like that.
Speaker 1:I like that. Um, there's a, there's a moment in that final battle that I really appreciate. It's where hiccup is trying to save toothless, who's strapped to the the ship and like sinking to the like under the ocean, but he's unable to break the chains. So then we see, uh, stoic hiccup's father, come and grab hiccup, bring him to safety and then go back to grab toothless. Yeah, and it's in that moment that you realize, okay, he realizes his folly, he realizes his mistake, so he's going to go out of his way to help his enemy to be able to to defeat this new foe that they've unearthed right you know they.
Speaker 1:They dug too great, too deep and too greedily, like they, like their freaking dwarves and uh, I mean it was it was literally like the.
Speaker 2:It was like the saying you know, the enemy of my enemy is my friends, like that was like literally that moment yes, yes, and I that's a good way to put it yeah, they awoke the balrog and they needed a way dude.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was like the balrog that was like the, the draconic balrog right there um, by the way, speaking of that, uh, there's a listener that uh, a listener of our podcast, who is very adamant that we need to cover, uh, the rings of power. So, okay, at some point in the near future, we we're going to have to cover Rings of Power.
Speaker 2:I mean I'm down for it. I'm down to cover Rings of Power. We did that whole series on the Lord of the Rings. I mean at some point we should cover the Hobbit too.
Speaker 1:It would be good for me to revisit the Hobbit. I literally have not seen it. Since I watch the Lord of the Rings regularly, like annually, I do not do that for the Hobbit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I see.
Speaker 1:So anyway, but back to how to Train your Dragon. Good movie, just a nice, short, sweet animated film Under two hours. It's just like a really easy thing to pop on and watch.
Speaker 2:It's kid-friendly, it's super wholesome and there's a good message behind it, uh, and that message is you better train your dragons, you don't kill them I mean honestly it's it's that's the smarter way of doing it, because it's like I mean, you know, if you get attacked by something else, you've got this like whole, like group of fire breathing reptiles that can, uh, help you out.
Speaker 1:So well, one thing that I, one thing that I really liked about like the way that the movie ended, was that you know hiccup gets knocked out in that final battle but he wakes up back in birth yes, yes, he loses a leg too yeah, I totally forgot about that. I actually forgot that he loses a leg while watching the movie and then he's on his recovery bed and he steps out and he's like, oh, I have a leg or I'm missing a leg, right, I totally forgot about that for the first time.
Speaker 2:I watched it and Toothless pops out in the house and he's freaking out. He's like what are you doing here? We got to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and actually the leg that he's missing kind of parallels, the wing that Toothless is missing the tail, webbing that Toothless.
Speaker 2:It was like, yeah, it got ripped off or burned off or something. Yeah, it got like ripped off or burned off or something that. Uh, yeah, we didn't even talk about that whole aspect of um hiccup creating, uh like a prosthetic for his tail, for a toothless tail and learning how to ride with that and essentially like learning, uh, different positions.
Speaker 2:You know, like, like the dude the dude was like he was like riding a plane. You know, like he like the dude the dude was like he was like riding a plane, you know, but like, instead of it being a plane, it was a dragon and he had to, yeah, remember all the positioning, and it was cool that that, um, that he was able to do that. I'm gonna be honest with you, though the prosthetic leg that he had looked like it made it easier for him to do it too, because it locked and I think it does it locks in.
Speaker 2:So I was like, okay, I was like you know, like it sucks that he likes missing a leg, but you know, I guess like flying on the dragon would be easier because you know he has to do all that, that positioning. But yeah, no, yeah, it's funny when he he leaves the house like he just sees dragons everywhere. You know, he kind of like freaks out at first but then he realizes that they're not there to attack but that you know, they're kind of like friends. Now it's like, oh my gosh, like how long have I been out?
Speaker 1:yeah, I I really like this movie. But you know, anthony, one thing that I I realized while you know we discussed this and while we were watching, is that there's a lot of different like settings and different like landmark types that you know, we, like we visit within Burke, you know, there's, there's, like the Norse countryside, there's water, there's, like you know, foggy beaches, there's rocky beaches, but one thing that we don't get to see a lot of or at all in this movie is swamps. You know, I I think that the next time we do a movie, uh, a podcast, we really gotta cover something like in swamps, you know I was wondering where you were heading with that, and then I caught on.
Speaker 1:Guys, the next episode we're going to cover, we're going to peel it back like an onion or a parfait, however you want to look at it, but we're covering another DreamWorks movie. It's called Lord Farquaad.
Speaker 2:Yes, you heard it, here we are going to be covering Shrek. I kind of came up with the idea. I was like you know what we're on DreamWorks, we're talking about a movie that you can consider a classic. You know how to Train your Dragon, but come on, shrek a lot older, definitely during our time, and so I remember loving Shrek. So, yeah, we're gonna cover shrek where we're gonna keep this uh, illumination train going or not illumination, this dreamworks train going, although I would love to cover, uh, some of the illumination movies too at some point, because I love the despicable me movies are actually like really good, they like they're funny I've never watched any illumination movies, so despicable me.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you like those movies are, like fantastic megamind like megamind and all that stuff. Dude like megamind's a really good one too. I don't know if you've seen that, but megamind is, I don't think I've seen any of the illumination movies dude, megamind I'm not talking about like the sequel.
Speaker 2:I heard that the sequel was not all that good, but that first Megamind movie was brilliant. It was one of the best animated movies that I've ever seen, because it's one that you could really connect well as a kid, but it's so great for adults too.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, all right, I'm totally down my dude.
Speaker 2:But yes, Shrek next week.
Speaker 1:Shrek, we're going to the swamp guys.
Speaker 2:Somebody was told me. We're bringing all our fairytale creatures to the swamp and we're going to be smashing mouths and taking names, just not the gumdrop buttons. But yeah buttons.
Speaker 1:But yeah, uh, guys, thank you so much for listening to us here. For our 97th episode of project ecology, we're coming up on 100. We have no idea what we're going to do for 100. We'll probably figure it out the week of but the day before the day before, while we're recording episode 99.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, but yeah, guys, thank you so much. This has been a really fun one. Uh, maybe we'll cover more of how to drain, how to train your dragon. Yes, the the rest of the series absolutely in the future, because, uh, the other two movies are good, yeah, they are uh, probably just as or better good. So that was a weird way to say that.
Speaker 2:Um ethi last last thoughts on how to train your dragon how to train your dragon. If you have not seen it, it's definitely worth it. It's, it's a really fun movie, it's great, it's uh, it on. And you know, if you, if you have kids and they haven't seen it, it's good to watch alone as an adult, or with your kid, with your kids, like it. Just it's something that works well for pretty much anybody. And yeah, two thumbs up.
Speaker 1:Two thumbs up, Guys. We'll talk to you in the next one. Have a good one.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and don't forget to follow us on our socials. They're going to be in the show notes and, if your podcast platform allows for reviews or ratings, give us a nice review and a what uh juicy, a juicy five star it has to be, has to be.
Speaker 1:If it's not five star, it's not juicy, let's let's just say it. We also don't want to dry like five star. You know, because like of juicy I'm thinking of a nice juicy burger, or like a great steak, yeah there you go Exactly and you don't want it to be dry like charcoal or something. Or if you're vegan, know like cut into, like a nice slimy piece of tofu, you know like juicy slimy piece of tofu.
Speaker 1:Just get guys meat uh, yeah, oh yeah, um, this is fun. This is a good. This is a good show. Uh, we're gonna be covering shrek next week. Guys, be there or stay away from my swamp. Somebody once told me peace.
