One of my favorite films of the last decade...

Rating: 9/10 (13 May 2018)

...not that this is necessarily saying much, since the films of the past decade are either made for the Academy Awards with some social message that hits the audience over the head with a social justice sledgehammer, or they are action films with lots of car chases and explosions and comic book heroes or they are 50 shades of obscene. But I digress.
This animated film is beautiful to watch, but that is not the main drawing point. The drawing point are the characters. Even though this is set in some fictitious land full of Vikings beset with fire breathing dragons who are always raiding their livestock, you can easily relate to everybody. The main character, Hiccup, is the son of the warrior king of the Vikings. Hiccup is mild mannered, lanky, awkward - your typical teen of about age 14. He likes to build and invent things. Dad wants his son to be a dragon slayer. So one day, during an attack by the dragons, Hiccup actually catches one with one of his inventions. He grabs a knife and runs into the forest to kill the dragon to make dad happy. But he just can't. This "fearsome" dragon is tame, passive, dog-like before people had dogs. And so "Toothless" as Hiccup names him, becomes like a pet to Hiccup. The pair develop this beautiful unbreakable bond. And Hiccup learns about dragons.
Hiccup is signed up for Dragon Killing class with the rest of the island's teens. Hiccup quickly rises to the top of his class but manages to not kill even one dragon. Instead he uses the techniques of bonding with dragons that he has learned from Toothless to subdue them into harmless pets. Nobody questions what is going on but Astrid, a tomboyish teen girl who just knows Hiccup is up to something.
This film has genuine laughs, thrills, the real problems of sons and fathers disappointing and misunderstanding one another, the awkwardness of that first romance, and the idea that sometimes your enemy may be your enemy for reasons you don't understand.
I watched this for about the tenth time last night and I have to say it just never gets old. Highly recommended.