How to Train Your Dragon

How to Train Your Dragon is most recently an animated film by DreamWorks Animation, based loosely on a series of children's books by Cressida Cowell. The film aired March 26, 2010.

What the general PPC populous needs to know about the movie is that it has kickass dragons and badass Vikings, not to mention being a story of being different and finding acceptance in spite of it&mdash;indeed, saving the day because of it. It's a perfect recipe for Suebait.

Characters
The main cast are Vikings from the northerly island village of Berk. They believe that horrible names scares off goblins and the like.

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III
The main character of the film, Hiccup is the son of clan chief Stoick the Vast, and he is nothing like the other Vikings. He's scrawny and he thinks before doing things, and is a clever inventor. In the course of the film, despite the culture of Vikings vs. dragons he's been raised to accept, he makes friends with a rare Night Fury he names Toothless (the teeth are retractable) and manages to change the entire village's relationship with dragons.

Astrid Hofferson
Hiccup's crush. Astrid initially resists Hiccup's mad friendship with dragonkind, but she comes around in the end. All-around badass blonde.

Stoick the Vast
Hiccup's father, chief of the village of Berk. Tough, rough, gruff, and not big on change, but devoted to his people and, though his has an odd way of showing it, his weirdo son.

Gobber the Belch
Stoick's close friend and Hiccup's mentor. He runs the village smithy, where Hiccup is an apprentice, and also oversees "dragon training," which basically amounts to how not to be eaten long enough to kill the buggers. He believes in "learning on the job." He is missing his right foot and his left hand, the latter of which he has replaced with a variety of specialized prosthetics.

Dragons
Only seven breeds of dragon appear in the film, though it is shown that many more exist in the world.

Deadly Nader
Small and bird-like in its action, this breed is sometimes considered one of the more beautiful. They go on two legs and have no forelegs, but are incredibly fast and agile, and they produce a hot, sparking flame&mdash;the hottest flame in the dragon world. Their tails are covered in spikes which can be shot out at attackers. They appears mainly in blue, but also green and yellow.

Gronckle
This breed is squat and fat with a big mouth and small wings. Gronckles are incredibly tough, but slow and lazy. They fly by beating their wings at high speeds, like a hummingbird or a bumblebee. They come in shades of green, brown, and beige.

Hideous Zippleback
This unique two-headed breed has a large, squat body with two long, thin necks and tails. Though they can fly, their wings are small, and they prefer to stay on the ground. The heads are round with bulbous eyes and one large horn, similar to a rhino's. One head produces the gaseous fuel for its flame, and the other head produces a spark to ignite it. Knowing which head is which is critical to combat encounters. They tend to be green, though other colors may be possible.

Monstrous Nightmare
This breed is low-slung and lizard-like, with yellow eyes close-set at the top of the head, a large mouth full of fangs, large and numerous horns, and long claws. They are usually red with black, though if you look closely it's possible to spot a blue-with-purple type as well. They are large and agile, and have a nasty trick of lighting their own bodies on fire to intimidate and injure their attackers.

Night Fury
Toothless is the only example of a Night Fury, so it isn't exactly clear whether all of them are like him or whether there is variation, as in some of the other breeds. However, Toothless is sleekly black and catlike, with large green eyes and expressive ear-like armor plates at the back of the head. In addition to his main wings, he has two sets of stabilizing wings, one set at the base of his tail just below the main wings, and another at the end of his tail. Without these stabilizers, he can't fly straight.

It is clear that Toothless is very intelligent, and likely so are the rest of the breed. They rely on stealth and speed to hunt, gliding overhead invisibly against the night sky until striking with a characteristic rising whistle followed by the impact of their hot blue flame. Before Toothless, no one in Berk had ever seen a Night Fury up close.

Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus
A preposterous huge, fire-breathing Sea Dragon with "six eyes, four legs, and NO weak spot!" One of these, known as the Red Death, is the Big Bad of the film, having compelled all the other dragons in the area to bring it food (much of it stolen from the Vikings) or be eaten themselves. It is dinosauric in appearance, with a head like a Tyrannosaur and hard coral-like frills. It has wings and can, in fact, fly, though getting off the ground is a laborious process and it's slow and unwieldy in the air.

Terrible Terror
This Chihuahua-sized breed is not threatening at first glance, but they come in mobs and have pinpoint accuracy with their flame. They are easily distracted by reflected lights and pacified with food, purring almost like a cat when contented, but should not be underestimated. They'll bite your nose off.

Mission Reports from this Continuum

 * The Girl and Her Dragon, Agents Derik and Earwig (DMS)
 * Sue: Kana Horrendous the Third