Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-review by Prof. Popinjay

You know what? These are friggin great! After watching these I realized I love everything to do with How to Train Your Dragon. The humor is great. The action is great. And the message… oh man. It’s not pounded into your face like so much post 1977 Whinnie the Pooh. Preachiness has its place but when it comes to fictional literature and cinema, a good moral needs to manifest through the circumstantial revelation of the characters and their interactions with each other not just announced by some magical guru. A pithy slogan is fine from a mentor now and then but even then the best slogans are the ones the characters gradually learn. A. A. Milne knew how to do it right and he was writing stories about a bunch of stuffed animals! Anyway, there’s none of that in any of the HtTYD and that makes me happy. Also the message they’re effectively conveying is actually meaningful and substantial human reality. None of this “trust your heat” BS! Man these films are good! Even these shorts based on the originals are great!

The Gift of the Night Fury is kind of a Christmas story albeit no mention of anything Christmas because it’s a completely different culture. In fact, it’s not even a Yule story despite these people looking very much like Vikings. I’m not interested in a cultural/historical discussion at the moment. I’ll actually research it when I’m good and ready.

Dawn of the Dragon Racers is a just for fun story with a lot of great humor and don’t quote me but I think it served as a kickoff for the Netflix series which I have yet to see but I’m really excited for it.