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In the boundless blue sky, you and your dragon soar here. This is the beautiful life of the protagonists Hiccup and Toothless in the animated movie "How to Train Your Dragon" produced by DreamWorks.
It is true that "How to Train Your Dragon" can be interpreted as a "non-traditional" teenager who, relying on his own courage and wisdom, gradually grew into an alternative hero's growth story; but it can also be understood as how man went from being an enemy of nature to a process of living in harmony with nature.
● In the "How to Train Your Dragon" scene, Hiccup rides a toothless boy to fly
Hiccup comes from a Viking tribe where everyone is brave and good at war. People regarded the dragon as a sworn enemy and fought against it all day long. Dragons have become the destructive force of nature in the eyes of human beings.
As the son of the patriarch, Hiccup was born weak and became an outlier of his own clan, and so was his personality. He enjoys studying nature, designing tools. He did not want to conquer nature, but tried his best to observe it and understand it.
It is precisely because of this that he holds a different belief from his people, dares to contact the dragon, tames the dragon, and has a special emotional connection with the toothless boy, and finally can leave him and the toothless boy free in the blue sky.
● The disabled hiccups were never at odds with the Viking tradition of fighting
The original inspiration for How to Train Your Dragon is also a person's childhood connection to nature.
The book series of the same name by British author and illustrator Cressida Cowell is the basis of the cartoon. Her imagination of the dragon comes from her childhood "barbaric" growth in nature, and reconstructing the connection between human beings and the primitive nature is the medicine that modern society needs most in her eyes.
Gowell's most memorable childhood was spent on a desolate island in Scotland.
● Typical of the Scottish coast, often windy and rainy
Every summer vacation, parents take a family and go to a desolate island on the Scottish coastline. Her father, an environmentalist, purchased the island for a wilderness experience.
Buying a small island sounds particularly extravagant, but the opposite is true: there is no electricity, no roads, and the boatman takes them ashore; a few weeks later, the boatman comes and takes them away from the island.
● The scene of "How to Train Your Dragon" soaring through the clouds and driving the fog
They are far from the life of civilized society, more adventures in nature, and there are also life-threatening risks.
Once, when the whole family went to sea en masse, my father did not tie the boat to a buoy, but accidentally tied the boat to a cage where lobsters were caught. Such a mistake almost made the family drift to the sea and never came back.
Another time, also at sea. The weather suddenly changed, and the waves that had been gently swaying became towering and about to collapse "walls", pressing heavily on their ships. The family struggled together, scooping the seawater out of the cabin spoon by spoon, and only then did they barely survive.
● Writing about childhood Gauville and father
But what left The deepest impression on Gowell was his father's curiosity, which was almost fatal.
She was only nine years old at the time, and she was definitely not a Viking warrior who was full of strength. On the shore, however, her father had given her a life-threatening responsibility: he had to look down at the bottom of the cliff, and little Gowell would hold his leg tightly and not let him fall.
On the shores of Scotland, where the cold rain slapped her face and the wind blew, the nine-year-old girl had to hold her father's legs and try her best not to let him fall. Once she couldn't hold it, her father would just fall straight down and fall to his death on the rocks of the cliff.
● The scene of the fall of How to Train Your Dragon
The cliffs by the sea are where many seabirds nest. Father wanted to see: was it the white-tailed sea eagle or the eagle that nested on the edge of the cliff? The hawks have only recently been introduced to the island where they live, and if they build a nest, it means that the birds have a home here. At this moment, her father's curiosity was all poured into it.
In the end, reason returns. What woke my father up was the wind on the seashore. Hanging on the cliff, he suddenly realized: It doesn't matter whether the eagle has built a nest in the end; what is important is that if he hangs like this again, his life will be gone.
● When Kressida Gowell grew up, she often went to Scotland for holidays
In an environment far removed from civilized society, the forces of nature can certainly make a person fearful. The father turned around and went home with his daughter. Two people were drenched in the rain. In a stone hut without electricity, the two sat by candles and roasted themselves dry by the fire. It was this childhood life that taught Galville everything about nature.
There were no mobile phones and no tablets; there was no one else on the island; not to mention that without electricity, it was impossible to make phone calls! Children have no way, reading, drawing, writing, is her pastime; and the source of inspiration is the story told by her father.
The island they lived on was the first islet the Vikings invaded the British Isles and the last one the Vikings left. At night, his father told them stories of the Vikings attacking the islets of Scotland; during the day, Gaway went to the cave to look for dragons, because the Vikings in the stories believed in the existence of dragons.
● The imagination of the Vikings comes from the adventures of Gauville's childhood
In other free time, Gowell was alone, riding his bicycle toward his grandmother's house in the countryside. The wilderness near my grandmother's house is dotted with traces of the Iron Age.
On a small hill, in an old mountain fort, she could clearly see the wilderness for miles, which made the young girl wonder: Where did the people who used to be here go? What are their untold stories?
Nearby, there are also some signs put up to warn the little ones not to go near. Originally, these areas were the places used to train the army during World War II. Although she could not go there, in her mind, these places where the trees were piled up were full of beautiful mysteries.
● The How to Train Your Dragon scene is full of adventures and crises
J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, once referred to a feeling of "heartbreak in the past that fades." In Gao Wei's childhood, she would always encounter such a feeling in the wilderness--nature is still there, but people have nowhere to find it, and this indescribable feeling remains in her heart.
She writes and draws, and transforms these stories into paintings with brush heads and words with the tip of the pen. As a child, she had already written down many fantasies about the Vikings. When she grew up, looking at her infant daughter, she began to recall her father, her relationship with her father, and nature... She pieced these stories together and gradually wrote them into books.
In these experiences, the reverence and respect for nature she experienced became a wonderful fairy tale of Hiccup and Dragon in "How to Train Your Dragon".
● "How to Train Your Dragon" novel
At the end of the animated trilogy, Hiccup still chooses to let all the dragons return to nature and return to the environment in which they should live. In the ending, Hiccup has to say goodbye to Toothless.
He said it best: "Our world is not worthy of you – at least for now." ”（"Our world doesn't deserve you. Yet." ）
● "How to Train Your Dragon" scene, Hiccup and Toothless Look at each other affectionately
This is a line that still holds hope. But in real life, we humans have not made enough mistakes in our dealings with nature? When will we be "worthy" to live in harmony with nature, rather than wreak havoc and thus be punished?
Sometimes human beings are hurt, and it seems to be self-inflicted. Unchecked carbon emissions lead to global warming; human beings are helpless against extreme climates, allowing tornadoes and wildfires to wreak havoc causing large-scale economic and ecological losses; humans eat wild game such as bats, pangolins, and civets, and eat viruses in order to get over a mouthful. The virus spread ten times, ten passed a hundred, more terrible than rumors.
● Classic stills from "How to Train Your Dragon"
At the time of the avalanche, not a single snowflake was innocent. Unfortunately, the human reflex arc is too long, and when nature makes a judgment, human beings realize that the harm caused to nature cannot be easily recovered. If human beings do not respect nature, they will inevitably suffer the consequences.
It's time to re-examine humanity itself and look directly at nature. Only those who understand the forces of nature will respect it and protect it. Only as a collective human being will we have the opportunity to continue to survive in the days to come.
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