Photo by Jay Argame from Unslash
All it takes is faith, trust, and a little pixie dust.
-Peter Pan
“Often times, flying represents a sense of freedom. Sumber explains that flying dreams serve as a sort of escape from the pressures of the real world (which is represented by the ground).” (Gould)
Peter Pan seeks freedom from adult responsibility and stays a child forever in Neverland.
In E.T. The Extraterrestrial, Elliott and friends fly with E.T.’s help to escape capture from the government agents.
These types of stories capture childlike innocence and subsequent freedom from societal pressure.
Flight is very cinematic.
“The richly embodied, even voluptuous, sense of being involved in the world onscreen
is most intense during these films’ flying sequences, especially (but not only) when seen in 3D.” (Richmond, 256)
How to Train Your Dragon’s films depend on these enticing flying sequences.
The directors want the audience to feel like they’re flying as they get to know Hiccup and Toothless.
Flying is integral to their friendship and communication.
Learning to fly is Hiccup’s path to freedom. He discovers where he truly fits in through flight and his connection to Toothless.
Up in the Clouds
Cinematically the camera is close to the action.
“ In fact, How to Train Your Dragon further heightens the illusion and immersion by placing objects between the flying camera and the boy on his flying dragon.” (Richmond, 267-268)
How to Train Your Dragon’s animation style is consistent with a children’s movie.
The traditional approach to capturing flying is not a negative part of the film.
The film is character driven. Similar camera shots can be seen in superhero films like Iron Man or Superman.
But the difference is in the smaller details, such as how music themes play as Hiccup and Toothless learn to trust each other.
“Digital technology comes to saturate the cinema, its previously unique intertwining of indexicality and iconicity comes undone.” (Richmond, 267)
Avatar is a film that broke tradition and experimented with 3-D technology.
How to Train Your Dragon has a vastly different audience than Avatar. Avatar focused on the ground-breaking application of CGI to create a detailed, realistic world.
How to Train Your Dragon’s animation features more stylized and expressive characters.
Compare Jake’s first flight on a Banshee with Hiccup’s first flight with Toothless. Jake’s is meant to be a unique spectacle.
Instead of focusing on our protagonist, the camera stays at a distance and highlights the beauty of Pandora. Avatar uses its flying scene as visual world-building.
How to Train Your Dragon uses its for character development.
Source List
Gould, W. (2011, July 13). Dreaming about flying:Dream meaning explained. Huffpost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dreams-about-flying_n_891625
Richmond, S. C. (2016). On Learning to Fly at the Movies: “Avatar” and “How to Train Your Dragon. Journal of Narrative Theory, 46(2), 254-283. https://www.jstor.org/stable/45274869