2 Common Children’s Movie Plots
People expect all animated children’s movies to have a happy ending and maybe teach a life lesson.
Do you know a great way to start that story? Kill off a parent or two. This trope is an apparent struggle that makes the protagonist’s life harder.
There are 2 tracks the story usually uses. One is the Harry Potter approach when a character is an orphan coming of age without a family.
The other is when a character is raised by a single parent,
and that parent might be overprotective and hold their child back from finding themselves in the coming of age story.
Examples of overprotective parents include King Triton (The Little Mermaid) and Marlin (Finding Nemo)
Coming of Age
The coming-of-age genre has existed for centuries. Many animated children’s films are adapted from pre-existing fairy tales that follow this trope.
“These types of stories are called Bildungsroman or coming-of-age tales. Interestingly the term bildungsroman well after these stories were highly popular.“ (Why are Disney parents always so dead)
This formula is used because it works. While Disney has characters like Simba and Ariel, DreamWorks has Po and Hiccup.
The island of Berk is obsessed with killing dragons. Stoic is the chief and possibly the most obsessed.
He feels the responsibility to protect the island as chief and feels the loss of his wife when Hiccup was a baby.
Stoic is a strict father. He doesn’t allow Hiccup to train to be a dragon slayer because he knows his son is many things but not a killer. He is protecting Hiccup from harm.
Overprotective parenting is a predictable trope of coming-of-age stories. Children can grasp the need for characters to separate and develop away from their family.
Hiccup wants to fit in and meet his father’s expectations. To truly find himself, however, he has to develop a sense of self.
In the opinion of Jonathan Decker, a therapist from Cinema Therapy,
“I think all parents want certain things for their kids. And he (Stoic) definitely wants his son to be a dragon slayer. But what he’s seen is that he’s (Hiccup) is basically the Jar Jar Binks of the Viking world.” (Therapist reacts to How to Train Your Dragon)
When Stoic puts Hiccup in dragon training, it is his last attempt at making Hiccup a “real” Viking. When Stoic gives Hiccup an ax for dragon training, he says,
“When you carry this ax, you carry all of us. Which means you walk like us, you talk like us, you think like us. No more of this. (Gesturing to Hiccup’s body)
Strict animated parents are usually more exaggerated. There are many reasons parents can be strict.
“For there to be a healthy parent-child relationship or a guardian-teenager, whatever we have going on. There’s got to be a dialog…
As a parent, I have the responsibility to guide you to adulthood.
So there is a bit of authority there, but authority without consent or authority without genuine I’m going to hear you… then that’s just tyranny.” (Therapist reacts to How to Train Your Dragon)
Hiccup’s Journey
Hiccup’s disability doesn’t play a significant role in how he is parented by Stoic. It is an acquired disability later in life.
Still, from my experience and exposure, people accept parents who are strict and overprotective of their disabled children.
Society teaches that a disability is a weakness, so treating disabled people like children is a common sign of ableism.
Hiccup’s disability is handled well in the film in terms of avoiding the harmful representation of a disability as a weakness.
The film treats Hiccup like “everyone else” Stoic is not validated for his strict parenting because of Hiccup’s disability.
Stock learns to let go of his strict parenting for a different reason than his child’s disability.
Source List
Cinema Therapy. (2021, September 21). Therapist Reacts to How to Train Your Dragon [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzzVbWKMmZ0
SuperCarlinBrothers. (2017, April 13). Why are Disney parents always so dead? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkBZwvtQ588