A few days ago, I watched DreamWorks’ How to Train Your Dragon with my two-year-old brother. I know the movie pretty well, since my brother would watch it at least once every single day. The plot of the movie revolves around a teenager named Hiccup. From the start, Hiccup knows that he is different from everyone else in his village. He is an awkward, accident-prone weakling in a village of dragon-slaying Vikings. Hiccup demonstrates one of the major tenets of Transcendentalism, self-reliance. He stops trying to conform to society and finds his own path to follow. In his village, dragons are viewed as enemies. However, Hiccup befriends a dragon and learns that Vikings don’t have to fight dragons. Hiccup also demonstrates idealism. He shows that human beings are naturally good at their core, when he refuses to kill a dragon. At the end of the movie, he is even able to persuade the other villagers to change their ways and shows them that dragons aren’t evil.
American Transcendentalism 
May 06, 2013 @ 01:06:24
I love this movie and you’re absolutely right about the connection to Transcendentalism. I never would have guessed how closely the two are related. I think this movie also represents the “society corrupts humans” tenet because in Hiccup’s village, children are brought up to hate, fear, and kill dragons. In reality, dragons are not the deadly, horrifying creatures the village thinks; they just want to feed the huge “mega dragon” (not quite sure of the name). When Hiccup goes against the norm and befriends a dragon, that shows how believing in yourself can lead to discovering what is truly right. the “society” in the movie is the village and Hiccup escapes from being corrupted by it by relying on himself.
May 12, 2013 @ 04:01:35
I too really love this movie and have watched it too many times to count! I like the connection you made with Hiccup and Toothless. Do you think that Hiccup’s decision to follow his own path is the transcendentalistic idea that one should follow one’s own intuition?
May 15, 2013 @ 01:32:21
Yes, Hiccup’s decision to follow his own path is the transcendentalist idea that one should be self-reliant and follow one’s own intuition instead of conforming to society.