How to Train Your Dragon

The movie takes place on the Island of Berk that is home to Vikings.  The main character is Hiccup, who is the son of the village leader, Stoik.  As leader, Stoik’s biggest challenge is keeping their village and livestock safe from dragons that constantly raid their town for food to take for their own.  Hiccup wants nothing more than to join the fight against the dragons and be able to slay his first one, but his father won’t allow him to do so because Hiccup is small and clumsy.  During one of the attacks, Hiccup sneaks out to prove to everyone that he can slay dragons just like the rest of them.  He successfully traps the most dangerous dragon, a Night Fury, but later finds out when he tracks it down that he doesn’t have the heart to kill the beast.  He releases the dragon and names him toothless as he starts to care for it since it is unable to fly due to the trap injuring its tail.  Hiccup soon gains the dragon’s trust and realizes that they misunderstood creatures.  Hiccup tries to convince his dad that what they know about dragons is wrong and they don’t have to fight them.  Stoik refuses to listen and later finds out about Toothless and uses him to find the dragon’s nest, which he plans on destroying.

After watching How to Train Your Dragon, I found that the movie does pass the Bechdel Test.  The two female characters are Astrid and Ruffnut and they don’t talk to each other until the end when they are trying to figure out how to beat the dragon’s leader, Red Death.  Even though it’s a brief conversation, they do talk about something other than a man.

While this movie does have strong independent female characters I don’t think that it would be considered a feminist movie.  There are scenes that show women Vikings fighting alongside the men however they are only shown in crowds and never interact with the main characters.  Astrid and Ruffnut are the only female characters that say more than one sentence throughout the movie.  Ruffnut is portrayed as very masculine as at times it is very hard to tell her apart from her twin brother, Toughnut.  Astrid on the other hand is a strong, independent woman how always has her own opinion but she becomes more dependent on Hiccup as the movie progresses.