Alright, after seven rather lengthy posts on why I like the movie HTTYD, I believe I have reached my last "deep" reason. After this post I will probably be dealing with "shallower" topics like the animation, voice acting, texturing, and soundtrack. Those will be much less important than these first entries, but they have their own critical role to play in making HTTYD my favorite movie of all time! Now, onto my last "deep" entry. I hope some of you have been reading and enjoying these posts. It has been nice to express my thoughts!
The next reason I really love HTTYD is because I find it emotionally stirring and at parts heart-wrenching! Hold on...now that is just odd. You watch a movie because you find certain parts sad or stressful? Yes, of course I do! I enjoy watching a movie that can engage you. If a movie has a sad part, but it does not make me feel sad, then there is something lacking. Movies like HTTYD have the ability to make you really engage and affiliate with the characters. You wind up caring about them. If a movie has unmoving events and characters, then I am fairly unimpressed. As I said in entry two, I found Hiccup extremely easy to affiliate with, and I believe many other HTTYD fans have felt the same thing. As soon as you begin affiliating with a character, you start to care about them. When something goes wrong, you are worried, stressful, or grieved. When the character triumphs, you rejoice along with them! I think a great example of another movie that does this for me would be Lord of the Rings. When Gandalf "dies" in the first film, it is an incredibly powerful emotional moment. You watch as the characters are facing the grief in their own ways. That is the kind of power I admire in a story, the ability to make you care about the characters!
HTTYD had this at many, many points! When Hiccup was in danger, I know that I was actually afraid for him. When Hiccup was picked on, it bugged me. Then when Toothless becomes Hiccup's first real friend, we are all happy for him. When they do their first successful test drive, I feel the exhilaration and excitement of the moment. Then there is the rejection by Stoick. Man that scene! As I said before this movie can be heart wrenching! Hiccup is absolutely desperate, absolutely helpless, and in the end, absolutely crushed. His father's rejection leaves him on the ground with his senses and emotions completely shatter. I watch his mannerisms, words, and expressions in that scene, and I feel so gripped by the stress and sadness. He is begging for his best friends life, he is trying to apologize, he is pleading with his father to not go and get himself killed, but Stoick will not listen. Even after watching the movie over seventy five times, that scene is still powerfully sad. Nothing quite compares with the ending. There is such a mix of emotions. Hiccup wakes up to see his best friend at his side. Then he realizes something is wrong. The look he gives Toothless when he discovers his leg is missing is so painfully sorrowful. He deals with his grief, and decides to push through. Toothless helps him, and that might be one of the most beautiful moments in the film. Then to Hiccup's great surprise, he steps out into a world he has transformed! Everyone looks up to him, everyone is grateful, and his father is finally proud of him. The deep despair washes away and I leave the movie with a feeling of triumph and joy! That is what I call a powerful film. This is a film that can draw you in and make you feel what the characters are feeling. So that is (for now) my last "deep" reason for loving HTTYD. It engages the emotions. It makes you care for the characters, and in the end it makes you feel like they are real people, almost person friends! Even more than that; at times I watch Hiccup, and I feel like "I looked at him and I saw myself."And that is why HTTYD is my favorite movie of all time!
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