I assess stories through 7 criteria that ideally characterize the central PROBLEM for the main character:

Punishing. Relatable. Original. Believable. Life-Altering. Entertaining. Meaningful.

If you’ve read my book The Idea or seen its companion course in my online community, you know about this.

It’s not a rigid set of rules, more what I’ve learned are the key elements in a story working really well.

To me, How to Train Your Dragon (the original or the new life-action version) is a pretty textbook case study.

For me this story really works, and has a lot to teach us writers about why. 

Co-screenwriter and co-director Dean DeBlois thanked Blake Snyder in the credits and it’s perhaps the best legacy for the late Save the Cat author who was a friend and ultimately mentor in its creative birth.

But I’m not here to talk about how it uses Blake’s “beat sheet” really well. You can read about that here.

The PROBLEM in How to Train Your Dragon

In case you’re new to the story, my version of a logline would be something like this:

The tentative son of a Viking leader of battles against dragons secretly discovers and befriends an injured young dragon and eventually learns to ride it, while forced by his father into dangerous training to kill dragons – which will lead to a massive battle attack on a dragon stronghold.

Let’s look at the 7 PROBLEM elements one by one:

PUNISHING

Ideally what the main character is trying to do which will take the whole story to resolve is punishingly difficult for them and only builds and complicates as such in Act Two.

Main character HICCUP is in a punishing situation in several ways. He’s considered a failure by his father and his peers, and the training of his dragon friend TOOTHLESS is risky and difficult at first, as is the training to kill dragons.

HOWEVER… he fairly quickly begins to do well in both these things, which does go against the principal of rising complications and difficulty. And arguably he lacks a clear goal that drives the story in that he’s ambivalent at best about what they want him to do and what that could lead to, and mainly concerned with Toothless whose situation he can’t reveal and which has no defined endpoint for him.

But there is such a big problem hanging over the story in terms of what will happen when everyone finds about Toothless – and it leads to such huge drama in the end – that I think it still works.

Punishing Grade: B

RELATABLE

We want the audience to emotionally identify with the main character, even like them usually, while experiencing the story through their perspective throughout.

No complaints there! You almost can’t find a more sympathetic character than Hiccup, for reasons hinted at above. He’s a classic underdog on a kind of Hero’s Journey with shades of Fool Triumphant and Institutionalized. As well at the “Pet Love” subgenre of Buddy Love. But I digress.

Hiccup is easy to care about because his father and others judge him, he can’t quite be what they want him to be, he has unique passions and abilities it’s easy to connect with, and perhaps most important, BETTER VALUES in that he can love a dragon and see past the blinding rage his society has toward them. Which could ultimately transform the whole society in a positive way. We love him for taking care of Toothless and can’t help but root for him.

Relatability grade: A

ORIGINAL

This is a great example of following the advice I mention in my book of not trying to completely reinvent the wheel with originality (which rarely works well) but to instead take a proven type of story and add one new element on a concept level that elevates and freshens it.

And when you have a fantastical element, working with something well-known from past culture and literature is great because you don’t have to explain what it is or how it works and convince the audience it’s real.

So dragons and fighting dragons is very familiar. AND it gives built-in action elements with all the battles and high-risk mayhem. Fitting an entertaining genre.

What’s fresh here is the kid realizing maybe dragons aren’t all bad and the potential revolution, with huge consequences, of that attitude and approach and what he’s doing.

“What if the son of a the leader of a dragon-hunting culture secretly befriends a dragon and wants to help them, deciding they’re not all bad, turning him against his entire community?”

That’s an original premise, but operating within a proven, understandable framework.

Originality grade: A

BELIEVABLE

For similar reasons, How to Train Your Dragon doesn’t struggle with making things believable for the audience. Because dragons and battling them are such familiar elements, audiences can suspend disbelief right away. Just like they could if they saw vampires, zombies or time travel. Or aliens coming to earth.

If you can find a new take on one of those elements rather than inventing something wholly new, you’re on such safer ground with believability (and understandability) even if you give it some fresh twist.

And the more stories we’ve seen about that thing – the more the audience has a clear picture of how it “normally works” – the better.

So it’s not hard to buy into the dragon mythology elements. Or the more specific story and character beats made up for this movie. Training to become the lead dragon killer, the dragons having a lair, even the reveal that there’s like a “queen” dragon the others serve… these are minor adjustments to the core premise of how dragons and fighting dragons can work.

And I don’t see characters doing or saying things that are hard to buy. If anything, the story operates within very primal and grounded human emotions, intentions, relationships and conflicts.

Believable grade: A

LIFE-ALTERING

This is all about stakes. Is there enough at stake to make the audience care?

Absolutely. This has life-and-death stakes, the highest kind you can have. And not just for one person, but for an entire community of people – and dragons – potentially, as war is coming (and battles/attacks ongoing).

It also has very primal character stakes – can Hiccup become the person he uniquely is and have that be accepted and successful? Can he protect his best/only friend Toothless? Can he earn his father’s love and approval? Can he change his father and perhaps his community?

All high-stakes questions. His life as well as the life of Toothless, his father and the larger world they’re part of very much hangs in the balance depending on how things will turn out with the central problem of his relationship with Toothless and what that means for the larger humans-vs.-dragons dynamic and war plans.

Life-Altering grade: A

ENTERTAINING

Does it make audiences feel something they want to feel? Does it fulfill what they come to the movie to see? Is it fun to consume the story as a viewer?

I would have to say “yes” on all fronts, and it does it through several different types of material. It’s got action/spectacle (and fantasy/dragons). It’s got cute animal relationships. It’s heart-warming and emotional. It’s got high drama. It’s got light comedy. It’s got romance. All mixed together in a well-paced stew. It doesn’t radically switch tones or genres somewhere in the middle but keeps all those alive and intermingling throughout.

Entertaining grade: A

MEANINGFUL

But what’s it all really about in the end? Anything? Or is it just a fun forgettable popcorn movie?

That’s where How to Train Your Dragon really shines. It explores rich themes of individual vs. family/community as well as defending/aggression vs. understanding/empathy. As well as change vs. tradition.

Hiccup’s attempts to become who he was meant to be and change the world in some way that will affect future generations makes this all seem more important and universally meaningful than if it was just about being good at fighting dragons or beating some bad guy/monster. It feels like it’s exploring something much meatier and more worthwhile than a simple adventure.

Meaningful grade: A

Disagree? Agree? Have questions?

Comment below!