I Remember Watching The Previews And Promotional Clips Of How To Train Your Dragon 2 Before The Movie

I remember watching the previews and promotional clips of How to Train Your Dragon 2 before the movie hit theatres and marveling at the incredible animation.  On the big screen, the visuals become even more breathtaking – the details of the dragons’ scales, the richness of the environment, and especially, the incredibly emotive facial expressions from all the characters.  And while many an animated movie pays attention to details and creates expressive faces, I still feel overwhelmed by what DreamWorks has accomplished in HTTYD 2.  They take this animation steps further than anything else I believe I have ever seen in a full CGI animated movie – they dive into subtleties I can stare at endlessly and still observe new details.

Having just returned from the theatre from yet another viewing of HTTYD 2, I want to remark upon several of these amazing details I noticed within the characters’ eyes.  Even if you don’t pay that close of attention to their eyes, you still feel the emotions and enjoy a powerful story.  But there’s so much more power when you see every little emotion within Hiccup, Astrid, Valka, Stoick, and the others.  Their eyes and body language tell the story just as much as their dialogue and more easily-observable interactions.

Note that these observations are very much NOT spoiler-free.

Differing Ideologies Reflected in Facial Expressions

Watch the expressions on Astrid, Hiccup, Stoick, and Gobber as they confront new people or old enemies.  They all handle the problem very differently based on what they believe – their eyes show us their minds.

Every character varies in their level of trust, especially when confronting potentially hostile strangers.  Astrid, just like she did in the first movie, always defaults to a battle-ready stance.  She glares at everyone she meets whom she feels is a threat – Eret, the dragon trappers, and Drago.  Eyebrows furrowed, pupils staring suspiciously, Astrid might be willing to talk to people, but she’ll only extend her trust so far.

Her expressions contrast enormously with her boyfriend’s.  When Hiccup and Astrid first meet Eret, Hiccup’s expression is much more open.  He might call Eret a “strange hostile person we’ve never met,” but he’s also very willing to talk, and he very much believes that these conversations will come to profit.  There’s an openness and innocent honesty that glows in his eyes throughout his conversations with Eret.  Somehow, even though Hiccup’s the one holding a flaming sword, he appears the far more approachable one between his girlfriend and him.

His openness is even more apparent when he voluntarily surrenders himself to Eret.  His eyes are wide open, naïve, completely at ease, and bright as he tells Eret he can change the mind Drago and all the dragon trappers.  He’s not even worried at all!

And every – single – time – he talks to people about confronting Drago, it’s with this eagerness of solving a problem.  He never doubts that peaceful means will prevail.  He’s excited Valka is around so that she can talk to Drago with him.  He’s excited when the whole Haddock family is reunited because they together with all their dragons will be unstoppable against Drago.  Those bright green eyes are open and innocent, reflecting his ideology and one hundred percent held belief that a nice peaceful talk will solve everything.  While he is worried, there’s no thought at all that anyone will be hurt because he believes everything will be cleanly sorted out.  His worried facial expressions are much more superficial here than the burden he holds in his eyes at the end of the movie.  When you do see worry in his eyes, it’s not any sort of terror or burden (like the weight you see in Stoick’s eyes about Drago’s appearance).  Instead, Hiccup’s “worry” is just that people are not cooperating with him to resolve a misunderstanding right away through a nice friendly chat.

So we see through his eyes that Hiccup’s not just optimistic.  He genuinely cannot see human beings acting any other way than rationally and agreeably.

Of course that all changes and his eyes take on a rather different cast.  But I will talk about that more later.

Valka’s “Animalistic” Body Language

The way Valka walks and holds herself changes throughout the movie as her relationship between Stoick and Hiccup becomes more secure.  The confidence in her eyes likewise increases as she becomes more comfortable around Hiccup and Stoick.  Just look at stills from the beginning versus the near-end: 

Let’s start from the beginning.  Though Valka stands straight and tall riding in the sky with Cloudjumper when Hiccup first encounters her, Valka’s posture is incredibly different on the ground.  As soon as she lands on the ground and confronts Hiccup face-to-face, she is poised with an arched back, bent knees, and widely spread arms.  She crawls on four limbs as often as walks, and when she does walk, it’s with a careful creep bearing low to the ground.  When she cocks her head to the side and studies Hiccup, it’s almost more like some other animal than a human being.  Just think of how she approaches Hiccup when she first notices his scar – she gets all up in his personal space as she reaches out for him, starting from a crouch on the ground and then slowly standing to reach his eyes.  She really has become a dragon lady.

Her posture in the dragon sanctuary is notably more straightened (because she’s comfortable amongst her dragons), but she still often reverts to a crouch.  There’s a very noticeable timidity in how she holds herself around Hiccup, a nervousness that he will not accept her since she has been gone for twenty years.  She wants validation from Hiccup that he can accept her.  As mother and son bonding time grow, she stands straighter, more confidently, and approaches Hiccup face-to-face rather than creeping forward, crouched.  By the time she and Hiccup are talking about exploring the world finding all the new dragon species together, she’s standing straight-backed.  She still asks Hiccup if he can give her a second chance, but at this point she is becoming much more comfortable around her son.

And that body posture only becomes completely comfortable after she reunites with Stoick, the two of them re-bond, and she realizes she has a solid family around her.  She needed similar validation from Stoick, believing that he would criticize her instead of reaffirm his love.  But once he does, from that moment on, you never really see Valka crouching again.  She stands tall and confident around both humans and dragons now.

The timidity in her eyes reflects her posture.  She becomes more comfortable, more confident, around other humans throughout the movie.  In some ways, she is the most erect and self-assured during Stoick’s funeral, even though she has suffered a great loss.  She’s confident around Hiccup there, and that timidity you saw in her eyes at the start of the film is replaced by an assurance that she and her son are close.  She has no difficulty comforting her son as any mother would - even though she herself is hurting.  She knows how to say the right thing.  And it is also at this tragic point that she really falls into her full role as Hiccup’s mother after twenty years.  Here Hiccup gains one parent and loses another.

The Haddocks Reuniting

The body language and eye expressions between Stoick and Valka are fabulous – the awe and infatuation in Stoick’s, the fear, shock, and hesitancy in Valka’s.  The emotions are so tangible I could drown in them.

But let’s not also forget that Hiccup goes through a whole lot of facial expressions himself as his family reunites. 

There’s the initial worry in Hiccup’s face when Stoick approaches Valka.  He’s quite worried as Valka talks about how she believed no one could change… you can tell Hiccup is rooting for his mother and is really worried about how his father will take it. 

Then there’s the curious wonder when Stoick tenderly touches his wife.  You can totally tell it’s a lot for Hiccup to process – his eyes express a combination of wonder, curiosity, confusion, bewilderment, and happiness as he sees his parents interact.  He’s seeing a side to his father he’s never seen before, and that cheerful bafflement fully reflects in his eyes, especially when Stoick and Valka start dancing.  I’m having difficulty describing everything Hiccup feels because you can just see so much.

Over and above all that you can tell he’s thinking that this is one of the best, most pleasantly shocking moments in his life – his family reuniting.  He’s still processing all this sudden change, but there’s glowing hope.  His eyes are so bright and his smile uncertain but elated.

I feel like this is a long and uninteresting description, but really, when it comes to subtleties, these scenes are incredible.

Sad to think that Hiccup lived a happy life with his family for half a day before that was all ruined.  Through his entire life, he’ll only remember half a day with both his mother and father.

Stoick’s Sacrifice

Hiccup’s bright eyes suddenly become a lot more subdued following his nightmare at the dragon sanctuary.  Look at the screencaps and how much his eyes change from bright to burdened. 

Hiccup’s eyes for the first two thirds of the movie are bright, open, youthful, innocent.  His face is the most expressive and easily readable, all his subtle thoughts and reactions portrayed through his wide green eyes.  His eyes remain very readable in the final third of the movie, but they’re no longer so bright.  They’re far more (excuse my word choice) stoic.  His eyes take on weight and burden, not only when he’s outright mourning for Stoick during the ship burial, but throughout the rest of the fighting sequences and the aftermath of the final battle.  They lose their sense of youth as he is forced to “come of age.”

The movie ends where Hiccup is still miserable.  If you just watch his overt body movements like him smiling or kissing Astrid, you might think he’s doing alright.  But DreamWorks understood emotions and that you don’t get over losing your father in a day.  His eyes are serious and subdued when he approaches his mother after the battle and says, “I’m so glad you’re here, Mom.”  That’s the voice of a young man who’s definitely going to need familial support in the next few weeks.  Even when he’s interacting with Astrid, it’s not quite so carefree.

Where you really see the reluctant, unhappy burden in his eyes is when Gothi marks him chief.  He accepts his responsibility and even gives two small smiles.  The first small smile is consent for Gothi to go ahead with the procedure, and the second smile is for the Vikings cheering for their new chief.  But that’s all a public smile.  His eyes are not smiling.  He’s uncomfortable, he’s still troubled over recent events, he’s clearly taking on the duty because he knows it’s his responsibility and not because he naturally wants to be chief.  He’s carrying on the legacy of his father, which is important to him, but there’s great regret for everything that has happened within the last day.  And that’s one thing I really love about this movie.  Our main hero is forced into a role of responsibility he doesn’t want to take – he’s not just a reluctant hero, but a completely unwilling one.

So there is no resolution to Hiccup’s emotions by the end of the film.  We watch him go from happy to sad, from young and carefree to burdened and regretful, and that’s that.

Father-Son Relationship

We see Hiccup feeling worried and insecure about whether or not he lives up to his father’s standards a lot.  The entire first movie is about that.  Hiccup hates disappointing his father, and it means so much when Stoick can finally say he’s proud to call Hiccup his son.  In “Portrait of Hiccup as a Buff Man,” we see Hiccup yet again trying to prove himself to his father.  And even in this movie, we still see some reminders of those teenaged years’ insecurity.

Stoick has made it quite clear he’s proud of Hiccup now, but watch Hiccup’s eyes in the ship burial scene when Valka starts talking about Hiccup as a baby.  As soon as she said Stoick always thought Hiccup would survive and “be the strongest of them all,” Hiccup’s eyes widen in shock.  He’s astonished his father had that faith in him.

Reuniting With Toothless

I can’t make screencaps of this yet but Hiccup’s eyes when he reunites with Toothless at the end of the movi are really something to watch.  He’s nervous and determined approaching Drago both times in the movie, but when he has to confront Bewilderbeast-controlled Toothless, he is terrified.  “Hey buddy, it’s me,” he says, and you never see him more scared in the entire movie.  Hiccup is more scared approaching his own dragon than the main villain in the second movie!  And you can understand why.  He’s afraid he’s lost his best friend.  That he can’t succeed in breaking the Bewilderbeast’s control.  He’s possibly even afraid his best friend will shoot and kill him with a plasma blast right then and there.  He might be calling Toothless his “best friend,” in this scene, but his voice is cracking, his eyes are wide, and he’s genuinely scared that this is the end.

And when Toothless snaps out of the spell, Hiccup’s excitement is enormous.

Maybe what I’ve said here is a lot of obvious remarks, but maybe there’s something interesting here to be grasped.  I wish I had screencaps of more events, but alas, the movie is still only in theatres.  I’d be curious to hear about anyone else’s observations about characters’ facial expressions and how that contributed to our understanding of them.  For how they interact and react to circumstances helps us understand the story in greater depth – it helps us understand their motivations, their joys and sadnesses, and all those human things which make a story worth remembering.  We can understand a lot of the characters in How to Train Your Dragon by listening to their dialogue, but we learn so much more by watching their eyes.