On Dragons and Ideals: An Examination of the HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON Franchise and the Aspects of Ideology
Film theory is a subject made fascinating by its layers; for what the methods of analysis reveal about the film to which they are applied. A film—as with any other form of media—can be viewed from multiple angles based on one’s perspective and learning, and with each refraction that results another layer to the film is peeled away, leading to greater understanding of the film as a whole. In some cases, the film in question is not a film, but a series, and the layers that are revealed have layers of their own, and the interactions between concept and film become a microcosm of a larger picture, even as they themselves are created of supporting threads. This in turn allows for surprising depth in the most unlikely of films and film franchises, such as the one examined within this paper. After all, who would expect a beloved animated franchise such as DreamWorks’s How To Train Your Dragon—inspired by Cressida Cowell’s twelve-volume children’s series of the same name—to reflect the concepts of ideology, cultural hegemony, and …
Katherine Purvin is currently a Cinema Studies major a Oakland University, and hopes to someday work in the film industry as an animator. She can often be found at meetings of the Oakland University Filmmaker's Guild.