How to Train Your Dragon: A Biblical Worldview Movie Review for Families

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Hello friends! On today's podcast, we're going to be looking at the movie How to Train Your Dragon and three biblically-based conversations we can have with our children if we choose to see the movie.

As I've said on previous Foundation Worldview podcasts, I am never going to encourage you to see a movie with your child because that is a decision that's a matter of conscience. However, if you do choose to engage with this movie with your children, I want to offer some biblically grounded conversation starters for critically and biblically evaluating this film. So that's what we're going to dive down deep into today.

On the Foundation Worldview Podcast, we're typically answering your questions so that you can equip the kids that God has placed in your care to carefully evaluate every idea they encounter and understand the truth of the biblical worldview. I'm your host, Elizabeth Urbanowicz, and I'm thrilled that you've joined me for this episode today.

Now, as we're thinking through the movie How to Train Your Dragon, if you haven't seen the live-action version yet, it is pretty much exactly the same as the cartoon version. So if you're familiar with the cartoon version, the live-action one is exactly the same.

Conversation #1: Why Do Humans Long to Make Their Parents Proud?

The first thing that I think we can talk through with our kids after seeing this movie is the question: Why do humans long to make their parents proud?

This is a theme that is woven throughout the entire film—that Hiccup wants his dad to be proud of him. That's why towards the beginning of the film, he is so intent on becoming a dragon killer, because his dad, the chief of the Viking tribe, is the ultimate dragon killer. He wants his dad to be proud of him. In one of the scenes towards the opening of the film, Gobber (I'm not sure if I'm going to say this character's name correctly, so if you're a huge fan of the movie and I botch it, please forgive me), the guy that Hiccup is kind of apprenticing under, tells Stoick (Hiccup's dad), "He just wants to make you proud." He's talking about Hiccup and he says, "He just wants to make you proud."

This longing that Hiccup experiences throughout the film is something that we all experience to one degree or another. Even if we're not actively thinking about it, we do desire to have our parents' approval. We want them to be proud of us. Because this is a theme that is just woven throughout the entire film, I think it's really important that we ask our kids this question.

According to the biblical worldview, why do humans long to make their parents proud? You can even open up the conversation by asking your child what are some things that they hope that you are proud of. Maybe it's an athletic accomplishment or a musical accomplishment or a way that they treat others or a different skill that they have. Talk about ways that they desire for you to be proud of them. Then share with them some of the ways in which throughout your life you have desired to have your own parents' approval.

Then, as you have this conversation, you can say: According to the biblical worldview, we as humans have been designed as God's image bearers to bring Him glory. That is our ultimate purpose—to glorify God. So in this sense, we are called to make God proud. As we bring Him glory, that is really equivalent to making a parent proud. Because of this, our hearts long to make our earthly parents proud of us because that's just a small reflection of our true longing—our true desire for our heavenly Father to approve of us, our true desire to bring glory and honor to our heavenly Father.

Two passages that we can take our kids to:

Galatians 4:4-7: "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'"

With this passage, we can talk about how God has made us part of his family. It's through Jesus that Jesus paid the price for our sin so that we might be adopted into God's family. God has sent the spirit of His Son into our hearts by which we cry, "Abba! Father!"

Romans 8:15-17: "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!' The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him."

We can talk again about what this passage reveals: that we are adopted into God's family through the redemption that was purchased for us by Jesus. This is what we are all longing for—to be sons and daughters of God. We want to bring God glory because that is what we were designed for. So when we long to make our earthly parents proud of us, when we long for their approval, that is really just a small reflection of our ultimate longing to have the approval of our heavenly Father God. These two passages make clear how we get that approval—it's through the finished work of Jesus.

So that is the first biblically-based question we can ask our children: Why do humans long to make their parents proud?

Conversation #2: How Did the Gifting of Different Vikings Benefit the Whole Community?

The second question we can ask our kids after watching How to Train Your Dragon is: How did the gifting of different Vikings benefit the whole community?

One thing we see throughout this movie is how Hiccup is designed just differently than a lot of those in his community. He's not really big physically, he's not very brawny. He doesn't have this desire to be a warrior, but we do see him have specific giftings. In the movie we see that the community really needed Hiccup's strengths of engineering and design to learn the truth about the dragons, and ultimately to defeat the queen bee dragon so that all the other dragons were set free.

So we can have this conversation about the different giftings that we see in the movie:

• We see these giftings of engineering and design with Hiccup
• We can also talk through how Astrid's strength and agility was also needed to protect and rescue others throughout the movie—her strength and agility really protects others towards the end in the final battle against the queen bee dragon
• We also see Snotlout's confidence (which is sometimes unfounded) and his persistence help defeat the queen bee dragon because he is confident and persistent—he was willing to fight in a way that others weren't
• We also saw that Fishlegs' knowledge of all the dragons helped his friends understand the different types of dragons that they were riding and even the ones that they were defeating, like the queen bee dragon

(Again, I might not pronounce these names correctly, so I'm sorry if there's any super fans out there. This was the first time I saw the movie.)

As you have this conversation talking through the different strengths and giftings of the Viking children specifically, you can then connect this to your biological family and to your spiritual family in the local church. Talk through the different giftings and strengths that different members of your biological family have, and then talk through how those strengths and giftings have been a blessing to your family. Similarly with your spiritual family, your church family, talk through the different strengths you see different people at your church bring to your church family.

Then you can talk through how God created us to be the family of God, and he has created us to be unified amidst great diversity. That is the beauty of the body of Christ—that there is unity amidst diversity. We all need one another's strengths.

A great passage to take our kids to is 1 Corinthians 12:12-23. This is a longer passage, but it's a great one to go through with our kids:

"For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, 'Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.' On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty."

We can read through this passage with our kids and say, "Okay, what does this reveal about God's family, the body of Christ?" That's right—that we are all different. We all have different strengths and weaknesses, but we come together to make up one body. Every person who is part of that is necessary. Just because someone isn't like us or just because we're not like someone else, that doesn't mean that there is less value. It means that God has called us to different things.

So just as we saw in the movie that the different Vikings' strengths benefited their community, the different giftings and strengths that God has given us benefit our biological family and our spiritual family, the body of Christ.

Conversation #3: How Do We Discern What Our True Enemies Are?

The third conversation or question starter that I think we can ask our kids is: How do we discern what our true enemies are?

This was a big theme throughout the movie—that the Vikings were continually fighting the dragons, but we learned that the dragons weren't actually their enemies. It was the queen bee dragon who was controlling the other dragons that was the ultimate enemy. So we want to help our kids think through: How do we discern who our true enemies are?

Now those of you who have gone through our Comparative Worldview curriculum at Foundation Worldview and have taken your kids through evaluating the postmodern worldview, you know that postmodernism would have us believe that everything we have traditionally thought of as evil is just a misunderstanding. This is seen throughout so many of the movies in our time. Think about all of the villain backstory movies—really, they're just stemming from a postmodern perspective, which is seeking to have us believe there is no such thing as evil. There is no such thing as wickedness. It's just misunderstanding. It's just the things that have been thrust upon people.

At times, it may be the case that there has been a misunderstanding. There might be someone who we view as out to get us, and we have just completely misunderstood what is going on. So it is true that at times there can be misunderstandings. However, according to the biblical worldview, evil does exist. We do have real enemies and we look to God's word to determine who those enemies are.

Theologians have classically categorized the Christian's enemies into three different categories: the world, the flesh, and the devil. I'm not going to do a thorough unpacking of what each of those are, but I'm going to give us one passage for each of those different enemies that we can go through with our kids.

The World

For the world, to understand what is meant by the world as being an enemy, we can take our kids to 1 John 2:15-16: "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world."

We can talk through with our kids: What does this verse reveal is an enemy of our soul? It's the things of the world—loving the things of the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eye, the pride of life, the things that are consistently pushed on us through different forms of media and advertisement and things in our community.

Now, does this mean that our next door neighbor or the person who created a certain movie or form of media is our enemy? No. That person is not the world. That person is a person in the world. It is the world—the secular culture that is seeking to ensnare us—that is an enemy of our souls.

The Flesh

For the flesh, a passage to explain what the flesh is, I think a great passage for that is James 1:13-15: "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by God,' for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death."

We can ask our kids, "Okay, what is revealed by this passage?" That we have desires within us that are longing for things that go against what God says is good. So our flesh, our sin nature, is waging war against our spirit that God has renewed and has given new life. An enemy is our flesh—we are waging war against our flesh. We're constantly having to fight against these desires that are leading us into sin.

The Devil

The third enemy, the devil. A great passage of Scripture to take our kids to is 1 Peter 5:8-9: "Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world."

Then we can ask, "Hey, what truths are revealed in this passage?" That our adversary is the devil. He's prowling around like a roaring lion. He's seeking to devour us. We have to resist him by standing firm in our faith.

I think that by going through these things that are outlined in Scripture—the world, the flesh and the devil—we can help our kids see that we are to hold up everything against God's word. Sometimes we might think of something as an enemy that's not an enemy, just like the Vikings did with the dragons. Yet Scripture makes clear that the world (the secular culture around us), the flesh (our own sinful desires), and the devil (the serpent of old, Satan) are all seeking to lead us into sin. We want to make sure our kids walk away knowing: "Okay, we hold up everything against God's word."

Summary

So again, just the three conversation starters to ask our kids after going to see How to Train Your Dragon:

1. Why do humans long to make their parents proud?
2. How did the gifting of different Vikings benefit the whole community?
3. How do we discern what our true enemies are?

I think these are three great biblically-based conversations that we can have with our kids after taking them to see How to Train Your Dragon—to take the fun of the movie, to connect it to real life, and to equip our kids to think critically and biblically.

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That's a wrap for this episode, but as we leave our time together, my prayer for you is the same as always: that no matter the situation in which you and the children God has placed in your care find yourselves, that you would trust that God is working all things together for your good by using all things to conform you more into the image of His Son. I'll see you next time.