I Am So Disappointed In How To Train Your Dragon 2
There are multiple reasons why.
- Djimon Hounsou, the only nonwhite cast member, plays one of the most egregious disgraces of a character I have seen in a long time. A despicable mishmash of devastatingly prejudice-filled Arab stereotypes, Jewish stereotypes, Muslim stereotypes, and more. How is this character not widely seen as blatantly racist? Probably because many people did not notice point #2:
- Every good human character is white. Even the bad human (Eret) who becomes good, is white, though he has some weird Native American/Aladdin-type-Arab vibe going that makes him just foreign enough to be a believable villain and just tame enough to make him redeemable as well. Back to the point: I understand that this is Norse mythology. Every hero in Norse mythology is understandably white. If everyone in the film was also white, and not only white but Norse, I would have almost no problem. But the Chief is obviously Scottish. The people of Berk are not Norse people, but another mishmash, this time of all the most European characteristics: white skin, blond hair, rake thin figures and undeniable heroism and goodness. I.e. the good guys are all, all, white.
- Though Drago, Hounsou’s character, may not be Black, per se, let’s talk about that Good White Alpha versus the EVIL BLACK ALPHA! “Oh No! The Arab with the dreadlocks and Middle-Eastern style beads in his beard has brought a big black menace with him to threaten our good, peaceful white protector! Save us from these foreigners, other white people!” This was blatant and absolutely shameful.
- The first movie has none of this horsesh*t. The first How To Train Your Dragon is a beautiful film for many reasons, and it never promotes discrimination based on differences. In fact, the entire message of uniting with dragons and coexisting with them, present in the first film, is completely contradicted by the glaring us vs. them situation set up by the readily apparent contrasts in skin color, build, complexion, accent, and sanity between the “good guys” and the “bad guy.”
- The writing was sloppy, sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. Half the plot points had absolutely no sense to them whatsoever. I’m astounded this 104-minute travesty followed one of the best animated films of the past decade. Given the recent trend in well thought-out, clever content in animated films, it is a real disappointment that there is simply no nuance or cleverness to any moment of this movie. How convenient that the villain has a troubled past and wants to kill every dragon. How convenient a sad moment it is when [spoilers] the Chief just up and dies in the middle of a scene to save Hiccup from a hypnotized Toothless, and then for some reason Toothless just stops trying to kill them even though that is his one objective. And for that matter how convenient that, y’know, all the alphas can control all the dragons, and, y’know, the dragons can also resist if they love humans enough, and, uh, if enough dragons breathe fire on an alpha it dies, and, uh, oh do we still have outstanding plot points? Uh, what the hell forget about ‘em. They won’t notice we’ll just show them another adorable baby dragon. Just make all the bad guys die and then roll credits and I’ll see you in Tahiti.
If this was the first movie ever made, it would be an impressive feat. But this is not only a hundred years into the business, but also is a sequel to a film that has none of these inherently problematic missteps. If this was indeed the first film ever made, I would understand how the filmmakers may not understand the implications of making the villain of a dark complexion, with dreadlocks and beads and a black cloak, and making the “bad” huge beast black while the “good” huge beast is white, and making every heroic or sympathetic character white. But this is 2014. These are experienced folks. They know they are playing off of centuries-old prejudice and race-based fear, and they know that the medium of film has the power to shove these racist messages down audience’s throats without them noticing. What a disgrace of a film.
I have to add, the dragons themselves are an absolute delight, no doubt about it. In fact, everything in the film except those five glaring flaws is good! The animation is superb, the voice acting is great; Toothless is wonderful as always. But once they introduce the one-dimensional dark skinned villain, and the evil black beast, and the inherent goodness of every white character versus the unstoppable badness of every dark one, it is all ruined. Absolutely ruined.
Well, ruined for everyone who picks up on it, that is. If you didn’t, I urge you to try to see what I mean. Then say something. Let someone know you won’t have the wool pulled over your eyes, and you won’t take these subtle, racist insinuations. This film is unacceptable because the binary oppositions here are devastatingly problematic, especially given the fact that this is a kids’ film. Children are being shown the goodness of white and the badness of black, still, in 2014. So go back, watch for it, and look for this trend in the world around you; I guarantee you’ll see it all around if you look close enough. See something, say something, and let’s hold movies to a higher standard than just black versus white.
