How to Train Your Dragon (2010)

Yes. 86% of real audiences liked it based on 14,178 votes. Critics agree, scoring it 87%.

As the son of a Viking leader on the cusp of manhood, shy Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III faces a rite of passage: he must kill a dragon to prove his warrior mettle. But after downing a feared dragon, he realizes that he no longer wants to destroy it, and instead befriends the beast – which he names Toothless – much to the chagrin of his warrior father. Wikipedia ↗

How to Train Your Dragon is a 2010 American animated fantasy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and directed by Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders. Set on the mythical Viking island of Berk, where dragon-fighting is a way of life, the film follows Hiccup, a scrawny, inventive teenager voiced by Jay Baruchel, who is the disappointing son of Stoick the Vast, the village chieftain voiced by Gerard Butler. When Hiccup shoots down a legendary Night Fury dragon and discovers it wounded in the forest, he cannot bring himself to kill it and instead befriends the creature, naming it Toothless.

Their secret bond leads Hiccup to understand that everything the Vikings believe about dragons is wrong. How to Train Your Dragon elevated DreamWorks Animation's storytelling to its highest level, drawing favorable comparisons to Pixar for its emotional depth and thematic sophistication. The relationship between Hiccup and Toothless was animated with extraordinary subtlety, with Toothless's behavior modeled on cats, dogs, and horses to create a creature that felt genuinely alive and emotionally expressive despite never speaking.

The film's flight sequences — particularly the first test flight where Hiccup rides Toothless through clouds and over the ocean — were thrilling and visually spectacular, representing some of the finest aerial choreography in animation. John Powell's magnificent orchestral score, featuring soaring Celtic-inspired themes, was considered one of the best animated film scores in years. The film earned $494 million worldwide and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature, losing to Toy Story 3.

It launched a trilogy that maintained consistently high quality and spawned a television series.