Differences From The Book
The plot of the film is almost completely different to the first book in the series. The greatest change is that the Vikings in the book have the custom of capturing and training dragons even before the story begins – but in the film, they are fighting a fierce war against the dragons and only switch to training them after Hiccup shows that this can be done. Furthermore, Toothless is completely reimagined as an injured Night Fury dragon, a rare larger and highly intelligent breed that is capable of carrying human riders on its back as a flying mount. However, Cowell stated in her blog that she felt approvingly that the film remained "true to the spirit and message of the book." Cowell also explained that she felt that the changing of media (novel to film) triggered a necessary change in plot and characters. The Green Death is renamed the Red Death in the film. Also, Hiccup can't speak Dragonese which he can in the book. And at the end of the movie, Hiccup loses his foot.
The most notable character who appears in the film but not in the book is Astrid, a fierce Viking girl and Hiccup's love interest. However, Astrid may represent the female character Camicazi, who is present in the series of novels. Just like Camicazi, Astrid is a highly-skilled warrior and fighter who is a close friend of Hiccup's. Also, in Gift of the Night Fury, it is revealed that Astrid's Deadly Nadder dragon is named Stormfly, which just so happens to be the name of Camicazi's dragon in the book.
Read more about this topic: How To Train Your Dragon, Films
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