So, to ring in the new year my husband and I went out to dinner with friends then watched a movie at their place. And were in bed by eleven, but that's not the point.

Typically the friends in question have tastes that differ dramatically from our own so joint movie nights tend to be interesting. However, the pick this time around was a hit for everyone, and if you knew the people involved you'd realize that was a minor miracle all on its own.

The movie? HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON. Now, first, this is animated. I love animated movies. The last four movies I've seen in theaters have all been animated. However, somehow I missed this one when it was showing.

So glad I got that solved. It's a delightful little tale with a lot of charm and wit. It revolves around a rather deadpan but sarcastic boy in a Viking village plagued by dragons. He's scrawny and a bit of a screw-up and of course his dad is the chieftain and a legendary warrior. It's all a very familiar set-up.

But this movie takes in in places that you would not expect. And please be warned, here there be SPOILERS.

First, while the protagonist, Hiccup, is initially trying to be like the rest of his people without success that doesn't last much past the introduction of Toothless, a wounded dragon with amazingly cat-like tendencies. Toothless is a Night Fury, the boogieman of dragon-kind. All Hiccup has to do is kill him and he'd be a hero.

Obviously, he doesn't. Instead, he bonds with Toothless through a remarkably realistic process rather than an instantaneous understanding. Through doing so he learns tricks and tips that allow him to ace his dragon-killing class (though until the final there is no actual killing) and earns him the respect he desired.

But, he also learns that three hundred years of war with the dragons is all based on a massive misunderstanding of the creatures. Because while they do attack the Vikings and steal their food, it is not out of malice, but pure lack of choice. If they don't the epic dragon they serve will kill them. So, they, much like the Vikings, are just trying to survive.

This is one of the places where this story is a little unusual. Certainly it is not out of the ordinary for YA fiction to show adults as fallible; that's part of the appeal. However, it generally plays it a bit closer to the line of equality. Both the child and adults are right and both are wrong and it's as much perspective as anything else.

Not so in this story. Hiccup, as a thoughtful and empathetic boy, finds a truth completely hidden from the more action-oriented adults. And they fail to listen until too late.

The thing here is, while it is the kids saving the adults, which is not unheard of, the dichotomy is even more interesting. Because Hiccup succeeds where his father fails through strategy and tactics, which the movie is careful to highlight in a subtle way. It's not just a passing of the guard from the old ways to the new, but a celebration of both co-existence and intellectualism over blind divisiveness and force of arm. Not to mention it extols the virtues of working hard to establish a relationship, to earn rewards.

I may be over-thinking this, but that seems to me an amazingly timely message in our current American culture.

All of this would have been enough to win me over, in fact, the incredibly cute Toothless would have done that alone. But the fact that the movie also maims it's protagonist at the end, a show that actions have consequences and that all victories have a price--but ones that with help are overcome--well, I intend to pass this movie on to everyone I know and I hope some of it sticks.