Case (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
case) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomsecrets2013-02-21 06:09 pm
case) wrote in fandomsecrets2013-02-21 06:09 pm
[ SECRET POST #2242 ]
⌈ Secret Post #2242 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
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Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 022 secrets from Secret Submission Post #320.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
no subject
I didn't feel so. Toothless was an animal, he didn't have feelings or thoughts like humans. It felt like any 'befriending the injured animal' plot line.
I don't understand how you reconcile that with the ending, where the loss of Hiccup's leg and the loss of Toothless's tail fin are pretty much explicitly visually linked together?
no subject
We see Toothless deal with his disability in an animal way. This can't really parallel with a disabled person dealing with their disability with human emotions.
I just don't feel like it explored anything human or real about disability. It was a story about friendship between a boy and his x, x=dragon framed under the idea that he needs to help this dragon learn to fly again.
no subject
Except when he becomes disabled.
no subject
That is not even remotely close to a 'dealing' with something. That's just learning it happened.
no subject
First off, Toothless isn't just injured in that he can't be nursed back to health and has to permanently rely on Hiccup to fly. However, at first, Toothless is angry and actively rebellious against Hiccup's help. Even after that he blames Hiccup when their flying doesn't go smoothly, because he has to rely on Hiccup's guidance and support. Those are things I think kids with disabilities can definitely relate to -- I know that I related as someone who has disability as an issue in their life. Again, it's not like... a Black Stallion situation, because in that case, they learned to trust each other and became a team voluntarily. In this case, it's not at all voluntary on Toothless's part, but he learns to cope and then thrive with it.
Then you have the ending, which is brief but does have important textual and subtextual content in it. Hiccup wakes up, sees what happened, and has an obvious emotional reaction that I personally found instantly relatable. He then learns that his new leg is specifically tailored to Toothless's saddle, such that they're now almost literally built to fly with each other. Neither is broken, but each is better with the other there... not only that, but better and more powerful than anyone else on the island. That is, honestly, a really strong message to send to kids who might be struggling with their own bodies or mental health.
So, yes. I would say there's a strong subtext about disability in that movie that I think elevates it above the chaff.
no subject
It's not that I think Hiccup and Toothless' relationship is plain or boring or one-dimensional, I just don't think it's terribly nuanced. It strikes all the same chords to me as most rescuing wild animal and boy + animal stories go. I didn't think it stood out in that regard. I feel like Toothless' reactions are animal ones, which is fine, but I don't think that makes it an acceptable parallel for human disability.
no subject
But whatever, I made my case about the disability thing. As someone who does have a relationship with disability and as someone who works with disabled kids, it spoke to me in a way that other "horse and his boy" stories do not. I'm happy to have it on my regular rotation.
no subject
In that case, I don't think I disagree. It's a very good animated family film that will probably hold up very well in later years.
Hm...actually that gets me thinking about Pixar. As a group, Pixar produces so many excellent films that it didn't really occur to me I might not think of one of them as being a 'masterpiece'. I'm tempted to say Toy Story 2 is, though, especially if you see it as a story about death and accepting death.
no subject
no subject
I'm disabled and this is exactly how it pinged for me, too. It wasn't a perfect movie, but I'm very fond of it and I wish I saw more movies that managed to get across that disability is not some unique ~dependent state that sucks for able-bodied people and makes disabled people separate, but that as people we are all interdependent - I thought that the way the dragons and Vikings wound up living and working together underlined that beautifully.