“How to Train Your Dragon” is the best film of the young year. It’s exhilarating, clever, sweet and meaningful; but the only way to truly do this film justice is to take $10 and 100 minutes and go sit in a theater (3-D glasses optional, but recommended) to experience it yourself.

"How to Train Your Dragon"

At Quality 16 and Showcase
Paramount

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Unlike the barbs thrown at the grandiosity of another 3-D blockbuster, “Avatar,” those watching “Dragon” won't feel like they’re being beaten over the head with morals soaking in political innuendo. Nor will they feel as though the film is hiding a poor story behind expensive special effects. The three-dimensional aspects of this animated feature add to the epic battle scenes in which Vikings ride around on dragons, sometimes laying waste to entire villages. Yet they manage to never feel forced or unnecessary, just cool.

“Dragon” is, by definition, a “kid movie,” and what’s refreshing is that it really is for kids. The messages are slow to develop, but, poignantly, they become clear: “Don’t kill. Use your intellect instead.” Notice the word choice. The message is not corny, childish, or easily put into practice. It isn’t “Learn, don’t burn,” for instance. “Dragon” appeals to the kid in you, but engages you like a grownup.

Another refreshing aspect of this film is that it's not just about a token “average kid,” nor is it about a kid with some ridiculous secret, or latent set of magical powers or troubled home life he must overcome. The main character is a boy named Hiccup (Jay Baruchel, "She's Out of My League"), and his Dragon is called Toothless. This is a movie about normal, socially awkward children.

If “The Lion King” taught kids to go for glory and “Kung Fu Panda” helped them understand their responsibilities, then “How to Train Your Dragon” is for the other kids — the kids to whom the idea of becoming king and overcoming some comically overdone set of obstacles seems nice, but unrealistic in terms of their own lives.

If you take anything away from watching this film, as someone old enough to be counted as a “guardian” for little ones in the theater, let it be this: You’ll never be as popular as the popular kids. But the real point is you don’t have to be. You’re smarter than them.

Hiccup and Toothless are more Jane Eyre than Luke Skywalker. They’re not handed the heads of their enemies on sticks at the end of the movie, and they’re not past all of the things that gave them trouble at the outset of the film. They don’t “defeat” the popular kids by eventually becoming even-more-popular kids. Instead they become more aware of themselves and their ability to accomplish good in the world. Why beat them when you can have them join you?

The movie’s main characters tactfully manage to practice love, faith and true unconditional friendship, which prove, against an impressively crafted set of bad guys, to be what matters more than anything.