At the end of the movie, the dragons are referred to as pets, not something one calls a complete equal; one of the two directors also compared Hykup and Toothless's relationship to that of cowboy and horse. The dragons are anthropomorphisized incidentally, not purposefully. Toothless is almost certainly meant to be taken as a really smart animal, not a being of human level intelligence. Still worthy of respect, of course, but not a "person."
How To Train Your Dragon is not furry, even if we go by the all inclusive "the only rule is that it contains anthropomorphic animals" definition of furry. If that's how everyone else wants to define it, I'm going to make darn sure you all stick to at least that much. This would make it the second movie in a row to win the Ursa Major without actually being furry; Avatar featured vaguely animalistic aliens.
But How To Train Your Dragon, completely unlike Avatar was a darn good movie; the "we finally have something to talk about" scene managed to be very funny and very sad at the same time. It may have been my favorite scene from any movie of any genre last year. A comparable scene from Avatar would be lacking.
At the end of the movie, the dragons are referred to as pets, not something one calls a complete equal; one of the two directors also compared Hykup and Toothless's relationship to that of cowboy and horse. The dragons are anthropomorphisized incidentally, not purposefully. Toothless is almost certainly meant to be taken as a really smart animal, not a being of human level intelligence. Still worthy of respect, of course, but not a "person."
How To Train Your Dragon is not furry, even if we go by the all inclusive "the only rule is that it contains anthropomorphic animals" definition of furry. If that's how everyone else wants to define it, I'm going to make darn sure you all stick to at least that much. This would make it the second movie in a row to win the Ursa Major without actually being furry; Avatar featured vaguely animalistic aliens.
But How To Train Your Dragon, completely unlike Avatar was a darn good movie; the "we finally have something to talk about" scene managed to be very funny and very sad at the same time. It may have been my favorite scene from any movie of any genre last year. A comparable scene from Avatar would be lacking.