How to Train Your Dragon: Homecoming — Family Discussion Guide
A guided conversation resource to help families explore the themes of How to Train Your Dragon: Homecoming through a biblical lens.
Key Takeaways
Fear and ignorance can turn others into enemies until truth and relationship correct the lie.
Family traditions can help children remember love, sacrifice, and the people who shaped them.
The film leans on sentimental remembrance as a source of comfort, which may need contrast with Christian hope in Jesus Christ rather than memory alone.
A fantasy bond with dragons carries the emotional weight of salvation and reunion, which may be worth discussing so children keep created things in their proper place.
Discussion Questions
Why were the children so ready to believe dragons were only monsters? How can fear make us unfair toward others?
What do lines like "Let's kill the dragons" show about what fear can do inside a person?
What is good about remembering people we miss, and how is that different from the hope Christians have in Jesus Christ?
How did the old pageant script teach fear, and how did the new story help tell the truth?
Guidance Notes
This is a warm, family-centered return to the Dragon world with mild peril, a few sharper lines about killing dragons, and some drinking-style holiday humor. The bigger value for Christian families is in talking about fear, memory, and how stories can either deepen prejudice or help tell the truth.
The film values friendship, family loyalty, peacemaking, and teaching children to move past fear and inherited prejudice. Those are meaningful echoes of truth. Its main tension is that comfort and emotional connection are rooted in a fantasy bond with dragons and in keeping loved ones present through tradition, while Christian hope finally rests not in memory or creatures but in God and in the resurrection hope found in Jesus Christ. Parents may want to discuss the difference between honoring memories and placing ultimate hope in Christ.
Mild dragon peril
Kill-the-dragon talk
Scripture References
Family Discussion Guide — How to Train Your Dragon: Homecoming (2019)
Use this guide after watching How to Train Your Dragon: Homecoming together to explore its themes through a biblical lens.
Key Takeaways
- Fear and ignorance can turn others into enemies until truth and relationship correct the lie.
- Family traditions can help children remember love, sacrifice, and the people who shaped them.
- The film leans on sentimental remembrance as a source of comfort, which may need contrast with Christian hope in Jesus Christ rather than memory alone.
- A fantasy bond with dragons carries the emotional weight of salvation and reunion, which may be worth discussing so children keep created things in their proper place.
Discussion Questions
- Why were the children so ready to believe dragons were only monsters? How can fear make us unfair toward others?
- What do lines like “Let’s kill the dragons” show about what fear can do inside a person?
- What is good about remembering people we miss, and how is that different from the hope Christians have in Jesus Christ?
- How did the old pageant script teach fear, and how did the new story help tell the truth?
Guidance Notes
- This is a warm, family-centered return to the Dragon world with mild peril, a few sharper lines about killing dragons, and some drinking-style holiday humor. The bigger value for Christian families is in talking about fear, memory, and how stories can either deepen prejudice or help tell the truth.
- The film values friendship, family loyalty, peacemaking, and teaching children to move past fear and inherited prejudice. Those are meaningful echoes of truth. Its main tension is that comfort and emotional connection are rooted in a fantasy bond with dragons and in keeping loved ones present through tradition, while Christian hope finally rests not in memory or creatures but in God and in the resurrection hope found in Jesus Christ. Parents may want to discuss the difference between honoring memories and placing ultimate hope in Christ.
- Mild dragon peril
- Kill-the-dragon talk
Scripture to Explore Together
- John 7:24
- James 2:1-4
- Luke 6:45
- Ephesians 4:29-31
- 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14
- John 11:25
- Deuteronomy 6:6-7
- Philippians 4:8