How to Train Your Dragon: Homecoming Christian Movie Review (2019)

Guidance: Talk Together

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.

Why This Guidance Level

This lands in a middle category because the surface content is mild, but the film gives families several worthwhile things to talk through: fear of the unfamiliar, exaggerated violent rhetoric toward enemies, grief and remembrance, and the way stories can either pass down truth or pass down prejudice. It is gentle overall, yet it benefits from active conversation.

Faith & Worldview Perspective

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.

Truths Reflected

• 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.

Tensions to Discuss

• 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.

Content & Discernment Markers

Occult & Spiritual Content

• Occult material does not stand out here. The dragons belong to the fantasy adventure setting rather than to spell-casting, spirit contact, or spiritual instruction.

Sexuality & Relationships

• Marriage and family affection are presented warmly through Hiccup and Astrid, with no sexualized material of note.

Identity Themes

• Zephyr builds part of her identity around fear and suspicion, calling dragons “monsters” and assuming sharp teeth, fire, claws, and danger mean they should be rejected. The story pushes back by showing how children can inherit distorted views from old stories. Parents may want to discuss how labels can hide the truth about people made in God’s image.

Violence & Intensity

• Children enthusiastically plan to trap a dragon and say, “We’re going to catch a dragon” and “Knock him cold so he can’t eat us!” The scene is played in a family-adventure tone, but it may invite conversation about fear turning into aggression.
• One child blurts, “Let’s kill the dragons!” and later, “We’re going to kill a dragon!” The lines come from misunderstanding and are corrected by the story, but Christian families may still want to note how quickly fear becomes violent speech.
• An old pageant script uses theatrical warrior language: “Die, you evil beasts with twisted souls! Vikings will forever swim in rivers of your blood!” It is presented as outdated and excessive, which helps undercut it, but the wording is still the sharpest violent content in the short.
• There are mild comic injuries and peril, including fishing mishaps, cries of “Ow!” and a rehearsal moment with “A dragon is coming” and “Help me.” The tone stays light rather than frightening.

Language & Humour

• Language is mild. The notable phrases are fantasy-style insults and exclamations such as “hellions,” “monsters,” and “Curse ye, hellions!” There is also some mocking humor during rehearsal and playful put-downs.

Other Content Notes

• A holiday montage includes “Yak-nog shooters,” followed by “‘Nother round!” and “Make mine a double!” The joke mimics real-world shot and bar language. Even in a fictional setting, Christian parents may want to discuss how entertainment can normalize drinking culture as festive fun.
• Grief and remembrance are central. Characters speak openly about missing Toothless and Stoick, and one line says traditions keep loved ones “in our hearts, even though they’re far away.” This can open a good family conversation about mourning with hope in Jesus Christ.

Notable Moments

• Holiday drinking joke: A festive opening montage includes fictional drink humor that echoes tavern culture.

  “‘Nother round! - Make mine a double!”

• Children plan dragon traps: Zephyr’s fear of dragons leads to traps and aggressive talk about stopping one before it can attack.

  “We’re going to catch a dragon, Dad! Knock him cold so he can’t eat us!”

• Violent pageant rhetoric: An old script uses harsh anti-dragon language that the adults quickly recognize as unhelpful.

  “Die, you evil beasts with twisted souls! Vikings will forever swim in rivers of your blood!”

• Memory and grief: The story pauses to connect holiday traditions with remembering absent loved ones.

  “It keeps our loved ones in our hearts, even though they’re far away.”

Discussion Prompts

• Fear and prejudice: Why were the children so ready to believe dragons were only monsters? How can fear make us unfair toward others?
  • Biblical guidance: Scripture warns against judging by appearances and calls us to seek truth and show mercy.
  • Scripture: John 7:24, James 2:1-4
• Violent words and the heart: What do lines like “Let’s kill the dragons” show about what fear can do inside a person?
  • Biblical guidance: Jesus teaches that our words flow from the heart, so angry speech is worth taking seriously before it becomes action.
  • Scripture: Luke 6:45, Ephesians 4:29-31
• Remembering loved ones: What is good about remembering people we miss, and how is that different from the hope Christians have in Jesus Christ?
  • Biblical guidance: Christians grieve honestly, but not without hope, because our deepest comfort is in the Lord and the resurrection.
  • Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, John 11:25
• Stories that shape belief: How did the old pageant script teach fear, and how did the new story help tell the truth?
  • Biblical guidance: God cares about truth passed from one generation to the next, so families should tell stories that are honest and life-giving.
  • Scripture: Deuteronomy 6:6-7, Philippians 4:8