This is going to be a rare post that doesn’t involve FFXIV, World of Warcraft, or Guild Wars 2, but it’s a story I wanted to share regardless. After all, I have lots of other interests aside from gaming so there’s nothing wrong with sharing them periodically.
This past Sunday my daughters and I went to our first movie since 2019 before the plague hit. We went to see the live action version of How to Train Your Dragon at the earliest showing of 10:30 AM. The animated version of the movie came out in 2010 and we didn’t watch it until it was on DVD but once we saw it we were hooked on everything How to Train Your Dragon. We saw the 2nd and 3rd movies in theaters and we watched every spinoff show that was released. We all could quote certain lines from the first movie and some lines from the various shows and we have action figures and plushies of the dragons.
Well, I’m happy to say that the live action How to Train Your Dragon was wonderful! It was quite faithful to the original animated movie with just a few changes here and there that made total sense to all three of us. It’s hard to believe that it’s been 15 years since the animated movie was released. I don’t think we watched the movie on DVD until 2011 or 2012 which means my girls would’ve been around six and 10 years old. This year they’re turning 19 and 23 and it’s still mind-boggling to me that so much time has passed and I’m the mother of two amazing young women.
When we saw the live action movie in the theater, there was a mother with two young daughters sitting in front of us and I’d guess the girls were about the same age my daughters had been when we watched the animated movie. The little girls obviously loved the movie and the youngest one had a small stuffed Toothless I could see her playing with periodically. It was heartwarming to think that the live action How to Train Your Dragon is introducing a whole new generation to the wonders of the dragons that my daughters and I have loved for years.
After the movie my daughters and I stopped for lunch and then headed to my house. My oldest daughter now lives in an apartment in the city but she was nice enough to come to my house and hang out for the remainder of the afternoon and evening. Once home, we relaxed in the lovely central air that my tiny house has because it was over 90 degrees outside and very humid. We played our various online games for a bit and then I made dinner.
As previously stated, my house is rather small and my kitchen isn’t really big enough for a table to eat at. So instead, we eat at the living room table and watch something on TV. This may not be the norm but it works for us. When my oldest daughter is visiting home we let her pick what we watch during dinner and Sunday night she chose the Netflix movie entitled KPop Demon Hunters. I’d seen a few posts about the movie on social media but didn’t know anything about it really. My oldest daughter had watched it Saturday night and insisted that we needed to watch it. So we did.
Well, I’m quite glad she made us watch it because I thoroughly enjoyed the movie! My oldest daughter introduced me to Kpop music and Korean dramas a few years ago and while I don’t think having such knowledge is necessary to enjoy the movie, it made it very relatable and amusing. If you’ve seen the Korean drama entitled Business Proposal, which my oldest and I have, you’ll find one part rather amusing, as my daughter and I were laughing hysterically. My youngest daughter isn’t as familiar with Kpop and Korean dramas but she still liked the movie and was laughing at parts.
I’m not going into too much detail about the movie because I don’t want to spoil it for those who haven’t seen it. I must admit, I’m very impressed that Netflix made or helped make such a well-written, amusing, and interesting movie. They captured so many niche elements of Kpop and Korean dramas and the animation and characters were amazing. Our favorite parts involved a large blue tiger and a small bird with a hat and I need plushies of those characters like yesterday!
The songs in the movie were great and I’m so happy the album is on Spotify so I can listen to it in the car and when playing my games. The choreography of the dances and the outfits the band members wore were on brand for Kpop musicians, although they lacked the facial jewelry that seems to be popular in a lot of Kpop videos I’ve seen lately. That didn’t detract from the movie at all though, just a minor detail I noticed. My oldest daughter has even been to see two different Kpop groups so she has personal experience with Kpop fans and being in the audience and she said the movie was true to that atmosphere.
I’m very glad we watched the movie and I’ll probably watch it again in the near future. It did give me some thoughts about creating new in-game characters, so there, this blog post does sort of tie into gaming. But overall, it’s more about what a wonderful day I had with my daughters Sunday as we watched the remake of a favorite movie and experienced something fresh that we all enjoyed. We also had lots of great conversations throughout the afternoon and evening. I’m so blessed that we’re all still very close and a trio bound by a love stronger than I could’ve ever imagined.
Srinity 