Hiccup

As previously noted, Hero stories often revolve around teamwork and sacrifice. Even when those aspects are obvious, other details can still find ways to be surprising.

In How to Train Your Dragon, it starts out as a young man who isn’t sure what his place is, not quite fitting in a world that has Always Been This Way. His different view of the world is tolerated at the start, even if nobody really agrees with him on it. That perspective then gains him a lucky break, and a chance to learn about dragons in a way nobody else has. And slowly - without even realizing it himself, at first - Hiccup begins changing the world around him, eventually transforming it completely.

All of which are more subtle attributes of a Hero’s tale, ones that aren’t always discernible.  It takes a little while for the teamwork aspects to lock in - Hiccup is the outsider for most of the film. And there is a moment at the end when it appears he will triumph without sacrifice. While he falls from a great height, there’s no real worry that the hero of an animated children's film will not survive the Final Conflict. One might even start thinking that it will turn into just another Disney Death, without meaningful consequence, there only to tug the heartstrings.

And, in fact, he does survive...but not unscathed. Moments later we find out that, like Toothless, he has lost a limb - enough to link them fully as survivors and fellow Heroes.