The Hero’s Journey of The Leading Character in The Film My Father’s Dragon

Abstract

My Father's Dragon (2022) is an animated film in the adventure-fantasy genre. This research discusses the journey and character development of the leading character in My Father's Dragon. The purpose of this study is to discover the stages of the hero's journey and character development of Elmer Elevator, as the leading character, using Joseph Campbell's hero's journey theory and the concept of character development from Roberts and Zweig. The writer conducted the research using descriptive qualitative method to collect data obtained from quotations of dialog or narrative statements and visual containing the stages of the leading character hero's journey in the scenes of My Father's Dragon. Based on data analysis, there are 12 out of 17 stages of the hero's journey that Elmer goes through in the film My Father's Dragon, which are the call to adventure, refusal of the call, supernatural aid, the crossing of the first threshold, the belly of the whale, the road of trial, woman as temptress, atonement with the father, apotheosis, the ultimate boon, the crossing of the return threshold and freedom to live. Although there are some stages that Elmer did not go through, he is still considered a hero because he achieved his goal and his character also develops during his journey.