How to Train Your Dragon 2 - Filming, Plus How to Train Your Dragon Live

How to Train Your Dragon 2: On its Way

This is the official poster for the coming film

DreamWorks currently has several projects running with the "How to Train Your Dragon" franchise: production of the sequel "How to Train Your Dragon 2"; the touring theater show "How to Train Your Dragon Live," complete with "How to Train Your Dragon" dragons; and the animated television show, "Dragon: Riders of Berk."

How To Train Your Dragon 2

This film, "How to Train Your Dragon 2," is currently filming. The cast and crew look similar to the first installment, with the entire voice cast returning: Jay Baruchel, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. The second book in the 7-book series is about pirates, but it is unlikely they will change the formula that much in the sequel. The film departed a great deal from the novel anyway. The film is being written and directed by Dean DeBlois, and the score again will be by John Powell. It is scheduled for release on June 20, 2014. Kit Harington of "Game of Thrones" is cast as the villain.


Dean DeBlois had this to say in an interview:

"At the end of the last film, all these Vikings who were previously somewhat landlocked are now on the backs of dragons, so the entire Northern Hemisphere opens up to them. And with that Hiccup’s curiosity increases, the map expands and inevitably they are going to come across new dragons, new cultures."

This is the poster for the TV series

Dragon: Riders of Berk

DreamWorks also is making an animated spin-off TV series that airs on the Cartoon Network, which announced that it had acquired the rights on October 12, 2010. The title is "Dragons: Riders of Berk." There are seven episodes in the first season, and it already has been approved for a second season. Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and T.J. Miller all return for the series.

"Monstrous Nightmare," a How to Train Your Dragon dragon from "How to Train Your Dragon Live"

How to Train Your Dragon Live

There also is a live show, called "How to Train Your Dragon Live," touring the country (and at the beginning of 2013 in Sacramento, California). It features animatronic dragons and human actors. The "How to Train Your Dragon" dragons are driven around the magnetized floor by hidden drivers. In fact, there are three or four puppeteers inside who manipulate the dragons' wings and legs and so forth. There are lasers, sound effects, and villagers who scale walls, climb ropes, and break-dance. It's not a word-for-word recreation of the film, but this is an adaptation of the film for the theater. The show is a collaboration between DreamWorks and an Australian outfit, Global Creatures, that has done "live" dinosaur shows before.

2012

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How to Train Your Dragon (2010) - Moments of Emotional Impact

How to Train Your Dragon: Raging Beasts that Just Want to be Loved

"How to Train Your Dragon" (2010) works on several levels.  It is funny, emotional, and full of action.  Dreamworks Animation hit a home run with this computer-animated film, equalling the best of Pixar of recent years.  it was nominated for two Academy Awards, for Best Achievement in Music Written for a Motion Picture, and for Best Animated Feature.

A small, awkward and clumsy young Viking living on the island of Berk, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III (Jay Baruchel), watches his town being attacked by flying dragons and wants to help out.  However, his father, Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler), who runs the town, is afraid that he will get hurt, and will not permit his son to risk his life in battle.

Hiccup wants to help anyway.  He is clever, so he invents a device that will capture one of the dragons.  He manages to get a mysterious Night Fury dragon, and is ready to kill it to prove himself to his father.  However, he can't bring himself to do it.  Instead, he starts talking to the creature, who he dubs "Toothless."  The dragons are not voiced by people - instead, their voices are created using sounds of various animals.

They become friends, and Hiccup learns a great deal about the dragons.  It turns out that the war between the Vikings and the dragons may not be necessary at all.  He is surprised to learn the real motivations of the dragons.  Convincing the townspeople, especially his father, to make love and not war will prove to be very difficult.

There is unavoidable violence in this film, but it should not be too much for even younger children to handle.  It is in Technicolor 3D, which adds to the flying sequences and is relatively unobtrusive.  The pacing by directors Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders keeps things moving along nicely,  and unlike so many animated films these days, the voice actors are not such huge celebrities as to call attention to themselves (Craig Ferguson plays the village blacksmith, and he has the only recognizable voice in the cast besides Butler).  This allows you to focus on the story and the characters, rather than whether, say, Jennifer Aniston or George Clooney are making some kind of inside joke about themselves.

The story is king in this film, along with the quality of the animation, and both are superior.  Cressida Cowell wrote the book on which the film is based and approved the changes made for the film.  There is commentary about the meaning of courage, friendship, love, prejudices, war and many other things, presented in such a way as to make you think.  Of course, everything is simplified to fairly simple messages with straightforward conclusions, but it works in the context of this film.

You will come for the terrific action sequences, and leave satisfied by the humor and the story.  Very entertaining for viewers of all ages, so if you get it for your child, you may wind up watching it yourself just for fun.  A sequel is set for release in 2014.

2012

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