How To Train Your Dragon

Holy shit looks like Hiccup also graduated from the "How to Make Puberty Your Bitch" school

 

UGOEHUOHGUHWUHUHAHUIG YES FINALLY UGORWHIGHUWRHIUGHW

Gonna be graduating by then so, BEST GRADUATION GIFT EVER???!!!??

 

OH DAAAAAAMN.

 

I've not even seen the first one and I'm excited for this. This basically says that I should see the first one as soon as possible.

 

*fangirl squeal* Kit Harrington (Jon Snow) is going to be in this one!!!

...But no David Tennant. Darn.

 

WHY AM I FANGIRLING OVER THIS MORE THAN I FANGIRL OVER HARRY POTTER!!!!!!!!

 

You blokes would've been privy to crucify me had you known earlier, but when this topic was first created, I was still somehow a virgin to the whole How to Train Your Dragon scene. I'd known that it was something that Kuda was extremely invested in and something that I'd henceforth had wanted to see; for some reason or another, it just stagnated near the top of my film backlog for a million years. Then, the critical reception for the sequel came out and I was like oh shit, haha. Luckily, I was able to get my family invested in the idea of watching them, too, so we picked up the first one via Netflix not too soon after my revelation.

It was cute. I really loved the locale of Berk and the seemingly expansive lore of every dragon in question. The father-son dynamic was a tale as old as time resewn into something that could once again brighten up this ol' Jonno's heart, and let's not forget that Toothless is pretty flippin' awesome in just about every sense of the word.

Then the second movie happened. HOLY MOLY. I was not expecting it to be as amazing as it was. Minor inconsistencies in plot brought about by the fanbase post-release or not (it happens with every media ever released, and authors/directors aren't gods of perfection), I absolutely loved it for every last piece of what it was. It may actually be my favorite animated piece released from 2000 onward (sans Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, though I've been exposed to Miyazaki's work for too long and am henceforth biased in his direction anyhow), and actually manages to usurp Up and Toy Story as my number one animated film of all time. The volatility of the antagonist, the crazy plot twists both good and bad... It really just wasn't a good film within its own realm, it schooled other 3D animation filmmakers of the past couple of years on how to make a fantastic "kid's" film that pushes all sorts of boundaries. Big Hero 6 was a film that I truly enjoyed a ton, but I was miffed when it won over How to Train Your Dragon 2 at the Oscars. Sheesh. 

If anyone wants to get into an avid discussion about it at some point, that's something I'd be down for.

 

How to Train Your Dragon series has become my all-time favorite trilogy, and the third one isn't even out yet. That said, if the third one disappoints, I will no longer have a reason to live.

With careful comparison, Jonno has the right approach on both films. The first movie was clearly testing the waters and maintained it's kid-feel for the sake of "if this film blows over at least the kids will love it." With that context in mind, I am incapable of deciding which film I enjoyed more than the other. The depth in lore the first movie puts out; the detail in origins, setting, etc that never bores the audience is enthralling to delve into. It did an amazing job of setting the stage in this fantastic new world to allow for the endless possibilities that would follow it without cutting down on story/action to provide it. 

The second movie was a very intelligent approach on their part. They sacrifice depth in lore for the story/action which would only be a let down if the first movie hadn't set the stage so well already. Producing a five-year gap with little detail applied to it was gamble that certainly paid-off as the older Hiccup & crew were able to display some more character depth, albeit it was clearly Hiccup-focused which was a bit of a shame for it left the crew to just fall in line with the first movie as the "side characters" no one really thinks too much about [This being a staple reason for not liking Big Hero 6 as much as I could have, but that's a topic for another thread].

I also had some satisfaction with the idea that the plot was discovered in this movie as opposed to the first one. Note that the villain Drago [most uncreative name ever, mind you =P] was already under the impression that Burk wasn't even a threat anymore, if there at all, with his belief that he'd already killed its chief and all. It likely would've been years of successful conquering before he happened on Burk were it not for Hiccup and crew happening upon them and basically telling him to go destroy Burk. So have fun with that thought, I do. Exploring the "what if"s that come from this let me dig deeper into the world of HTTYD.

Overall I'm hoping that the next milestone covered in the final movie is just as impressive. The first movie carried us into the lore and the setting while the second movie put us into the conflicts such a world would develop in addition to introducing us to the world outside Burk. I'm not sure what dynamic the third will take [though 10/10 there'll be a female Nightfury. Just you wait~] but I certainly hope it does an excellent job in closing the trilogy.

I haven't seen much at all of the new Netflix series for HTTYD yet, but if it's anything like the first TV series I'm both excited and hesitant at the same time. But I'm all worded out right now so I won't go into why~

 

Then I would hate them forever while being proud of their guts at the same time.

 

I think that'd be a pretty ballsy move. Killing off who they did in the second film was ballsy enough, sure, but Toothless? I think that, if worked around right, it could be pretty significant and a major step forward for the franchise. In the end, I think that brand power also has to be considered and if they're moving merchandise over at DreamWorks, it's probably almost entirely in the form of Toothless merch. While his death wouldn't necessarily prevent such merch from being sold, I think that since this still is made to resonate with the "kids of all ages" branch of marketing first and foremost, that they wouldn't be so bold as to turn childhood fantasies of riding Toothless into memories of him dying. 

With that said, I wouldn't be against it if they did so in a tasteful way, which they're clearly incredibly competent towards developing given what happened in the last film. I'd be more inclined to agree with Kuda's first suggestions and say that it's more likely that we either see some carnage revolving around another Nightfury who dies, or maybe an abandoned nest with broken eggs as a teaser, but never any form of Toothless dying on screen. The third option would just be to keep toying with the idea but never let it come to fruition in any meaningful way, and at the end, just have it be explicitly implied that, hey, Nightfuries are basically extinct because they couldn't find any (though out of the three scenarios, I find the first to be most likely given what we've been told by the filmrunners thus far).