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The first How to Train Your Dragon was the film that convinced folk who hadn't seen Kung Fu Panda that Dreamworks could be good, and was part of a major turnaround point for the average quality of the studio's output. No movie has ever been as bad as Bee Movie in 2007, but few reach the heights of Kung Fu Panda (2009) or How to Train Your Dragon (2010). Ripping on Dreamworks has been a stale joke for coming up on half a decade, especially with the further quality of Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011), The Croods (2013), and apparently How To Train Your Dragon 2 (2014). (And, personally, Madagascar 3 in 2012, where I cannot stand its predecessors.) Additionally, How to Train Your Dragon (HTTYD) was notable due to its lukewarm release and then growing returns. Word-of-mouth came through. This time is a little different, because now that there have been cute Christmas specials, a TV show, and online game, and a live show by the creators of Walking With Dinosaurs, HTTYD is hardly obscure. Dragons dragons dragons Nico Marlet dragons.  Nico Marlet dragons dragons. Anyway. The second film, part of what is intended to be at least a trilogy, is coming out in the US on the 13th of this month. Reviews are good and hopes are high. Also, everyone is considerably over--a change of status quo that took folk by surprise. John Powell is also back as the soundtrack composer dude, which was to my satisfaction as he did a great job last time.  Spoiler tags are not required for discussing the first film. Go see it if you haven't! Discussion of the TRAILER for HTTYD2 does require spoiler tags, however, as the creators of the film asked fans to avoid it if possible. I see a bunch of films so of course I've seen the trailer for this over and over, but I agree it's pretty spoilery. Alas, that's marketing for you!
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Jun 9, 2014 19:49
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 01:37 |
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I enjoyed this a lot (just got back) but I felt it peaked early. Also I'm still confused why some leader-dragons and good and others aren't. When the bad alpha was looking up at Hiccup trying to mentally revive Toothless, I thought we'd be getting something more interesting where it stopped following Drago for some reason. We never really know why it does.
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Jun 13, 2014 04:09
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Triskelli posted:I read the artbook, and it says that Drago managed to tame the Bewilderbeast through lots and lots of abuse, "like a circus animal forced to do tricks". Part of the reason it's got chains and scars Okay, I sort of assumed so, in which case the theme seems to have been pretty loving undermined.
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Jun 13, 2014 04:22
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Magnus Condomus posted:So apparently they might develop more on the reason Gobber never got married in the next one. That puts this as the second major animated film after paranorman to include a confirmed gay character. There's a lot of conjecture about a single ad-libbed line. quote:“The reason it came about is because we were in the voice session. I was watching Gerry’s character fight with Cate Blanchett’s character, and the line I had in the script was - I say to Hiccup, “See, this is why I never married.” Then I ad-libbed the line, “And one more reason,” and I said after that, “That’s right, Gobber’s coming out,” and Dean (DeBlois, the director) said, “Oh, that’s it, maybe he should,” and so it was Dean’s decision, not mine. I just threw the ad-lib in. But Gerry, when he saw the film, thought that it wasn’t that I was gay, that the reason I hadn’t got married is because I had lost my junk - it got cut off in a dragon fight. Which tells you more about his mind than it does about anything else going on.”
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Jun 13, 2014 21:25
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Magnus Condomus posted:Do you like putting disks in a thing? Then get the blu-ray. The special features aren't all that special, but some of the blu-ray special editions include a couple of the animated shorts. I think some of them come with the Christmas episode, which is cute and nice  .
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Jun 13, 2014 21:37
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Upon reflection, I think my favorite part by a huge margin was Hiccup's parents' song. It was lovely but also so sad. Really pitch-perfect.
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Jun 14, 2014 04:03
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Triskelli posted:now that I've actually seen the movie, I kinda see where the complaints are coming from. The closest Drago came to torturing the dragons was... Yelling and waving his harpoon around. Oh and smacking the chains the Bewilderbeast was pulling the boat with. Also, Hiccup keeps going on about "keeping the peace", it got really weird by the end Well I thought the point was going to be that the dragons that Drago had captured were also "[Hiccup's] people" and needed saving, including the Bewilderbeast. It kept felt like it was coming up to that point but it never did?
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Jun 14, 2014 05:18
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Yeah, that's my strong assumption.
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Jun 14, 2014 06:08
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computer parts posted:A panda whose "father" is a goose is fairly obvious. You're right, someone should make a joke about that...
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Jun 14, 2014 17:28
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I also thought the introductory scene with Astrid was leading up to her becoming chieftan instead, because they're going on about how she's more suited to that lifestyle and those responsibilities, where it would mean Hiccup giving up what he really loves.
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Jun 16, 2014 16:53
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fralbjabar posted:
One of my biggest gripes about children's films generally is they never let this happen. They throw in a fart or something as soon as anyone (usually parents honestly) would have to start thinking about what's going on. This is why I like films like Coraline and Brave Little Toaster, who will commit to one tone for entire minutes at a time.
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Jun 26, 2014 14:18
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 01:37 |
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Despite my absolute disdain towards Bee Movie, I've always had a soft spot for Dreamworks and I'm forever bummed that they're treated so poorly on the whole. Sinbad, for example, was far better than its Disney contemporaries, but they just can't shake the "B-team" reputation. He's also dead wrong about the sequels being far from surefire hits, because unfortunately, those are still the money-makers on the whole. Puss in Boots was watchable but it made far more money than most folk appreciate. Pick fucked around with this message at 06:23 on Sep 5, 2014 |
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Sep 5, 2014 06:21
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