How to Train Your Dragon

The Common Room Other Animation
#321

I checked to see if it was available for pre-order on iTunes just a couple minutes ago, and was very disappointed.

It came out in March. TS3 came out in June.

And yet they only have TS3 available for pre-order right now. >8I graaaah.

Even if I get the DVD and possibly the Blu-ray as well, I’d like to have my hands on an HD version that can be played on my big beautiful Mac screen. I’m pretty sure iTunes is releasing movies in HD now, but they’re a bit more expensive.

And yes, TDIT, I was talking about “Jeff and his marketing cronies more than Chris and the filmmakers”. :stuck_out_tongue:

little chef

#322

love70ways: I do agree with you that Dreamworks was aiming for the moon (with the little guy sitting in it fishing for god-knows-what), and yeah, it does seem a bit self-indulgent. I disagree that HTTYD is the only great film they’ve done; the first Shrek, Over the Hedge and Kung Fu Panda were also Pixar-worthy entries. :wink:

Czarine: I’m betting the second is KFP?

nintendofreakgcn: Fairy 'nuff. Regardless of whether you watch Despicable Me in theatres or on DVD, it’s definitely worth your time. It’s pretty fun, but I was surprised by the emotional content, especially towards the end.
As for adaptation, while LOTG may be closer in terms of story content, they’ve done some unnecessary deviations (like giving Mrs P [spoil]eyes instead of hollow sockets like in the books[/spoil], or changing the circumstances of how Soren [spoil]fell out of his tree[/spoil]) that compromised its faithfulness to the original material in my mind. While HTTYD rewrote the entire script for the better while keeping some of the character’s names and atttitudes.

little_chef: Maybe they’re holding out for a ‘Special Edition’ with 8 minutes of extra content (like Snotloud chopping the hands of every dragon… [spoil]with his face[/spoil]!).

#323

I wonder if the fact that Steve Jobs is the head guy of Apple, is the reason why none of Dreamworks films are available on iTunes. But then I remember seeing Monsters vs Aliens in the top 10 movies sales when it came out on DVD. But I don’t even see that movie anymore. I wanted to buy Kung Fu Panda to have in my iPod, but I couldn’t find it. I would like to have HTTYD in my iPod on the 15 of October.

#324

Oh yes, I agree that they have made other good films, particuarly Shrek. I was only attempting to be funny 8D I am not a huge fan of Over the Hedge though.

#325

Alright, time to address it. My comments in bold.

My predictions for its nominations are:

DEFINITE:

  • Best Animated Feature

POSSIBLE / LIKELY:

  • Best Original Score
  • Best Adapted Screenplay
  • Best Sound Mixing/Editing
  • Best Picture

NO CHANCE:

Everything else.

So at best HTTYD comes out with six nods. Pretty good for an animated film.[/b]

#326

Love, I hate OTH. Hammy really annoy me, and the jokes were lame.

DW’s good movies(to me)

Excellent
-Kung Fu Panda
-How to Train Your Dragon
-Prince of Egypt

Meh
Sinbad
Shrek
Shrek 2

Rubbish
Shrek 3

#327

Interesting points, Great Mouse Detective!

I’m afraid John Powell took Randy Newman to the cleaners on this one. But Mr Hirschfelder may stand a chance… I visited the HTTYD official website a few minutes ago and the score sounds pretty impressive… will have to see it in the context of the visuals to properly judge its suitability, but it’s pretty evocative. I have not watched Inception, so I can’t provide a proper comparison.

#328

Think you mean LotG website there. Also, doesn’t matter who had the better score when it comes to Newman vs. Powell; the Academy LOVES Randy Newman. His nomination spot there is a guarantee, if not an almost sure win.

#329

Aha, yup, I meant LOTG. And yeah, it’s a sad truth that most Academy members are sentimental, close-minded people.

#330

The Academy also loves Mery Streep, but after all those nominations, how many Oscars has she won?

Two.

And until we know the academy membrs on a personal basis, I think it is somewhat unfair to call them close-minded.

Also look at 2007 (I believe that was the year). Alan Menken who is the winningest Oscar reciever alive scored three nominations for Enchanted, leaving only one spot left for Once’s “Falling Slowly”. And which song won for Best Original Song?

It wasn’t “Happy Working Song”, that’s for sure.

#331

HTTYD at the Oscars

Certain Nominations:
Best Animated Feature
Best Sound Editing

Possible Nominations:
Best Score
Best Sound Mixing

long Shot Nomination:
Best Picture (though possible in a year of disapointing movies)

#332

It’s called multiple nominations canceling each other out. If a movie has three songs nominated for one category, the chances that ONE of them will get majority vote are extremely minuscule. Also I’d go into further detail but I have to go now so I’ll edit this post when I get back.

#333

Fairy 'nuff, love70ways. But I still maintain that there are in-built ‘biases’ in the Academy, such as the long-standing prejudice against animated films, and the schadenfreude-ish passion for movies about war, dysfunctional people, extraordinary hardship, bitter romances, and other heavy themes. Unless the film has a political statement or social commentary, chances are the Academy won’t be interested in it.

In fact, I think it was probably because “Falling Slowly” had lyrical poignancy that they went with it over Enchanted’s more light-hearted themes… and I do agree that F.S. was pretty remarkable, and deserved the award in that respect.

But the fact is, most of the decisions are made by old people with ‘matured’ methods of thinking, just like how the MTV Awards are decided by teenybopper-brained kids. Not that there’s anything wrong with either approach, but it would be nice if there was some ‘young blood’ on the board to breathe some ‘unpredictability’ into the votes.

And yes, your logic about the ‘Too Many Nominees’ hypothesis makes sense come to think of it, Basil!

Sorry for the digression. Anyway, I’ll be cheering HTTYD for Best Pic. I don’t care. 90% of the movies I’ve seen this year have been utterly mediocre or underwhelming. HTTYD and TS3 remain the only films that have entertained me so far, and I’m hoping Inception and LOTG will similarly blow me away.

#334

I’d hope at least a nom for Best Score is there for sure. (And of course Best Animated is pretty likely at this point.)

thedriveintheatre - I checked out the LotG website after you mentioned it. Forgot that was Hirschfelder… From the brief clips, I still find HTTYD emotionally stronger - every time I listen to that score by Powell, it doesn’t lose a thing. I’ll have to wait until I see LotG to know for sure, but I’m pretty sure HTTYD will remain on the top of my score list for the year.

As for the other categories, only time will tell - I certainly think it is strong enough for any of them. e.g., The script was really well written and tied itself together so well with the dialogue from beginning to end, and the visuals and sound were superb. Everything about the film I loved.

The way I always understood it, Sound Editing is cutting all of the sounds needed per track from beginning to end, and Sound Mixing is putting all of those tracks together (dialogue, music, foley, etc.)

I think HTTYD should be nominated in several categories, and would certainly - depending on what else comes out and is nominated - deserves to win any of them. I would love to see a nomination nod for Best Picture as well. Here’s hoping.

  • E
#335

OMFV: Fairy 'nuff. I’ll have to watch LOTG to make a proper assessment anyway, and I can’t say I don’t agree with you that HTTYD has one of the best soundtracks of the year.

I have watched Inception, and while Hans Zimmer is brilliant as usual (I just discovered from the Inception thread that he sampled the ‘Brummm’ sound from an Edith Piaf number), HTTYD still remains the most memorable soundtrack in my mind.

#336

I joined The Night Fury’s Den, but it seems to me that it isn’t very active, or I came in at the wrong moment :frowning:

#337

I should have posted this post earlier when I watched it a few days ago. This movie is a testament of what Dreamworks is truly capable of, we got it with Kung Fu Panda and now with this. This was a master of a work with very good use of emotions, [spoil]e.g Hiccup losing his leg is plays with our emotions nicely[/spoil]. This is something that is much more different than previous Dreamworks films which try to stimulate artificial emotions within us even though we have no empathy towards it, for example Madagascar 2 which desperately wanted us to empathise, but the humor kept interfering.

In terms of Visual spectacle, I think they haven’t pull off anything greater in art since Kung Fu Panda. Okay before I may have found KFP boring, but that was because I was tired and that made me find the movie boring to watch, but when I watched it over again, I noticed the detail of art and HtTYD has just eclipsed it. We get great moments in the film and the flight sequence seem to have an atmosphere and makes you feel like your flying with them. What I was most fond with was how they did the clouds, they looked so believable and reinforced the scenes Hiccup is scene flying with Toothless.

In general I think HtTYD set a new bench mark for Dreamworks and we know their talented team can pull off a good movie. Its the idiotic executives who keep pushing them and give little room for creativeness. It is said that Kung Fu Panda was good because of the production time it had. Now we are getting a new sequel in two years time, which I think really shouldn’t be happening, since the ending end nicely. Also Dreamworks are pushing it since this is coming out in 3 years and their production line is too much for their staff to cope with, the story will end up being weaker than the first and its a shame because this movie should deserve a sequel that is so much better. I’ll end by saying that I loved watching this movie and will thoroughly enjoy watching it again.

#338

Badger - Yeah, I joined a few months ago, but sadly nobody commented on the fanart I posted there (though one of the members I knew through Youtube linked my Terrible Trailer Dub in the ‘You Laugh, You Lose’ thread). 8D

azzstar - I had the same impression as you with regard to art direction. My snap judgement of the teasers (like the Dragon Training vids and all that) was that the background and lighting looked a bit ‘muddy’ and unimpressive. I had fears that this would be another Shark Tale/Bee Movie generi-character-location movie (especially after reading the first book last year and loving it). Thankfully my concerns were unfounded, and my second viewing just revealed the amount of detail that went into the architecture, the scars on Toothless’ scales, the fluffiness of the clouds, etc. The only scene that I thought was a little generi-looking was the climax (which had most of the background conveniently covered by dust and fog and the floor consisting of simple pebbles), but the spectacular finale made up for it.

…

So we’re one month away from the DVD/Blu-Ray release. Here’s the cover for you fans to gawk at:

I really am curious to know what the short’s about. It could be either a Monsters vs Aliens-style re-use of the 3D assets or (what I’m hoping) a 2D animation rendering like ‘Legends of the Furious Five’ (but in the aesthetic style of the ‘moving picturebook of dragons’ as seen in the film). If they’re gonna attempt the latter, I’m gonna be seriously stoked! :smiley:

#339

About the Night Fury’s Den… it seems as though all of the mods have dropped off the face of the earth, and since then, the forum just seemed to die. I’m not quite sure why… maybe we feel strange without a moderator around. I’m there all the time… why can’t they employ me? :laughing: Haha, just kidding. But I too am a bit disappointed at the slowness. The only thing I’ve been consistently doing there is RPing, but even now some of the members have gotten busy and haven’t been able to RP with me as often. :frowning: Maybe we should get together and make up another really nice site, and be moderators that won’t drop off the face of the earth and leave their members hanging. :stuck_out_tongue:

–

Oh man oh man oh man oh MANNNN just looking at that makes me excited! :smiley: Visualizing holding it in my hands… GAH. Do we seriously have to wait another… 27 days, 14 hours, and 15 minutes for it?! (Yes… I’m counting down to it. :laughing:)

I too am curious about that short, and would like to seem them do another 2D endeavor, but even if it were in the traditional CG style, as long as it’s done well and isn’t really cheap I’m all for it. :stuck_out_tongue: I’m getting anxious and drooly thinking about all those special features. xD I’d love to see a nice long interview with the original author, Cressida Cowell, though I think they had one a while back with her… maybe they’ll have a longer one on the DVD to hear her thoughts on how much the movie was changed from the book.

Needless to say, I’m sure none of you could tell I’m excited for this. xDDD

little chef

#340

Apparently it’s not just left socks that trolls kidnap nowadays. :stuck_out_tongue:

You mean DW actually did an interview with her? Is it like a featurette or something? Do you have a link? :open_mouth:

I hope I can get something HTTYD-fan-related out in time for the release!