Reading through most of the user’s comments on film sites, they seem to share our sentiments; they’re mostly unimpressed with the cryptic teaser. One thing they complained in common was that the 3d element was hyped up too much, and I was also put off a bit by it. I mean, 3d shouldn’t be the focus of the movie, story should be. I remember Katzenberg saying how 3d was the main element of Monsters vs Aliens or something to that effect, which goes to explaining a lot. I hope they don’t overuse it as too much of a gimmick and forget about the plot in the process…
HTTYD has two things going for it at the moment, though… as I’m sure most of you on this thread would be aware, Chris Sanders returns to his director role after the awesome Lilo & Stitch. Another reason to keep expectations up is that Nicolas Marlet handles the character design of the dragon, and he has an impressive resume, having worked on Over The Hedge, Kung Fu Panda and Monsters Inc.
Now we just have to cross our fingers and hope that Katzenberg and his cronies don’t meddle with their artistic vision and insert too many fart jokes. If these two geniuses can be left alone, I think we have another winner on Dreamworks’ hands.
Oh, and I just found out the trailer soundtrack was from John Debney’s score for Cutthroat Island. So in fact, that wasn’t even the OST! They’ve revealed much less than expected from the trailer…
I’m still keeping my hope alive that this will be awesome. Please don’t fail me, Dreamworks.
Sanders is co-director. He’s a gag story/designer guy, but Dean DuBlois is the primary director–the writer and structure guy. As countless Disney animators have said, “Sanders has a bunch of great ideas, but Dean is the one who knows how to make the audience care.”
I’m glad Dean asked Sanders to be his sidekick again, though. The two of them together is a good thing!
Shows Dreamworks’ usual brand of slapstick humour, and the backgrounds look a little uninspiring (I hope this is a WIP and not the final product). Though I liked the last clip of the ‘baby dragon’.
just saw the new trailer. And I have to say, I am totally excited for this film! Especially since it’s by the same directors of Lilo & Stitch. I cannot get over how cute the dragon is! he (she?) is adorable!
It looks pretty awesome! This might be my boyfriend and mine’s birthday present to each other since it comes out on our birthday month. I couldn’t help, but feel as if the main character looks like Andy from Toy Story. In a geeky type of way. XD
I’m a little worried though only because I have such a love hate relationship when it comes to Dreamworks. Part of me feels/knows that chances are… they are going to milk this movie for all it’s worth if the Box Office #'s are right.
Man, Is there any originality in 2009’s movies? Cripes! Every movie that comes out is based on a book! (Meatballs, Where the wild things are, How to train your dragon) and do we really need ANOTHER alice in wonderland?
My vote is no, I dont like this idea. However, Im still gonna go see it, Im open to things.
Yeah, that’s what I’ve been thinking. With what’s on the table for Best Original Screenplay (which is like NOTHING this year), Pixar’s got it in the bag. The only contest I think it has is District 9. That is of course, if Up gets nominated (and it should)
Honestly, I kinda like the idea of this movie. Seeing promo banners made it look kinda lame, but the trailer gives it a bit of hope. Didn’t know it was a book until last week, but I haven’t read it. I like the look of the movie (especially the dragon, Toothless is its name I believe? Anyway, s/he looks really cool), but Hiccup seems a bit stereotypical for a main character, albeit a more nonchalant attitude.
I think the voice of the main character sounds to old with the way he looks. Anyway, I can’t decide if I want to see it yet. The teaser trailer didn’t sell the movie to me.
I’m not quite impressed yet, but I’m willing to give this a chance. I’m quite excited to see another dragon flick in theatres again (the last few have been terrible), so I’m hoping Dreamworks pulls another Kung Fu Panda or Shrek, and not a lackluster Bee Movie/Shark Tale.
The human character models look good, but the dragons seem a bit ‘off’. Flame effects are awesome, but background is ‘meh’. This is a bit like Meatballs, you won’t quite know how good it will be till you watch it (I know I say this all the time, but for this movie, I think it really does look pretty ambiguous at the moment).
Having said that though, my favourite moments were the [spoil]slow-mo walk/explosion shot, Toothless reciprocating Hiccup with his fish offering, and the line “Thank you for nothing, you useless reptile.”[/spoil]8D
The website has been updated yet again, this time with the teaser poster of Hiccup (seriously, metal helmets can burn? Da heck?) and the trailer, but little else.
I may borrow the book over the holidays to see how the original source material compares to the film adaptation…
Well, I have to say… I’m not at all too excited for this one. Sorry.
I dunno… the storyline seems… kinda bland. And I’ve never really been a fan of Dreamworks…
I do however like the dragons. Lol, I collected everything dragon-related when I was little xD
Oh, I finally know why I like Pixar better: Pixar models the voices after the characters, and Dreamworks models the characters after the voices. Not always though, I may be wrong…
That’s so true! And I think with the exception of Cars, no other Pixar trailer mentions the names of their voice actors. While Dreamworks almost always ‘name-drops’ their celebrity voices in their trailer (or if they don’t, most likely will in the character posters).
The official website has just been revamped, and yet again, it is severely underwhelming. Have a look for yourself first before reading the following.
Firstly, the main page has such a plain background. Why the skies obscuring the island in the distance? And the navigation buttons look like they’re straight out of a Beginner’s Website Creation Class.
The layout is confusing. All the other sections are transitioned through side-scrolling, but the Dragon section is separate and on its own. And where’s the ‘Human’ characters section? The Games section is just colouring pages to be printed, without any indication of upcoming games, if any.
And the Dragon section itself, ugh, those lackluster fonts… and the character designs look kinda iffy, too. At least reading the descriptions was fun, I liked the Tiny Terror the best, who seems to be the standard crowd-stealer character much like Mort or Shrimp from Madagascar and Shark Tale respectively.
And really, most film websites have tracks from the soundtrack playing in the background (just go to any of Pixar’s websites, or even Ice Age 3’s), so to not have any music on at all is a huge crime in site design itself.
Seriously, the website ain’t doin’ Dreamworks any favours…
And you can see the difference between the Eastern and Western approaches to animation. That’s not to say there’s no heartfelt or emotional Western animated films (Sander’s Lilo & Stitch and Pixar films are examples of the exceptions), but generally, Eastern audiences tend to appreciate drama and pathos more than Western audiences, who tend to prefer slapstick and juvenille action in their ‘cartoons’.
I didn’t realize until lately that this was being directed by Chris Sanders (after leaving Disney over the issue with American Dog/Bolt). Guess I shouldn’t be so biased about DreamWorks films until I know who’s making them. Also funny how both he and Jeffrey Katzenberg have left Disney and moved to DreamWorks.
Looks really nice and I do really like how that black dragon looks. He’s cute.
But it’s typical Dreamworks: a lot of instances of characters being hit on the head or other places for comic relief. I’m not a fan of that… ‘leedvermaak’ but that aside, it looks sweet.
(please don’t let them screw it up with pop culture references and flatulence jokes…)
They’ve revealed much less than expected from the trailer…
he (she?) is adorable!
but that aside, it looks sweet.