I liked it quite a bit, though the narrative was a little predictable. My 9-year-old adored it, for what that’s worth.
Two things:
[spoiler]1. The set up for HTTYD3 is clearly a girl(boy)friend for Toothless. It was mentioned twice and dropped.
The problem with this for me, though, is that part of what makes Toothless so cool is that he is unique. If we suddenly discover a whole bunch (or even a few) more Night Furies, then suddenly he’s not unique anymore–he’s just one of many. And who would ride the new ones? All the major characters already have their own dragons, and the implication is that the bond between a dragon and his/her rider is very strong, so they wouldn’t want to switch. So, what–introduce new characters?
If they did bring in more Night Furies, I think it would be best if they either did it in a way where we could meet them but they wouldn’t be ongoing parts of the story (maybe they’re far away and don’t want to leave, or some sort of time travel story, or a flashback).
I just watched the FIRST HTTYD at friends’ house so I’ll know the backstory when we go see HTTYD2 this week. Loved it! Looking forward to seeing the new one on a big screen.
Gobber is gay? I didn’t pick up on that in HTTYD1, did I miss something?
Or basically just copy what happened in Pokemon. Find a herd of Night Furies, have Toothless wage an internal war between going with his kind (leading them?) or staying with his owner. You could really have a heartbreaking moment where Hiccup has to say goodbye to his beloved friend but knows that it must be done or something.
(The Pokemon reference was because the main character (Ash) had to do the same thing with his Pikachu)
Well, I saw both of them in Kansas this month, the first one on DVD in the dorm rec room, and the second one in the theater the night before I left to go home.
I loved them both, though #2 was a little weaker in terms of story. (But Astrid looked amazing in the sequel. 
)
Does anybody else wonder about Hiccup’s relationship with Astrid? I mean I still think her personality is too dominant for each to be truly happy with the other, long-term. I know they’re meant to get married and start making little Vikings but I don’t think it’s gonna work.
Yes, I actually think about this stuff. Shaddup.
I loved the animation. Not only the texturing, especially of water and cloth, but they showed every single hair on an arm, and the way they had people move, was actually how people move. There were a lot of closeups of Hiccup’s face, and I kept finding new things to see as I watched his face.
I did wonder how Drago was able to fly with Toothless.
I do expect Toothless to find a mate in III.
It’s a shame, though, that Drago was dark-skinned. Black=evil again.
But Toothless is utterly black, (blacker than any of the other dragons) and he is one of the good guys.
As an animation nerd I knew INSTANTLY that there was something up with the animation.
Felt closer to MoCap than actual Dreamworks animation. I thought it was OK in the end, it actually made it feel MORE cartoon-ish because everyone was real enough to act real, but fake enough for it to remind me that they are fake, so I was taken out of the moment a little bit more.
Gerard Butler said in an interview that they had cameras pointing at him when he recorded his lines and that the animators used his movements when they animated Stoick. I don’t know if he had the little dots on him, though.
After my 8 yo daughter watched no. 1 on Netflix last year I bought her the first few books in the series. She loved them so much that she kept re-reading them while Amazon delivered the rest, ending with the last published books which came out a couple of weeks ago.
The books and series have little in common, but she loved both. We both agreed that movie no. 1 had a better storyline, and it was much more funny. I am not sure she’ll be interested anymore when no. 3 comes out in a few years.
Two asides:
-I didn’t think Drago was black, he just seemed unbathed.
So then what exactly are the books ABOUT?
Because I had no idea that there we multiple books, I just assumed it was a one-off
It was pretty good, not quite as good as the original. Apparently the original script had Hiccup’s mother as a sympathetic antagonist, and I think that somewhat shows in the final product - they spend a long time introducing her, only for her to basically become completely unimportant in the final act of the movie (aside from giving Hiccup a “believe in yourself” speech that Astrid could’ve given). There’s a weird shit in the overall theme/message of the movie… early on, it’s “who am I?”, and by the end, it’s more about the Power of Friendship. But it was still pretty good.
Re: Gobber being gay… I wasn’t really buying it. There’s a million different ways to interpret that line. Some people thought it was because he didn’t like children (since he looks at Hiccup when he says it). Some (in this thread no less) thought it was because he lost his dick along with other body parts. Some think he was alluding to being gay. My first thought was just because he was ugly/disfigured (i.e. “[Quarrels] are the reason I don’t get married. Well, that and one other reason […because no one would marry me].”)
According to the director though, it’s supposed to imply he’s gay: 'How to Train Your Dragon 2': Is Gobber really gay? -- SPOILERS | EW.com
Interesting article! It wasn’t even planned, just thrown in there by Craig Ferguson! Way to be progressive
Huh. To the extent I thought about it at all, I assumed he was talking about some past injury.
Or maybe they’ll invent shampoo and finally get “that to wash out” when an unfortunate Viking is licked since they kept bringing that up too 
Yeah, I thought he was just dirty too. Were there many non-white people in Viking society?
a35362, given how much time I’ve spent wondering if they’re engaged (given Stoick’s “future daughter-in-law” brag after the race) since seeing the movie Saturday, I can’t cast stones 
About the adventures of an 11 year old. They are actually quite funny, if you are an 8 year old.
There are 12 books in total. I bought them all.
And about ugly names… My daughter is half-Danish (which might explain the obsession with the Hiccup-verse), we always joke about what name she should choose for herself.
In the books Toothless is almost the complete opposite of the one in the movies. He is a tiny, clever little smart-aleck. It’s very sort of “Jeeves and Wooster” meets “Eddie Haskell and The Beav.”
Oh, and Hiccup speaks dragonese in the books. so we get insight into Toothless’ little head.
You mean the dragons talk, like Calvin and Hobbes or something? :eek: 