How to Train Your Dragon 2 (no spoilers...in op at least)

[Mighty_Girl]

@TruCelt

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.

There’s a even a book written from Toothless’ point of view: How to Train your Human.

[Deeg]

I agree with magnusblitz; the mother starts out as some all-powerful dragon tamer and then ends up being shunted aside without much difficulty. I would have liked it if she had had a bigger role.

[Eyebrows_0f_Doom]

@elfkin477

Yeah, I thought he was just dirty too. Were there many non-white people in Viking society?

:dubious: He has an African accent, dark skin, dreadlocks and is voiced by Djimon Hounsou.

[Quartz]

@Rick_Kitchen

It’s a shame, though, that Drago was dark-skinned. Black=evil again.

So you’re forgetting al those films with white Englishmen as the villains?

[magnusblitz]

@Eyebrows_0f_Doom

:dubious: He has an African accent, dark skin, dreadlocks and is voiced by Djimon Hounsou.

I’ll grant you the dreads and black voice actor, but I didn’t really detect any African accent (at least, any more than it’s just Hounsou’s normal voice).

Here are some screenshots of him:

http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/hounsou2.jpg

http://mediagirl.areavoices.com/files/2014/06/how.png

Yeah, that guy doesn’t really scream “black” to me. In addition to his light skin tone, he also doesn’t have any typically black facial features such as a large, flat nose or thick lips.

[Infovore]

Yeah, he didn’t strike me as black at all. I kind of pegged him as a big bearish Russian type.

[DrDeth]

@Eyebrows_0f_Doom

:dubious: He has an African accent, dark skin, dreadlocks and is voiced by Djimon Hounsou.

Not that dark, even pale in some shots, and white folk can have dreads too, you know.

I think the film was fabu.

[TruCelt]

Swarthy, I’ll grant you, but not black in the sense of African-American. He struck me more as a generic pirate type. As somebody mentioned, Toothless is far blacker.

[Sir_T-Cups]

For what it’s worth I never got black either out of him.

I just got “foreign badass” and left it at that

[DZedNConfused]

@a35362

The animation in these is just astounding. I grew up with Disney and the Flintstones and big black lines around everything. When Valka is petting Toothless, you can see how his body moves as he wiggles around and pants inside his flying harness. You can see the texture of his hide. Kids these days don’t know how good they have it!

I missed half the conversation when Stoick was talking to Valka because I was so fascinated by the animation in his beard…

[running_coach]

@a35362

The animation in these is just astounding. I grew up with Disney and the Flintstones and big black lines around everything. When Valka is petting Toothless, you can see how his body moves as he wiggles around and pants inside his flying harness. You can see the texture of his hide. Kids these days don’t know how good they have it!

Big deal. When I was growing up, you could see texture in the cartoons of our day.

OK, so it was the rock wall they were drawn on but still…

[Quartz]

We went to see the film yesterday. I think my niece was a little young: it didn’t hold her all the way through and she had to be reminded to behave herself, but afterwards she said she loved it. I thought the reunion of Stoic and Valka was excellent, but then I’m a romantic anyway.

The cinema was absolutely packed.

[a35362]

Does Gerard Butler have a particular pull for Scottish audiences?

[Quartz]

@a35362

Does Gerard Butler have a particular pull for Scottish audiences?

Not that I’m aware of.

[Sir_T-Cups]

Isn’t he Scottish? or Welsh? or some kinda British?

[Quartz]

@Sir_T-Cups

Isn’t he Scottish? or Welsh? or some kinda British?

He’s Scottish, from Glasgow.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

So naturally he was cast as a dragon-riding Viking.

[Strassia]

Saw it with my boys this weekend. My wife was a little worried after reading a review comparing the violence to Game of Thrones, but it was fine for both the 5 and 7 year old. I have one question though:

How did Drago find the island of the alpha? When Hiccup’s friends went of to help him I assumed we would see them make things worse by revealing the existence of Burk, and leading Drago back there. But they had no idea about the alpha and his colony. So did Drago always know about it and just decide to move then?

[Sir_T-Cups]

@Strassia

Saw it with my boys this weekend. My wife was a little worried after reading a review comparing the violence to Game of Thrones, but it was fine for both the 5 and 7 year old. I have one question though:

How did Drago find the island of the alpha? When Hiccup’s friends went of to help him I assumed we would see them make things worse by revealing the existence of Burk, and leading Drago back there. But they had no idea about the alpha and his colony. So did Drago always know about it and just decide to move then?

I’m assuming once he met the baddies the first time, and Drago was put on high alert that they exist, he followed them to the island.

Granted he could have followed Mrs. Hiccup too, but I think that she probably was more experienced with losing a tail than hiccup is/was