How to Train Your Dragon 2

[Randall]

Great to hear. I LOVED the first one, so this comes as high praise. However, I'm more of a view-at-home kinda guy.

[Dacey]

The bigger the screen you see this one on, the better. I don't think five minutes ever went by without me getting goosebumps of some sort. I only wish I had been able to see it in 3-D.

This is the kind of serious-minded mainstream animated movie we always complain we don't get. Then when it underwhelms at the box office, the studio's like, "You see? I told you all the public wanted was fart jokes."

And I say this as someone who laughed repeatedly during the Penguins trailer shown before the film.

[ShyViolet]

The cheese doodle joke was kind of silly and went on too long, but was sorta cute. And even with the tediousness of the trailer as a whole (IMHO) I loved seeing them jump on the trampoline.
Penguins were made for trampolines!

[Dan]

For any one who will be in San Diego during Comic Con, The Chuck Jones Gallery on 5th Avenue in the Gaslamp District will be hosting a How to Train Your Dragon 2 exhibit on Wednesday, July 23, the night before Comic Con, from 7pm to 10pm. Artwork from the film will be on display and up for purchase. Artists from the film will also be on hand to discuss and sign their work. Those who wish to attend will need to RSVP due to limited spacing.

[droosan]

I saw How to Train Your Dragon 2 (in 3-D) on Sunday afternoon -- in a Burbank cinema just a mile north of the DreamWorks campus -- with only three other people in the theater.

There's no reason this movie should be doing so poorly.

It really is an excellent sequel .. building upon the first story, expanding Berk's 'world', and taking some bold risks -- much like the first film, but without feeling 'repetitive'. It's an action-packed summer movie to its core, with a couple of GIANT-dragon-battle 'set-pieces' which give the recent Godzilla a run for its money.

There's a ton of stuff going on in every scene; lots of subtly nuanced character-animation performances, in the foreground and the background. And the flying sequences are spectacular .. especially in 3-D.

I tend to think DreamWorks has already made-up their minds about HTTYD2, regardless of its final global box-office tally .. but, like Dacey says: this movie is well-worth seeing theatrically, on as BIG a screen as you can find. It's definitely the kind of 'pure-adventure' animated feature that most of us wish would get made more often.

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It's completely 'wishful-thinking' on my part .. but -- having seen the confident & capable storytelling on display in HTTYD2 -- I'd love to see Dean DeBlois helm an animated-feature adaptation of ElfQuest.

[ShyViolet]

Yeah it's a shame it's not doing as well as it should. Hopefully KFP3 won't suffer the same fate.

[Dan]

A bit of encouraging news as HTTYD2 is expected to maintain it's No. 3 spot this weekend. While Transformers is expected to kill it this weekend with a projected $100 million intake, last week's No. 1 Think Like a Man Too looks to take a huge tumble with a 64.4% decrease and drop to No. 4.

With the domestic gross looking to be $121.8 million by the end of the night, this might be as good of an opportunity as any for HTTYD2 to gain some numbers with 4th of July coming up.

[droosan]

I saw HTTYD2 a second time Saturday night, with a much bigger crowd (almost 'sold-out', but not quite) .. which was, indeed, encouraging -- especially considering that Transformers 4 was already playing, elsewhere in the cineplex.

This was a '2-D' presentation, though .. the nearly-empty screening I'd attended last week was in '3-D'. I wonder if that's indicative of the box-office figures for the respective versions..

[TitusTodd]

All my kids really wanted to see this one with my oldest being the most enthusiastic. So, I took them all for a 3D showing for my birthday. It was a great movie! Like most here, I can't understand why it is not doing better and I wonder why for the same reasons. I thought this one was going to be a hit at the box office.

3D was the way to go. The detail on this one was definitely a few steps above the first and the older characters all looked wonderful (I was not and am not thrilled with most of the dragon designs but I've been able to look past that). The story was pretty decent.

I go to the theater for "eye candy" and leave everything else for home viewing. This was definitely eye candy. Definitely worth a theater viewing.

[Randall]

Finally some good news for DreamWorks:

http://variety.com/2014/film/news/how-t ... 201358466/

[pijjy]

how many of these movies do you think they'll make in the series?

[Ben]

Three for sure, but after that the filmmakers are done. The studio may well continue for another one, two or three, or but then the franchise may have played itself out or the studio might be under new ownership.

While the film's may end after the third, the TV series could just run and run.

[Dan]

Thread bump since it relates more to the movies than the TV show. And it's just darn cute.

A couple weekends ago was the 3rd birthday of my brother's niece. I was coming off reviewing Race to the Edge, so Dragons was still heavily on my mind when my folks assigned me to get her some presents. Here be the results.

[Randall]

My 8-year old said, "That's adorable."