After amazing audiences with its blend of stunning visuals, captivating characters, and heartfelt story, How to Train Your Dragon has become a huge success; leading many to believe it’s a real contender for Best Animated Film at this year’s Oscars (despite losing the Golden Globe, and BAFTA, in the same category to Toy Story 3); and now it seems as if the sequel is actually coming together.
Following a young Viking who forms an unlikely friendship with a dragon (the infernal creatures his people loathe and have been at war with for decades), and leads his peoples to a time of perpetual peace and happiness, the first film seemed to finish of a completely self-contained story; however speaking recently, Dean DeBois (co-director of the first film) stated that his vision for the sequel is “the second act of a much larger story”, and one that will see the Viking world “open up and expand exponentially.”
Dragon’s major characters will be returning for the sequel, with the main voice cast also returning to reprise their roles as Hiccup (Jay Baruchel, Million Dollar Baby), Belch (Craig Ferguson, Kick-Ass), Astrid (America Ferrera, Ugly Betty), Fishlegs (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kick-Ass), Snotlout (Jonah Hill, Cyrus), Ruffnut (T.J. Miller, Cloverfield), and Tuffnut (Kristen Wiig, Despicable Me), as well as Gerard Butler (The Ugly Truth) reprising his role as Hiccup’s father Stoick; something which was finally confirmed last week.
Cinematographer Roger Deakins (who only last night won a BAFTA award for his impressive visual work on the True Grit remake) will also be returning to the series that DeBois states will have “much more breadth”, and become “quite epic”, by the time it’s release date rolls around in summer 2013.
