Toon Zone Talkback - Hollywood Reporter Reveals Details on "How to Train Your Dragon" Sequel

I like the idea that they're taking this and making it a larger story. Hope they make "Alvin the Treacherous"(main enemy from the books) a cunning rival to Hiccup who also has his own dragon, but their relationship is entirely different from toothless/hiccup.
 
Two posts till the Dreamworks bashing starts.:)

This is based, somewhat loosely, on a series of books. There are many books in the series and many adventures of Hiccup. So it does make sense that now that it is popular they're looking to adapt some of those other adventures and bring in some of those other characters.
 
EVERYTHING is a franchise these days. Until it flops, and then it just becomes fodder for a reboot 3-5 years down the line.

But seriously, everything that ever comes out today is a multi-platform, multi-media, multi-chapter, multi-multi deal, whether it's a book, a comic, a TV show, a movie, a video game, or all of the above all at once. Everything. Pixar was the one bucking the trend by continuing to release new material every year, until they put 3 sequels on the schedule (one of which is coming from the biggest cross-platform merchandising hit to land since Disney Princesses), so it's not even true about them any more. Given that, I can't really find it in my heart to criticize DreamWorks for doing the same despite my sense that something's getting lost in all the sequels, prequels, fill-ins, reboots, restarts, re-visions, alternate universes, and rehashes of the same stuff.

That being said, while "Yeah, we always planned this as a multi-part epic" is standard operating marketing-speak from Jeff Katzenberg, HTTYD seems like the property they have most able to support it. As Shawn said, it's a property that's coming from a multi-part series of books (and there goes that franchise thing again), so there's plenty of source material to draw from/be inspired by. I'd say it has a better shot than Kung Fu Panda (which I liked quite a bit), and definitely don't think it's going to hit diminishing returns as fast as the Shrek series did.
 
As long as you have something fun and interesting to say or do, a sequel isn't a bad thing. Somehow unlike a horde of theatergoers I've seen Megamind but not HTTYD, so I should really hurry up and stop missing out.
 
I really liked HTTYD & the short that came with the Blu-ray so I'm open to more sequels. As long as they don't rush things and keep the quality the same or improve it, I'll watch.
 
I would really love a sequel if it is up to the same quality as the first. I really hope that it isn't some lame, slopped together attempt at making a quick buck.
 
If Monsters vs. Aliens and MegaMind weren't underperformers it probably would've been the same deal.

Isn't Kung Fu Panda also set for a TV show and multiple movies?
 
Watch iiiiiiiiit!!!!!! :p

I'm looking forward to this; the short was cute, there's plenty of material to play around with, and the animation can only get better. :3
 
Hey! I'm not bashing DW - KFP was great, and I really want the sequel to be as good. The TV show looks good, too.

I just think 5 movies is a bit over kill. HTTYD was based on a series, so maybe that'll work.
 
I believe that there is a TV series on Nickelodeon in the works and they've already released teaser trailers for the sequel. I don't know if there are any other sequels planned for Kung Fu Panda though. There was some kind of statement where they wanted to have like six movies under the Kung Fu Panda title, but I don't think that was set in stone.

I still haven't seen the first movie yet, which I really should do one of these weekends considering I have the DVD from Christmas, but it's nice to know that they see it as the first chapter of a larger story. I've heard about the series of books, so I think that they might have more material to make a few movies than they did with Shrek. Hopefully, I'll be able to enjoy the first movie and then look forward to the sequel.
 
I welcome a sequel to what I consider Dreamworks best animation output from last year. They do have a lot to work with, and the first movie did set up quite a few things that left it open for a sequel.
 
The one thing I'm concerned about is doing both a TV show AND a movie series for both Dragon and KFP. If you're seriously telling a big story, then would the TV show and the movies have any continuity between each other? Would you be expected to know what's going on in one to follow the other? Or would one essentially become secondary filler, and even that could change a lot of the time if Dragon has a serious developing ongoing storyline in the movies, or would they be different timelines? Just seems to be too much product made for its own good.
 
Well it's a ways off but I'm really looking forward to seeing where they take the world of How to Train Your Dragon. And I doubt that the movies will be connected to the TV series. I think they said they are using the TV show to put out ideas that wouldn't fit in the movies.

Either way, it seems that How to Train Your Dragon wasn't as much of a "coming of age" story as it was the first part of a much bigger "coming of age" story. Dean DeBlois is working on it and he sounds like he's got some great ideas.

But yeah of all the animated movies out there, this is one that has the potential to stand along side Toy Story in terms of quality when it comes to animated trilogies (then again I guess there aren't very many more...), but I am eager for more news.
 
This is one of the many DreamWorks films series I'm looking forward to, hopefully they'll find ways to keep the storylines intresting and fun :)
 
One problem that I feel is found in way too many sequels (especially animated ones) would be the writers' unwillingness to change the happy endings. In the first movie, the situation of a main character may start off bad, but by the end their lives have been significantly improved (Shrek, Kung-Fu Panda, HTTYD). In the sequels, I feel as if the happy ending has become a status quo. There may be a few antagonists or obstacles, but nothing really changes from the beginning to the end of the movie. Just my two cents.
 
But the goals were different. In KFP Po has found acceptance, but the movie didn't went with the (obvious) adopted past of him, I guess the second movie handles it (hilariously enough, he and the new villain, yet again, have similar parallels of being adopted).

We've yet to have the plot for HTTYD's sequel though.
 
As much as I loved the first one to death, I have my doubts about the second one. Mostly because I'm worried that they'll take out all the charm and character of the first one and replace it with too much comedy and drown out the original seriousness, or take to opposite route and put too much action and fighting, and leave out the light heated side of it. :sad:
 
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