One thing Dean Deblois mentioned was how he used The Empire Strikes Back as visual inspiration for the sequel. And you thought Star Wars and Dragons had nothing in common! Additionally, the third film is set for 2016, so looks like we'll have Dragons for quite some time!
An interview with Dean Deblois at One Movie, Five Reviews gives us a good view of what was said at the panel, as well as another balistraria-style Youtube interview that you can view below:
In other sequel news, there is a mysterious post floating around from Gregg Hettinger -- who apparently is working on the sequel -- that claims that, as we all figured, the characters are being remodeled for the sequel, including Toothless.
For more news on the sequel from the Grapevine check out this post we made a short while ago on "Sequel Secrets from Dean DeBlois".
And in site news, there is a transcript for "Legend of the Boneknapper" coming your way soon!
ok now that is interesting. His statement that he looked at the Empire Strikes Back for inspiration brings up an interesting issue. One of the things that made Empire such a fantastic film is that it left behind some of the more childish aspects of A New Hope. It still had its fantastical aspects but there were now deep themes of fate, death, and mysticism all creating a rich story. And thats not even considering that Empire had the greatest twist in all of cinema. The issue raised is how does HTTYD 2 (or whaterver they decide to title it) match that. It still needs to remain a movie that is acessible to children so how do they portray that darker, more mature nature without alientating its target audience, especially when considering that HTTYD was a fairly mature movie for a childrens flick. its nice to see that DeBlois is seeking inspiration from one of the greatest sequels of all time, but it does raise some concern that they are attempting to reach a difficult goal.
ReplyDeleteI think they're just calling it HTTYD 2. (At least it's better than "The Dragons Strike Back.") TESB is a pretty good film to model it after, but I think Dean Deblois can basically ignore the kids. They're going to see it anyway as long as it hits the PG rating. So if they can simultaneously snag the older audiences with a darker, richer story, then I think they should do that without worrying too much about the younger audiences.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what Dean Deblois means by "inspired from the Empire Strikes Back"? Does that mean that the Red Death was portrayed as the Death Star and now that it's destroyed the evil viking empire wants pay back? That's where my mind is going at this point.
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