How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)
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Critics Consensus: Exciting, emotionally resonant, and beautifully animated, How to Train Your Dragon 2 builds on its predecessor's successes just the way a sequel should.
Critics Consensus: Exciting, emotionally resonant, and beautifully animated, How to Train Your Dragon 2 builds on its predecessor's successes just the way a sequel should.
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Movie Info
DreamWorks Animation returns to the world of dragons and Vikings in this sequel to their successful 2010 outing How to Train Your Dragon. The original film followed the exploits of a Viking chief's son, who must capture a dragon in order to mark his passage into manhood and prove his worthiness to the tribe. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi- Rating:
- PG (for adventure action and some mild rude humor)
- Genre:
- Action & Adventure , Animation , Kids & Family , Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Directed By:
- Dean DeBlois
- Written By:
- Dean DeBlois
- In Theaters:
- Jun 13, 2014 Wide
- On DVD:
- Nov 11, 2014
- US Box Office:
- $176.6M
Cast
-
Jay Baruchel
as Hiccup -
Gerard Butler
as Stoick -
America Ferrera
as Astrid -
Jonah Hill
as Snotlout -
Christopher Mintz-Pl...
as Fishlegs -
Craig Ferguson
as Gobber
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How to Train Your Dragon 2 Videos
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Critic Reviews for How to Train Your Dragon 2
All Critics (157) | Top Critics (37) | Fresh (145) | Rotten (12)
Hats off to Dreamworks for offering some bold surprises in a respectable sequel filled with moments of humour and emotion among its ample noise and movement.
The writer and director Dean DeBlois takes the comedy to a deeper, more satisfying place than he did in the original franchise-launching animated film.
Overlong and overly busy but more emotionally powerful than its predecessor.
The entire film is a romance -- visually, parentally, ecologically. It's got the emotional, humorous, exciting sweep you want from a summer movie.
Although there are times when bits of the movie feel extraneous, the production as a whole comes across more like an organic extension of the original tale than something tacked on purely to score at the box office.
It's clear that [director Dean DeBlois] took inspiration from the first Star Wars trilogy - not a bad model for breathing new life, and yes, a bit of fire, into one of Hollywood's more nuanced animated franchises.
With multi Oscar-nominated British cinematographer Roger Deakins (Skyfall) advising, DreamWorks' visual work is stunning, but the story feels fragmented by the mixture of strange accents and additional sub-plots.
A command of genre creativity blended with human insight.
How to Train Your Dragon 2 isn't just a great sequel, a great animated spectacle, or a great example of successful franchise-expansion/world-building. How to Train Your Dragon 2 is flat-out great film, period
It's a rare sequel - animated or otherwise - that expands the story of its predecessor without rehashing it, and an even rarer family-oriented film that manages to be fun and mature without being condescending to its audience. [It] does both.
With writer-director Dean DeBlois back at the helm, the sequel feels like a solid continuation of the first movie.
Here and there, it's as if the mythology of Tolkien has been filtered through the imagery of Miyazaki.
Bigger and even richer than the terrific 2010 hit animation, this sequel is also quite possibly the best action-adventure movie of the year.
A triumph that soars far beyond a lazy re-tread of the original. It is altogether darker, richer and more complex.
Funny, big-hearted and - as you'd expect - a visual feast, this a family film in every sense and one to be lapped-up by both kids and grown-ups alike.
The characters in this movie are charmers. They've got me so well-trained, I'm even looking forward to HTTYD3.
It has a richness that's highly compelling, especially in the way it explores the complex relationship between man and beast.
Only for those addicted to video games and the Transformer series. The original was bright, funny and inventive. The sequel not so.
The filmmakers borrow freely from Avatar, Sword In The Stone and even Brave but they bring enough vigour and imagination to their storytelling to get away with it.
The sequel doesn't attempt to take things in a completely new direction, choosing instead to expand its world and characters with great success.
This swooping and soaring sequel boasts big thrills, innovative set-pieces and a surprisingly radical political outlook.
Textures and gestures are brilliantly rendered, the body language saying more about the characters and their relationships than any words ...
Despite the unimaginative title, How To Train Your Dragon 2 arrives full of its predecessor's invention, wit and flair.
Bigger, braver and even more visually rewarding than the original, it's an ambitious attempt to extend the scope of its predecessor without sacrificing the charm, humour and excitement that made that so appealing.
This sequel forms a well-balanced symbiotic relationship between the entertainingly silly and the deadly serious.
Audience Reviews for How to Train Your Dragon 2
So, I saw this in the theater back in June, but I've been very behind on my movie reviews. This to me, wasn't as good as the first movie. The visuals are amazing, and the story moves along well. But it lacks the originality and overall heart of the first film. Now, I still liked it(it's better than most sequels!), but I wasn't in love with it. I took Grant to see it, and I got to say this isn't really a movie for a 3 year old. It's long for a kids movie, and I think the dialogue went over his head quite a bit. Towards the end of the movie he was pretty restless. But, he does like the tv shows that are on netflix, so I'm sure once we get a copy at home he'll be more likely to sit all the way through it. My nephews liked it(8 and 5), and I think their age range is probably ideal. Check it out!
MoreSuper Reviewer
"How to Train Your Dragon 2" is so impressive because it not only expands upon and bests it's predecessor on a visual level, but on a thematic one too. The characters we know an love are all here, but this time with even more humor, heart, and exciting aerial hi jinx. Despite a pretty by-the-numbers villain, this is easily one of the best animated films we'll see this year, and a shoe-in for the Oscar in the category of Best Animated Feature.
MoreSuper Reviewer
It chooses the easy way in some aspects (like Hiccup and his father not feeling any resentment towards the woman who abandoned them) but makes up for it with moments of more complex development (like Drago not changing his mind with mere words), making this a worthy sequel to a great movie.
MoreSuper Reviewer
After the first movie hit a huge success (too bad they should compete with the flawless 'Toy Story 3' in that year), Dreamworks finally did it right by producing its sequel and taking its level to a higher one with more mature character since they are teens now, while the new character such as Valka, Drago, and Eret make the story more interesting.. Too bad we should see one important character died at the end of the movie.. But overall, I like what Dreamworks did to this franchise by maintaining its level so Dragon can still fly high.. I just hope there's no uprising competitor since I definitely want Dragon to lift the Oscars this year..
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How to Train Your Dragon 2 Quotes
- Gobber:
- May the Valkyries welcome you and lead you through Odin's great battle field. May they sing your name with love and fury, so that we might hear it rise from the depths of Valhalla. And know that you've taken your rightful place at the table of Kings. For a great man has fallen: A warrior. A chieftain. A father. A friend.
- Stoick:
- For you, my dear...anything.
- Stoick:
- A man who kills without reason cannot be reasoned with.
- Ruffnut:
- Take me!
- Hiccup:
- Toothless! You're pounding big baby boo.
- Astrid:
- Take 'em down, Babe!
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