How to Train Your Dragon

***How to Train Your Dragon*** is a 2010 American 3D computer-animated action fantasy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Loosely based on the book series of the same name by Cressida Cowell, the film was directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, the duo who wrote and directed Walt Disney Animation Studios' *Lilo & Stitch*. It stars the voices of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, T.J. Miller, Kristen Wiig, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse.

The story takes place in a mythical Viking world where a young Viking teenager named Hiccup aspires to follow his tribe's tradition of becoming a dragon slayer. After finally capturing his first dragon, and with his chance at last of gaining the tribe's acceptance, he finds that he no longer wants to kill the dragon and instead befriends it.

The film was released March 26, 2010, and was a critical and commercial success, earning acclaim from film critics and audiences and earning nearly $500 million worldwide. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score at the 83rd Academy Awards, but lost to *Toy Story 3* and *The Social Network*, respectively. The movie also won ten Annie Awards, including Best Animated Feature.

A sequel, *How to Train Your Dragon 2*, was released on June 13, 2014, with DeBlois writing and directing by himself. Much like its predecessor, the sequel was also universally acclaimed and became a box office success. A second and final sequel, *How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World*, is to be released on February 22, 2019. The film's success has also inspired other merchandise, including a video game and a television series.

## Plot

On Berk, a Viking village located on a remote island from which dragons periodically steal livestock, Hiccup, the awkward fifteen-year-old son of the village chieftain, Stoick the Vast, works as a blacksmith's apprentice. As he is too small and weak to fight the dragons, he instead fashions mechanical devices under his apprenticeship with Gobber, the senior blacksmith, though his inventions often malfunction or backfire. During one attack, Hiccup shoots down a Night Fury, an extremely rare and dangerous dragon, with a bola launcher of his; he later finds it in the forest trapped in his bolas, but finding that he cannot bring himself to kill the dragon, he instead sets it free.

Stoick assembles a fleet to find the dragons' nest, entering Hiccup in a dragon-killing class taught by Gobber. Hiccup returns to the forest to find the Night Fury still there; he realizes the dragon is unable to fly properly because of its crippled tail fin. Hiccup befriends the dragon, gradually taming it and giving it the name 'Toothless' due to its retractable teeth. Feeling guilty for crippling Toothless, Hiccup eventually makes a harness and prosthetic fin that allows him to guide the dragon in flight.

By observing Toothless's behavior, Hiccup becomes increasingly proficient in subduing the captive dragons during training nonviolently, earning him the admiration of his peers but causing Astrid, a tough Viking girl on whom Hiccup has a crush, to become increasingly suspicious of his behavior. Meanwhile, Stoick's fleet arrives home unsuccessful, though he is cheered by Hiccup's unexpected success in dragon training. Astrid eventually discovers that he is training Toothless. Hiccup takes her for a flight to demonstrate his relationship with the dragon before she can tell the village. Toothless unexpectedly takes the pair to the dragons' nest where they discover a gargantuan dragon named the Red Death, which eats the smaller dragons unless they bring it stolen livestock; the pair realize that the dragons have been attacking Berk under its control as opposed to their own free will.

Back at the village, Hiccup, having won dragon training, is given the task of killing a captive Monstrous Nightmare dragon; he, instead, subdues it in front of his father and village instead of killing it in an attempt to prove that the dragons are harmless. However, Stoick inadvertently angers the dragon into attacking. Toothless attempts to protect Hiccup in the ensuing panic but is instead captured by the Vikings in the process. Hiccup accidentally reveals to Stoick that Toothless is capable of locating the dragons' nest; Stoick disowns his son and sets off for the nest with Toothless chained to the lead ship as a guide.

The Viking attack force locates and breaks open the dragon's nest, allowing most of the dragons to fly out but also awakening the Red Death, soon overwhelming the attack force. Hiccup, Astrid, and their fellow pupils fly in riding the training dragons from Berk, providing cover fire for the attack force and distracting the Red Death. Hiccup almost drowns trying to break Toothless free, but Stoick saves them both, reconciling with his son. Working together, Toothless and Hiccup destroy the Red Death; Hiccup, however, is injured in the fight, losing his lower left leg and requiring a prosthesis. Hiccup regains consciousness on Berk to find himself admired amongst the tribe and by Astrid, with the Vikings and the dragons now living in harmony.

## Cast

* Jay Baruchel as Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, the awkward son of Stoick the Vast.
* Gerard Butler as Stoick the Vast, the chieftain of Berk and Hiccup's father.
* Craig Ferguson as Gobber the Belch, Berk's blacksmith, a close friend of Stoick's and teacher of the tribe's young dragon-training recruits.
* America Ferrera as Astrid Hofferson, Hiccup's fellow student in dragon training and his crush.
* Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Fishlegs Ingerman, an enthusiastic youth knowledgeable in dragon lore which he often relates in role-playing game style.
* Jonah Hill as Snotlout Jorgenson, one of Hiccup's dragon-training classmates. Snotlout is brash, overconfident, and fairly unintelligent, but reliable.
* T. J. Miller and Kristen Wiig as Tuffnut and Ruffnut Thorston, a pair of quarrelsome twins.
* David Tennant as Spitelout, Snotlout's father.

### ADR Group

* Steve Alterman
* Julian Barnes
* Mitch Carter
* David Cowgill
* Suzan Crowley
* Robert Pike Daniel
* Neil Dickson
* Alastair Duncan
* Peter Lavin
* Oliver Muirhead
* Paula Jane Newman
* Moira Quirk
* Ian Ruskin
* Alan Shearman
* Diz White

## Production

The book series by Cressida Cowell began coming to attention to the executives at DreamWorks Animation in 2004. Coming off her success in *Over the Hedge*, producer Bonnie Arnold shortly became interested in the newly acquired property. She kept focusing on the project as time went on, and when DreamWorks Animation co-president of production Bill Damaschke asked her what she wanted to work on next, she chose “How to Train Your Dragon”.

In initial development, the plot followed the original novel closely, but about halfway through production Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, the writer-directors of Disney's *Lilo & Stitch*, took over as co-directors and it was altered. The original plot was described as, "heavily loyal to the book", but was regarded as being too "sweet" and "whimsical" as well as geared towards a too-young demographic, according to Baruchel. In the novel, Hiccup's dragon, Toothless, is a Common or Garden Dragon, a small breed. In the film, Toothless is a Night Fury, the rarest of all dragons, and is large enough to serve as a flying mount for both Hiccup and Astrid. The filmmakers hired cinematographer Roger Deakins (known for frequently collaborating with the Coen brothers) as a visual consultant to help them with lighting and overall look of the film and to "add a live-action feel". Extensive research was done to depict both flight, as the directors knew they would be the biggest draw of the film's 3D effects, and fire, given animation could break away from the limitations seen in live-action films, where propane flames are usual due to being easier to extinguish. The dragons' design made sure to create animals that were comical and also innovative compared to other dragon fiction. Toothless in particular tried to combine various dragon traits in a black panther-inspired design, that also had large ears and eyes to convey emotion better.

The directors made sure to cash in the improvisation abilities of the secondary cast—Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jonah Hill, Kristen Wiig and T.J Miller—by frequently bringing them together in the recording sessions.

## Music

*Main article: How to Train Your Dragon/Soundtrack*
John Powell returned to DreamWorks Animation to score *How to Train Your Dragon*, making it his sixth collaboration with the studio, following his previous score for *Kung Fu Panda* (which he scored with Hans Zimmer). Powell composed an orchestral score, combining bombastic brass with loud percussion and soothing strings, while also using exotic, Scottish and Irish tones with instruments like the penny whistle and bagpipes. Additionally, Icelandic singer Jónsi wrote and performed the song "Sticks & Stones" for the film. The score was released by Varèse Sarabande on March 23, 2010.

Overall, the score was well received by film score critics. Powell earned his first Academy Award nomination for his work on the film, ultimately losing to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for their score for *The Social Network*.

## Release

*How to Train Your Dragon* had its United States premiere on March 21, 2010, at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California. It was theatrically released on March 26, 2010, in the United States. It was originally scheduled for release on November 20, 2009, but was pushed back to avoid competition with crowded family films released in November. The film was digitally re-mastered into IMAX 3D, and released to 186 North American IMAX theatres, and approximately 80 IMAX theatres outside North America.

### Competition for 3D screens

A month before the release, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg protested Warner Bros.' decision to convert *Clash of the Titans* from 2D to 3D, then to release it one week after *How to Train Your Dragon*. Entertainment reporter Kim Masters described the 3D release schedule around March 2010 as a "traffic jam", and speculated that the lack of 3D screen availability could hurt Katzenberg's prospects despite his support of the 3D format.

In March 2010, theater industry executives accused Paramount of using high-pressure tactics to coerce theaters to screen *How to Train Your Dragon* rather than the competing 3D releases, *Clash of the Titans* and Tim Burton's *Alice in Wonderland*. As theater multiplexes often had just one 3D screen, theaters were unable to accommodate more than one 3D presentation at a time.

### Box-office

*How to Train Your Dragon* topped the North American box office with $43.7 million in its first weekend of release. The film grossed $217,581,231 in the United States and Canada and $277,297,528 in foreign countries with a worldwide total of $494,878,759. *How to Train Your Dragon* is DreamWorks Animation's highest-grossing film in the American and Canadian box office other than the *Shrek* films. It is the sixth-highest-grossing animated film of 2010 with $494.8 million, behind *Toy Story 3* with $1,063.2 million, *Computeropolis 3* with $783.6 million, *Shrek Forever After* with $752.6 million, *Tangled* with $576.6 million, and *Despicable Me* with $543.1 million and the 11th-highest-grossing movie of 2010. As of 2018, the *How to Train Your Dragon* series has grossed over $1 billion worldwide.

### Critical reception

*How to Train Your Dragon* received critical acclaim upon its release. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 98% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on 204 reviews from professional critics, with an overall rating average of 7.9/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Boasting dazzling animation, a script with surprising dramatic depth, and thrilling 3-D sequences, *How to Train Your Dragon* soars." By "Tomatometer" score, the film is DreamWorks Animation's highest-rated film. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted averagerating of 74 based on 33 reviews from critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend revealed the average grade cinemagoers gave *How to Train Your Dragon* was A on an A+ to F scale.

### Home media

*How to Train Your Dragon* was released on single-disc DVD, two-disc double DVD pack and Blu-ray/DVD combo pack in Canada and the United States on Friday, October 15, 2010. Among the features available in the two-disc DVD edition is an original sequel short film, *Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon*. As of July 18, 2012, units sold for the DVD stand at more than 6.5 million copies and has grossed $121,663,692.

Samsung signed a deal with DreamWorks to gain exclusive distribution rights to a Blu-ray 3D version of the film. The exclusive agreement ended on September 11, 2011, when *How to Train Your Dragon - 3D* was released in a two-disc Blu-ray combo pack.

It was re-released by Paramount Home Entertainment on Blu-ray and DVD on May 27, 2014.

## Expanded franchise

*Main article: How to Train Your Dragon (franchise)*
## Notes

1. ↑ In July 2014, the film's distribution rights were purchased by DreamWorks Animation from Paramount Pictures and transferred to 20th Century Fox before reverting to Universal Studios in 2018.
2. ↑ Though the dragon is never named in the film itself, its name is mentioned in the official illustrated tie-in book, as well as in *DreamWorks Dragons*. On the film's soundtrack, the dragon is erroneously referred to as the "Green Death" in the track listings.