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Description
Lets continue our DreamWorks marathon with this high-flying sequel where secrets are discovered and a dangerous foe emerges.

Five years after the Viking villagers of Berk and the dragons made peace, they live together in harmony. Hiccup and his dragon, Toothless the Night Fury (presumably the last of his kind) discover and map unexplored lands. Now 20 years old, he is being pressed by his father, Stoick the Vast, to succeed him as chieftain, although Hiccup feels unsure he is ready. While investigating a burnt forest, Hiccup and Astrid discover the remains of a fort encased in ice and meet a dangerous group of dragon-trappers. One of the trappers, Eret, blames the two for his fort's destruction and attempts to capture their dragons for the trappers' leader, Drago Bludvist, who plots to capture and brainwash all of the dragons and make them his soldiers. Hiccup and Astrid escape and warn Stoick about the dragon army Drago is amassing. Stoick orders the villagers to fortify the island and prepare for battle. Hiccup, however, refuses to believe war is inevitable, and flies off to talk to Drago. Stoick stops him, explaining that he once met Drago at a gathering of chiefs, where Drago had offered to protect them from dragons if they pledged to serve him; when they refused, he had his dragons attack them, with Stoick the sole survivor. Undeterred, Hiccup flies off with Toothless in search of Drago to try to reason with him. They meet a dragon-rider named Valka, who is revealed to be Hiccup's long-lost mother. She explains that she, like her son, could not bring herself to kill dragons. After being carried off during a dragon raid, she spent 20 years rescuing dragons from Drago's traps and bringing them to an island nest created out of ice by a gigantic alpha dragon called a "Bewilderbeast", which is able to control smaller dragons. Stoick and his lieutenant Gobber track Hiccup to the nest, where Stoick discovers his wife is alive. Meanwhile, Astrid and the other riders force Eret to lead them to Drago, who captures them and, learning of Berk's dragons, sends his armada to attack the dragon nest. He also attempts to have Eret executed, but Astrid's dragon, Stormfly, flies in and saves him, getting herself captured in the process. A grateful Eret later helps her and the rest of the riders escape. Now it's up to Hiccup, Toothless, and the other riders and dragons to stop Drago from controlling the Bewilderbeast, and by extent all dragons, and using them to cause chaos.

Pros:
1. Hiccup and Toothless are still very likeable protagonists.
2. Astrid, Stoick, Gobber, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Tuffnut, and Ruffnut are all still great support.
3. Valka and Eret are great new additions.
4. Drago is an intimidating, threatening, and amazing villain.
5. Some pretty decent humor.
6. Plenty of well handled drama.
7. Spectacular flying scenes.
8. Very intense and gripping action scenes.
9. Amazing chemistry and development from the characters.
10. Several charming and heartwarming moments.
11. John Powell delivers another stellar score.
12. The designs for the new dragons are amazing and bad-ass.
13. Absolutely beautiful and highly crafted animation that's a big upgrade from it's already visually stunning predecessor.
14. The story is amazingly well written, adventurous, dramatic, and succeeds in continuing the story from the first movie.

Cons:
1.

Overall:
Much like how Kung Fu Panda 2 was a big upgrade from it's predecessor, the same can definitely be said for this film too. This is a must watch for any fan of the franchise.

Rating:
10/10 (Perfect)

Production Notes and Trivia:
1. After the success of the first film, the sequel was announced on April 27, 2010. "How to Train Your Dragon … has become DreamWorks Animation's next franchise. We plan to release the sequel theatrically in 2013," said Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks Animation's CEO. It was later revealed that DeBlois had started drafting the outline for a sequel in February 2010 at Skywalker Ranch, during the final sound mix of the first film. The film was originally scheduled for release on June 20, 2014, but in August 2013 the release date was moved forward one week to June 13, 2014.
2. The film was written, directed, and executive produced by Dean DeBlois, the co-writer/co-director of the first film. Bonnie Arnold, the producer of the first film, also returned, while Chris Sanders, who co-directed and co-wrote the first film, acted only as an additional executive producer this time due to his involvement with The Croods. When offered the sequel, DeBlois accepted it on condition he could turn it into a trilogy. For the sequel, he intended to revisit the films of his youth, with The Empire Strikes Back and My Neighbor Totoro having the pivotal inspirations for the film. "What I loved especially about Empire is that it expanded Star Wars in every direction: emotionally, its scope, characters, fun. It felt like an embellishment and that's the goal."
3. The entire original voice cast—Baruchel, Butler, Ferguson, Ferrera, Hill, Mintz-Plasse, Miller, and Wiig—returned for the sequel. On June 19, 2012, it was announced that Kit Harington, of Game of Thrones fame, was cast as one of the film's antagonists. At the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con International, it was announced that Cate Blanchett and Djimon Hounsou had joined the cast; they lent their voices to Valka and Drago Bludvist, respectively.
4. While the first film was set in a generic North Sea environment, the creative team decided to focus on Norway this time around. Early in the sequel's development, about a dozen of them traveled there for a week-long research trip, where they toured Oslo, Bergen, and the fjords. DeBlois, together with Gregg Taylor (DreamWorks' head of feature development) and Roger Deakins (a cinematographer who served as visual consultant), then broke off from the group to visit Svalbard and see polar bears in the wild with the assistance of armed guides.
5. DeBlois explained that he had learned from directing Lilo & Stitch that "if you set an animated film in a place you want to visit, there's a chance you might get to go there." He had wanted to visit Svalbard for some time, after learning of its stark beauty from a couple of backpackers he met during earlier visits to Iceland to work with post-rock band Sigur Rós on the 2007 documentary film Heima.
6. Over the five years before the film's release, DreamWorks Animation had substantially overhauled its production workflow and animation software. How to Train Your Dragon 2 was the first DreamWorks Animation film that used "scalable multicore processing", developed together with Hewlett-Packard. Called by Katzenberg as "the next revolution in filmmaking", it enabled artists for the first time to work on rich, complex images in real time, instead of waiting eight hours to see the results the next day. The film was also the studio's first film to use its new animation and lighting software through the entire production. Programs named Premo and Torch allowed much more subtlety, improving facial animation and enabling "the sense of fat, jiggle, loose skin, the sensation of skin moving over muscle instead of masses moving together." By the time production was complete, over 500 people had worked on the film at DreamWorks Animation's headquarters in Glendale, as well as its branch offices at PDI/DreamWorks in Redwood City and DreamWorks India in Bangalore.
7. A video game based on the film was released in June 20i4, and is available for Xbox 360, Nintendo 3DS, Wii, Wii U, and PlayStation 3.

Description
Lets continue our DreamWorks marathon with this high-flying sequel where secrets are discovered and a dangerous foe emerges.

Five years after the Viking villagers of Berk and the dragons made peace, they live together in harmony. Hiccup and his dragon, Toothless the Night Fury (presumably the last of his kind) discover and map unexplored lands. Now 20 years old, he is being pressed by his father, Stoick the Vast, to succeed him as chieftain, although Hiccup feels unsure he is ready. While investigating a burnt forest, Hiccup and Astrid discover the remains of a fort encased in ice and meet a dangerous group of dragon-trappers. One of the trappers, Eret, blames the two for his fort's destruction and attempts to capture their dragons for the trappers' leader, Drago Bludvist, who plots to capture and brainwash all of the dragons and make them his soldiers. Hiccup and Astrid escape and warn Stoick about the dragon army Drago is amassing. Stoick orders the villagers to fortify the island and prepare for battle. Hiccup, however, refuses to believe war is inevitable, and flies off to talk to Drago. Stoick stops him, explaining that he once met Drago at a gathering of chiefs, where Drago had offered to protect them from dragons if they pledged to serve him; when they refused, he had his dragons attack them, with Stoick the sole survivor. Undeterred, Hiccup flies off with Toothless in search of Drago to try to reason with him. They meet a dragon-rider named Valka, who is revealed to be Hiccup's long-lost mother. She explains that she, like her son, could not bring herself to kill dragons. After being carried off during a dragon raid, she spent 20 years rescuing dragons from Drago's traps and bringing them to an island nest created out of ice by a gigantic alpha dragon called a "Bewilderbeast", which is able to control smaller dragons. Stoick and his lieutenant Gobber track Hiccup to the nest, where Stoick discovers his wife is alive. Meanwhile, Astrid and the other riders force Eret to lead them to Drago, who captures them and, learning of Berk's dragons, sends his armada to attack the dragon nest. He also attempts to have Eret executed, but Astrid's dragon, Stormfly, flies in and saves him, getting herself captured in the process. A grateful Eret later helps her and the rest of the riders escape. Now it's up to Hiccup, Toothless, and the other riders and dragons to stop Drago from controlling the Bewilderbeast, and by extent all dragons, and using them to cause chaos.

Pros:
1. Hiccup and Toothless are still very likeable protagonists.
2. Astrid, Stoick, Gobber, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Tuffnut, and Ruffnut are all still great support.
3. Valka and Eret are great new additions.
4. Drago is an intimidating, threatening, and amazing villain.
5. Some pretty decent humor.
6. Plenty of well handled drama.
7. Spectacular flying scenes.
8. Very intense and gripping action scenes.
9. Amazing chemistry and development from the characters.
10. Several charming and heartwarming moments.
11. John Powell delivers another stellar score.
12. The designs for the new dragons are amazing and bad-ass.
13. Absolutely beautiful and highly crafted animation that's a big upgrade from it's already visually stunning predecessor.
14. The story is amazingly well written, adventurous, dramatic, and succeeds in continuing the story from the first movie.

Cons:
1.

Overall:
Much like how Kung Fu Panda 2 was a big upgrade from it's predecessor, the same can definitely be said for this film too. This is a must watch for any fan of the franchise.

Rating:
10/10 (Perfect)

Production Notes and Trivia:
1. After the success of the first film, the sequel was announced on April 27, 2010. "How to Train Your Dragon … has become DreamWorks Animation's next franchise. We plan to release the sequel theatrically in 2013," said Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks Animation's CEO. It was later revealed that DeBlois had started drafting the outline for a sequel in February 2010 at Skywalker Ranch, during the final sound mix of the first film. The film was originally scheduled for release on June 20, 2014, but in August 2013 the release date was moved forward one week to June 13, 2014.
2. The film was written, directed, and executive produced by Dean DeBlois, the co-writer/co-director of the first film. Bonnie Arnold, the producer of the first film, also returned, while Chris Sanders, who co-directed and co-wrote the first film, acted only as an additional executive producer this time due to his involvement with The Croods. When offered the sequel, DeBlois accepted it on condition he could turn it into a trilogy. For the sequel, he intended to revisit the films of his youth, with The Empire Strikes Back and My Neighbor Totoro having the pivotal inspirations for the film. "What I loved especially about Empire is that it expanded Star Wars in every direction: emotionally, its scope, characters, fun. It felt like an embellishment and that's the goal."
3. The entire original voice cast—Baruchel, Butler, Ferguson, Ferrera, Hill, Mintz-Plasse, Miller, and Wiig—returned for the sequel. On June 19, 2012, it was announced that Kit Harington, of Game of Thrones fame, was cast as one of the film's antagonists. At the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con International, it was announced that Cate Blanchett and Djimon Hounsou had joined the cast; they lent their voices to Valka and Drago Bludvist, respectively.
4. While the first film was set in a generic North Sea environment, the creative team decided to focus on Norway this time around. Early in the sequel's development, about a dozen of them traveled there for a week-long research trip, where they toured Oslo, Bergen, and the fjords. DeBlois, together with Gregg Taylor (DreamWorks' head of feature development) and Roger Deakins (a cinematographer who served as visual consultant), then broke off from the group to visit Svalbard and see polar bears in the wild with the assistance of armed guides.
5. DeBlois explained that he had learned from directing Lilo & Stitch that "if you set an animated film in a place you want to visit, there's a chance you might get to go there." He had wanted to visit Svalbard for some time, after learning of its stark beauty from a couple of backpackers he met during earlier visits to Iceland to work with post-rock band Sigur Rós on the 2007 documentary film Heima.
6. Over the five years before the film's release, DreamWorks Animation had substantially overhauled its production workflow and animation software. How to Train Your Dragon 2 was the first DreamWorks Animation film that used "scalable multicore processing", developed together with Hewlett-Packard. Called by Katzenberg as "the next revolution in filmmaking", it enabled artists for the first time to work on rich, complex images in real time, instead of waiting eight hours to see the results the next day. The film was also the studio's first film to use its new animation and lighting software through the entire production. Programs named Premo and Torch allowed much more subtlety, improving facial animation and enabling "the sense of fat, jiggle, loose skin, the sensation of skin moving over muscle instead of masses moving together." By the time production was complete, over 500 people had worked on the film at DreamWorks Animation's headquarters in Glendale, as well as its branch offices at PDI/DreamWorks in Redwood City and DreamWorks India in Bangalore.
7. A video game based on the film was released in June 20i4, and is available for Xbox 360, Nintendo 3DS, Wii, Wii U, and PlayStation 3.