Dragon training comes to Netfix
Who knew there was such a big market for dragon training and its related shenanigans? Horse training, sure. Dog training, ditto. Cat training? Well, good luck — they’ll never succumb to us humans as overlords.
But as the How to Train Your Dragon film franchise has proven, kids and adults alike are ever invested in the adventures of lanky dragon trainer Hiccup (voiced by Montreal’s Jay Baruchel) and his animated friends.
To wit, the 2010 How to Train Your Dragon film grossed $494 million US worldwide, the 2014 sequel earned $618 million worldwide, and a third instalment is planned for summer 2018. No wonder, then, that Netflix is breathing fire about Dragons: Race to the Edge, its new 13-part animated series that starts streaming Friday.
In it, Hiccup and Toothless lead the Dragon Riders beyond the borders of Berk, where they find the mysterious Dragon Eye — an artifact that will lead them to new lands and new dragons. Alas, the marauding dragon hunters will stop at nothing to seize the power of the Dragon Eye. Art Brown and Doug Sloan, who worked on the films and now are executive producers of the series, recently broke down some key elements of Dragons: Race to the Edge for reporters.
THE MOVIE CONNECTION
Dragons will slip into the franchise just as easily as Hiccup slips into that itsy-bitsy belt of his. Calling it “the prequel to the sequel,” Brown and Sloan say that Dragons: Race to the Edge will be set in between the first and second How to Train Your Dragon films. Viewers will find out how Stoick (voiced by Nolan North, who replaces the films’ Gerard Butler) and Gobber (Craig Ferguson) got their dragons, and how Berk became built up and Hiccup’s inventions, including the dragon blade.
THE CAST
With just 13 episodes in the season, Brown and Sloan decided to to focus on a few of the main characters — Hiccup, Astrid (America Ferrera) and Stoick — with some of the story touching on the side characters. Christopher Mintz-Plasse will revive his role as Fishlegs, and T.J. Miller will be back as Tuffnut. There also will be some new faces: two strong female characters as well as Alfred Molina (Spider-Man 2, Rango) as a new baddie.
THE ACTION
Thanks to new technology, Brown and Sloan were able to step up the action sequences involving the dragons flying and fighting.
Some scenes will even contain thousands of dragons, which they weren’t able to do in the past, as well as water interactions and dragon effects.