DreamWorks Animation Archives

How To Train Your Dragon – Weighing in on the Good and The Bad With The Remake. It’s Never As Intense The Second Time Around.

As beloved How To Train Your Dragon is for long-time fans, this one gets the attention of today’s kids rather than appease those who grew up following the original.

How to Train Your Dragon 2025 Movie Poster My theory on why a live-action version of How to Train Your Dragon exists is that DreamWorks Animation/Universal doesn’t want to lose their license to this profitable franchise. Rebooting the series with a live-action adaptation, rather than letting it go, makes business sense.

As a fan of the original series—and having covered it extensively—I still find it hard to accept a new actor playing Hiccup. Mason Thames does a decent job in the role, and Gerard Butler is excellent as Stoick, a role he seems born to play. However, the supporting cast doesn’t capture the humor and charm I loved in the animated versions.

For instance, Fishlegs’ (Julian Dennison) relationship with Hiccup feels less defined. Snotlout (Gabriel Howell) doesn’t provoke Hiccup as much, and The Twins (Bronwyn James as Ruffnut and Harry Trevaldwyn as Tuffnut Thorston) come across differently. While the performers are competent, their roles lack the comedic impact and screen time of their animated counterparts. As for Astrid, Nico Parker doesn’t quite match the fiery presence America Ferrera brought to the role.

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Here’s Everything Viewers Need To Know Before Jurassic World Chaos Theory Season Three Arrives

This recap covers everything viewers need to know before watching the next season of Jurassic World Chaos Theory tomorrow.

Coming to Netflix April 3, 2025

Just what fans of Jurassic World Chaos Theory need to recall is that the gang has one less member. Brooklynn is working with Santos, the enemy, and to keep her friends safe, she must cut ties with her past.

Although this series beginning sets up the belief where she was dead, this young former Vtuber has been alive all this time. She’s been undercover to find out who has been trafficking dinosaurs. After achieving some success, she must go further down the rabbit hole! It’s about time; the movies never went deep into what Biosyn Genetics wants to do with genetically modified dinosaurs.

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DreamWorks’ Dog Man is a Joyful Adaptation Which Barks and Meows at the Same Time!

Absurdism reigns supreme in Dog Man, and as long as everyone is willing to let that inner child come out, there’s something to like about this film.

DreamWorks Dog Man Movie Poster DreamWorks Animation’s Dog Man has an all too familiar vibe which fans of Captain Underpants can easily recognize. The silliness is the same. When author Dav Pilkey created the former as a spinoff, I believe the studio is considering the possibility. And when executive producer Peter Hastings is directing, I say there’s a good chance for a crossover to happen! He worked on various televised Underpants series and to be that intimate with this creator’s works can mean good things.

This movie is a hilarious and curious twist to the Frankenstein story. Officer Knight (voiced by Hastings) never died. He gave a muffled response and a thumb up to approve the decision to cut off his head. Afterwards, the medics attached his dog’s to his body, and I wonder if they performed a brain transplant at the same time? Apparently not, because the character is more canine than anything else. I can only hope that someone put Knight’s head into suspended animation.

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Regarding Two Movie Trailers From Super Bowl Sunday. Quick Thoughts.

When DreamWorks and Disney are riding on the live-action remakes of two celebrated IPs, the movie trailers offered today are not necessarily exciting but will give long time fans hope.

Lilo & Stitch Teaser Poster & Super Bowl Sunday Movie Trailers Although the movie trailers for the live-action take on How to Train Your Dragon and Lilo & Stitch during Super Bowl Sunday make the creatures look fantastic, I still don’t think of these cinematic updates as essential viewing. What I offer here are some quick thoughts about the latest promos. Overall, the photorealism is exemplary, and if they were only real, I’d love to play them!

As for what these latest teasers offer:

Stitch on the football field–and the fact Chris Sanders is the voice actor–is enough to get me invested. While this promo is not offering movie footage, I hope all the other CGI elements will be as good. As long Disney delivers the same effort into realizing Jumba and Pleakley as they have into Stitch, this take may well succeed. Continue reading “Regarding Two Movie Trailers From Super Bowl Sunday. Quick Thoughts.”

Everything Old in How to Train Your Dragon is “New” Again, and Original Book News!

Everything that’s once animated in How to Train Your Dragon is now brought to vivid real life in the teaser trailer released a few days ago. Toothless looks terrific and Mason Thames, the actor playing Hiccup Haddock the Third, will take getting used to. My only problem is that there’s nothing new to add to this ‘reboot.’ Everything the teaser trailer showed is basically the first film being recreated in earnest!

I’ve watched everything released that is set in this animated universe (including the children’s Rescue Riders series) and profess a fondness for all the early material, books included! Jay Barachel will always be the voice of Hiccup, and while I’m glad Dean DeBlois has returned to directing this work, I have to wonder if he has ideas to add something fresh so that I’ll enjoy this film. For now, I’m simply not feeling it with this new star. He lacks that awkwardness and belief he’s the runt of the litter. Or rather, not suited to be a Viking.

How to Train Your Dragon Teaser Trailer

The teaser hasn’t made enough of an impression to say DreamWorks made the right call to reinvigorate the franchise.

After Dragons: The Nine Realms, this franchise has nothing left to explore, so the timing of the film is good! After eight successful seasons, the tale has ended. Even the connections with the early series have put a closure to everything. The series revealed that Tom is a distant relative of Hiccup, and even uncovered the resting place of this ancestor. And as for Toothless, I can only assume they’re together in Valhalla, recalling their tales to Odinson.

How to Train Your Dragon School Book Cover As for the original material, there’s good news! Cressida Cowell announced a new series, where Hiccup and gang go to school. In this series, the kids have to deal with other threats, and at time of writing, only the book cover has been revealed. Autographed editions are available to pre-order through Waterstones (UK) website or on Amazon USA.

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In The Bad Guys Haunted Heist, What Can Go Horribly Wrong?

Between the two Halloween specials that are one-shots rather than as part of a series, The Bad Guys Haunted Heist isn’t too bad. It just needs more howl!

The Bad Guys Halloween Heist Although DreamWorks The Bad Guys isn’t the greatest work in their movie catalogue, I still wanted to see what this studio would dream up for this year’s special. When it’s simply labelled The Bad Guys Haunted Heist, I was morbidly curious.

Unlike this studio’s past works, which are enjoyable to watch, this latest lacks the spice that made past specials–Shrek: Thrilling Tales and Scared Shrekless, along with Monsters vs Aliens’ Mutant Pumpkins and Night of the Living Carrots–a joy to watch. These pieces were basically about the title characters celebrating the season and I always play the compilation release, Six Spooky Stories (Amazon link) when Halloween weeks rolls around. Hopefully there’ll be an update that will include the ones that are part of their animated series rollout (My favourite episode is “The Po Who Cried Ghost” from Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness.

What The Bad Guys do is invert the formula from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? and tell it from a villain’s perspective. To say who would have gotten away with it isn’t all that surprising, as I easily guessed how the tale would go.

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