How To Train Your Dragon is becoming a live action adaptation but I seriously doubt it can keep its all-white cast of characters.

This story has no people of color. That is a problem in 2023. My guess is that Astrid 
(the female lead) will once again be flipped so that a minority can be cast in that role.

In the land of transitioning to live-action movies in beloved remakes of animated films, Disney seems to be king. But I just read on some of the blogs I follow that How To Train Your Dragon (a DreamWorks franchise) is now going to be remade as a live-action set of three movies (there were three total installments in the franchise), and it makes me think that the story will have a strong tonal shift. I was a huge fan of the How To Train Your Dragon movies which are only a little over a decade old I think. The last one (which came out a few years ago) landed completely flat with me, being mostly a story that seemed like a retread of prior stories. I learned only recently that the fault for this lies with Steven Spielberg. If you're interested in hearing about it, read on. Otherwise skip the next paragraph.

Here's how I understand the events that led to part three being so "meh." The original plan was for Drago (the villain from part two) to return and eventually be redeemed. Although I have no idea how that would play out, Spielberg apparently told them that they didn't have enough screen-time to do it justice. So, they ended up scrapping it. When I consider what could have been versus what I got, I feel like Drago could well have been the missing element that would have made that movie feel like less of a retread. And maybe, it would have been better to cut the Light Fury instead so that we didn't have that whole, "Let's breakup the couple" thing that happened between Hiccup and Toothless. But whatever...it is what it is. I only ever rewatch the first two and just skip part three whenever I see it is playing.

So, back to a live-action adaptation. I don't see how they are going to be able to film this without making some of the main characters radically different to fit within the mold of how Hollywood does things these days. Representation matters, and I get it. But Hiccup would be radically different if he was a black trans woman, and they needed to make that decision in order to maintain diversity. The animated show doesn't have any non-white characters, and that's just not going to fly anymore. They could flip Astrid (the female lead) and cast a black actress, but that seems like it is becoming a cliché. For example, the CW's Flash and Iris (black), or Spiderman's Tom Holland and Mary Jane (played by Zendaya who is black), or Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) and Chani Kynes (Zendaya again). Those are just three examples. Don't get me wrong. Both of these examples work well. However, people may wonder "why is it always the female lead who gets flipped race-wise and why doesn't it happen to the guy?" It's a good question, and it's probably going to crop up when they start casting for How To Train Your Dragon the live action adaptation. Who knows? This kind of cliché could continue for years before activists demand that Hollywood change. But there already has got to be mounting pressure for studios to break the cycle of always making the woman lead a minority.

Anyway, I will more than likely be excited to watch these live action adaptations. I just wonder what's going to happen with the casting, because (as I see it) these shows are going to be problematic to adapt, because no one wants an all-white cast anymore. Lord of the Rings got away with it, but that wouldn't happen in 2023. If Peter Jackson was casting that show these days, half of his cast would need to be minorities and feature some non-binary or trans characters. Gandalf would probably be a black man. And that's just the truth of it. That wouldn't have bothered me, but it would be a tonal shift from the character I read about in the books and saw in so many art pieces done by John Howe and Alan Lee. If Hiccup ends up being played by a young minority, it's going to be a tonal shift, so same thing. And if they don't cast a minority, then the same problem crops up that has always been present: why does the hero of these fantasy stories always have to be white? I have no answers other than this: writers who make new characters for their fictional worlds need to make their stories more diverse to begin with. They need to start featuring people of color in main roles, so as to avoid adaptation issues when a beloved property becomes adapted for television or movies. If people had done this all along, we wouldn't be having this discussion at all, and I'd have no reason to write this blog post.

How To Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World pushes the message that men will always lose their best friends when a woman comes along to marry them.

This weekend I got a somewhat rare early access ticket for one screening of How To Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World. I'm going to review it now, and this post may have a few spoilers in the sense that I'm examining it for what it is: the end of a trilogy. In other words I'm asking myself and others who read my blog if this really was a good ending for a trilogy.

So here we go.

First off, I want to say that How To Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World is a good movie. It has a solid plot arc, it advances the story from the previous installments, and it provides a conclusion that is indisputable in its finality. I mean...there's literally nowhere else for this franchise to go. It's done, nail in coffin, so to speak.

My big question about this is why? Maybe Dreamworks was just tired of doing this series, even though it was a money-maker for them? It sure seemed that way in the telling of this particular show. We get two big time jumps in this movie: Hiccup marries Astrid (which you know was going to happen), and you see Hiccup with his kids and Astrid at the end of the movie visiting the dragons that (spoiler warning again) they set free to live in the Hidden World that they found in their youth. All the dragons go away to live in this world, including Toothless and his mate. Poignant maybe? But why? If the point of the show was to be about humans and dragons living together, the ultimate lesson we learned is that humans and dragons were incompatible (in this fictionalized universe) and that ultimately it was the humans that caused this to pass. It's a weird thing to be harping on, and it makes for a kind of strange tone as the movie repeats the same theme that you've seen before: bad human threatens dragons yet again and bad human gets defeated but this time there's a permanent way to give dragons a home so that we can't use this plot again.

Additionally, this movie shifts its protagonist from Hiccup (who is front and center in both movies) to him taking a backseat to Toothless courting his mate (the Light Fury you see in the trailer). I'm sure this will be very popular with kids (as it probably should be). But there's probably thirty minutes in this film with no dialogue. It's just Toothless doing cute things with the Light Fury and because we cannot speak dragon, it's like watching cat videos of felines playing with each other with no narration for thirty minutes (there is good music). It's kind of the same thing that 2001: A Space Odyssey did with its enormous expose's of space travel...you got musical overlay because in space, there is no sound.

The definition of poignant is a thing that evokes a keen sense of sadness or regret. I felt that in walking out of the theater after having watched this final installment of the HTTYD movie franchise. I felt it mostly because the character of Hiccup was so young when they just decided to time jump, have him marry Astrid, time jump again to middle age with kids that are probably 8 and 10 years old only to see him take a boat to where the Hidden World is located in the hopes of seeing Toothless one last time (which does happen as Toothless is playing with his own litter of kids at this point). And at first, Toothless doesn't even recognize him.

I'm not sure why we needed to see any of that. Maybe it's because there needed to be absolutely no sequels for this thing. Maybe it's because the creators were tired of trying to come up with stories that might be good and worth animating. But as the series ended, I have to think that the final message (and point) of the entire story is that:

1) Humans don't live well with other intelligent species and probably never will (except for maybe a rarified few).

2) Men will always lose their best friends when a woman comes along to marry them (to the point of not even being able to recognize them as Toothless did at first).

3) A woman is worth the sacrifice that the man makes of his best friends because, hey, you get kids.

These are weird messages to be pushing from a series that I very much enjoyed in the first two installments. Additionally, the lack of a fresh story (just more of the same from HTTYD 2) seemed just a bit disappointing.

I would still recommend seeing the movie; it is a lot of fun.

So in other news I saw the next billion dollar movie. How To Train Your Dragon 2 is a masterpiece. That is all.

A few years ago, my friend James was in town and he wanted to see a movie. He suggested that we see the new Nightmare on Elm Street remake. But I dissuaded him of that (I had an inkling it would be terrible) and instead suggested that we try out How To Train Your Dragon. He agreed because we are both fans of Renderman, Maya, Alembic, and Open VDB (these are names of software packages used to animate some incredible films) and how computers have been utilized to essentially transform the cartoon industry, if not the movie industry as a whole. Of course we both loved it. HTTYD remains one of the best films we've seen together, and it was probably one of the most memorable experiences we've had in our long friendship.

Well Dreamworks' latest endeavor, How To Train Your Dragon 2, is an even better production (and that really is saying a lot). As the credits started rolling in the movie theater last night, I realized I was flooded with feelings about this film that are pretty rare...those kind that bubble to the surface and make me realize that I've just witnessed something awesome, something wonderful, that had everything from humor, to adventure, and to loss. I was pretty speechless, which for me is saying a lot.

How To Train Your Dragon 2 is the kind of movie franchise that comes along in a single generation. Together, the two films are better than anything Pixar has ever put out. Pixar is of course a better animation studio overall because everything else that Dreamworks puts out is comparably worse to every other Pixar product with the exception of maybe Cars. But the story writers behind the How To Train Your Dragon sequel have composed a masterpiece, and its animated with such incredible skill that every frame is something I just want to savor for its sheer beauty.

The How To Train Your Dragon sequel gave me everything that I wanted. I saw the characters grow, I saw new dragon species, I saw dragons as large as kaiju (which is pretty damn ridiculous), I saw the next evolution of Berk, there was humor, there was joy, and there was sadness. In every sense of the word, How To Train Your Dragon is a coming of age story, and I really loved it. There are inevitable comparisons that I made in my head about the relationship of Hiccup to Toothless and Elliot to E.T. (an eighties film a lot of you have probably not seen). But if you have seen E.T., you might see some of what I'm talking about in this film. You know...the good things...like the heartbreaking hug that E.T. gives Elliot at the end of that movie and how friendship and loyalty are seemingly enough to conquer anything. Even if this isn't how the real world works, I like Hiccup's more because it allows me that escape to believe in the impossible. And that, my friends, is movie magic. It's sorcery. And it's left me stunned into silence.

And now of course, I'm wondering how the t.v. series is going to be affected by the events of this amazing tale. So much has changed by the end of How To Train Your Dragon 2 that one can't help but wonder where Hiccup and company can go next. I suppose I'll have to wait like legions of others. But in finishing, I'll be shocked if this sequel doesn't become the next billion dollar movie. That is all.

An older sexier Hiccup flies in on the back of Toothless in 2014 and brings us the coming of age dragon story we've always wanted

Coming in 2014, here is what you'll see...

Hiccup is growing up. I think he looks quite dashing on the back of Toothless here. Looks
maybe around sixteen or seventeen years old and the flaming sword is a nice touch. This is
a leaked photo taken by someone touring Dreamworks Studios, and I first saw it on Perez Hilton.
This image isn't from Perez Hilton's blog though. It's from HTTYD Tumblr. And the image is
all over the internet now so I doubt Dreamworks Studios can do any damage control at this
point. They're probably just going to count it as viral marketing.

This is a coloring pencil sketch that shows Hiccup's face better in the upcoming movie
"How To Train Your Dragon 2." It's done by artist Aty S. Behsam and you can find her
Deviant Art page HERE. HTTYD has "LEGIONS" of fans. Seriously. Not underestimating
this at all. It could quite possibly have an opening that joins Iron Man 3 or The Avengers.

Astrid has become a young Viking woman. I like the way her hair is done. Her dragon looks
pretty too with all of the vibrant colors. Image taken from HTTYD Tumblr. Has anyone read
the books that How To Train Your Dragon is based from? I've been told they have no
resemblance at all to the movie adaptation. Usually there's a "little" resemblance. But a
trusted source told me that the movies are 100% better than the books and that she wouldn't
recommend them at all. Interesting, eh?

Story and images courtesy of inhonoredglory's DeviantArt page located HERE.

Is it just me, or does the older Hiccup look like he could be the brother of Dreamworks'
"Jack Frost" from the movie Rise of the Guardians before he became the "cool" kid with the
white and silver looking hair? Maybe Dreamworks just knows what kind of guy white
 teen-aged girls will go "squee" over and aims at the models that could sing for "One Direction."
For the record, I own Dreamworks stock so I'm part of the problem. You white people
out there with your white kids need to go see more Dreamworks movies so my stock goes up!

Guys! An older sexier Hiccup flies in on the back of Toothless in 2014 and brings us the coming of age dragon story we've always wanted. I think as far as animated stories goes, How To Train Your Dragon was a home run for Dreamworks Animation Studios. I enjoyed it more than Shrek, The Croods, Rise of the Guardians, and Despicable Me, and a few other titles that are quite frankly...pretty forgettable. I think that's why I watch the television series on Cartoon Network, and I wonder if they are going to incorporate any of the stuff from the series into the sequel. For example, Gobber is now a dentist for the dragons, Hiccup is a dragon trainer at the newly opened "Dragon Academy" and there's a section of bad guy vikings that live on their own island exiled from the main tribe, and they are pretty horrible.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to see as many Dreamworks
films as possible thereby increasing the stock so I get a payout. See how
that works? Disclaimer: Any raving I do about Dreamworks' projects is
not selfishly motivated in any way :).

I hope that there will be a seamless transition from the first movie to the second using stuff from the television series, but also striking out on its own with a plot that's even better than the first. They also need to hire the right musical composer to give us the soaring scores that have made How To Train Your Dragon iconic. I also would like to see some intense romance between Astrid and Hiccup that's clearly foreshadowed. If they do it right, this could be the next "billion dollar" franchise because the romance will appeal to all the YA addicted readers out there who might embrace Hiccup and Astrid in the same way that audiences hungered for Bella and Edward (sans vampires, werewolves, and a female protagonist) while appealing to boys who think dragons are cool and who identify with Hiccup's awkwardness (not to mention disability).

Maybe Hiccup will be the "boy band" equivalent in animation, culling the legions of fans that make One Direction such a huge hit.

MY OTHER POSTS ON HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON:

HTTYD in Gifs! How can you not like Gif stories?

How To Train Your Dragon

Dragons: Riders of Berk

***** 

Today is the Writers 4 Writers monthly marketing blitz for authors who have signed up on the list featured on the W4WS Facebook Page located HERE.

Please visit the following author blogs and send out the pre-fabricated sentences they have constructed and copy/paste and then tweet them to your following on twitter. I used to have the W4W's button in my sidebar linked to Stephen Tremp's blog, but that link is broken. I need to hunt down a new one for Stephen.

Anyway, it's as simple as that. Perhaps we can get them some viral marketing and witness sales soar through the roof! Wouldn't that be cool? Unrelated to W4WS, my friend Mimi Strong is experiencing stratospheric sales on her erotic book For You. I think she's probably nearing the 100,000 mark, but haven't spoken to her in a while (her real name is Tamara Paulin, but she also goes by Dalya Moon). I featured one of her YA novels called Practice Cake on my blog way back when (some of you old timers may remember it). Anyway, Mimi is kickin' some ass and may sell a million books before the end of the year. She's already been picked up by USA Today and raved about (another self-publishing success story, and this time from someone I knew when she was in the trenches!) For what it's worth to you, Mimi was ignored/brushed off by agents everywhere. She tried and tried. I know cause I was there comforting her on one of  her fourteen blogs (she has more blogs and more identities than Briane Pagel).

Lesson: It could happen to you!

You can also retweet other people's tweets by visiting #W4WS on twitter.

LAURA ENO

MARIAN ALLEN

Let's take over the internet fellow Writers 4 Writers!

Have a great Monday.

How To Train Your Dragon

“This is Berk. It snows nine months out of the year, and hails the other three. What little food grows here is tough and tasteless. The people that grow here, even more so. The only upsides are the pets. While other places have ponies, or parrots… we have dragons.”

That's how the film opens up. And boy does Berk ever have dragons. Ever since I was a kid, I've been fascinated by them. I thought (wrongly) that they could never be reinvented. That dragons were a thing to be respected and feared. I probably got that from playing Dungeons & Dragons. But I just couldn't envision the cute, interesting, and fascinating variety of the ones that are in this movie. And I was pleasantly surprised. It worked. And it worked well. But honestly, what boy doesn't like dragons? I'd say they're pretty popular with girls too...provided that they aren't being sacrificed to them.

Here's what the author said about her dragons and it's a lesson to all of us writers that even the most jaded of creatures, the most overdone, from vampires to werewolves to mermaids and beyond can be reinvented. You just have to get out of the box and think about what it is that you want to do. Then you need to write about it before someone else does.

‎”The dragons I would write about would not be the rather generalized, big, green things that I had read about in storybooks. What I wanted to create was a multiplicity of different dragon species, of all shapes and sizes, adapted to their environment and habitats in the same way as birds or other animals we see today.” 

             - Cressida Cowell, author of How To Train Your Dragon

And then there is Hiccup. He is a stand in for every awkward, non-athletic boy who wanted desperately to fit-in and just never could. This is the boy with the overbearing father who is unsupportive of a son's endeavors because there is only one correct path to follow in life. This is the kind of father who looks at his son, decides with great disappointment that his boy cannot follow this one correct path, and then sets out to makes sure that they live the most mediocre of lives. The angry man. The drunk man. The selfish man. The man that should never have had kids.

But to this, Hiccup says, “Winter in Berk lasts most of the year.. And hangs on with both hands and won’t let go. And the only real comfort against the cold are those you keep close to your heart. I gave my best friend a pretty great gift.. but he gave me a better one.”

I wish I had a pet dragon when I was a kid. That would have been so cool. Well at least I have the series slated to come out on Cartoon Network this fall. Check out the preview for it below.