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soc_puppet) wrote2011-12-20 11:40 pm
soc_puppet) wrote2011-12-20 11:40 pm
Fated Tuesday, Dragons
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news, which isn't doing Suspicion any favors; if it gets to be Wednesday around the globe without one, anticipation of the other shoe will go up another two or three points.It's looking like time is going to tell here, though the waiting will irk me plenty.
Oh look, there go the comment style changes. Let's just ignore those first two paragraphs, shall we?
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In other news, DRAGONS! Or rather, the new How To Train Your Dragon DVD combo pack thing. I picked it up today and watched both of them and now I have Feelings. Mostly they're good?
Spoilers Ahoy!
Book of Dragons was half basic dragon profiling and half advertisement for the new online game, with the barest semblance of a plot to tie it together. Seems that Gobber's ancestor, Bork(?), was the one who originally compiled the Dragon Compendium on account of not being able to take two steps without running into half a dozen of the creatures. Most of it was in 2D animation similar to the Boneknapper Dragon short. It does have some interesting dragons that were either only briefly touched on in the first film or not mentioned at all, and categorizes all of them to boot. The fact that there were exactly two dragons in each category irked me slightly, but I imagine Dreamworks has plans to expand things if the game turns out to be a success.
From the little I've scraped up of it via the DVD, the game itself looks like the online HTTYD equivalent of Pokémon. If it has any multi-player functions, I am as yet unaware of them. Wikipedia would probably tell me more, but I am, as usual, too lazy/apathetic to check.
The DVD, stickers on the packaging, and the promotional card that came with the DVD (I'll get to that in a minute) all say that the game itself will be available through Jan 31, 2013. I suppose that gives Dreamworks enough time to decide if it's profitable enough to keep it going/possibly give it another boost or two through various means (likely including more direct-to-DVD shorts, and I'll be hoping against hoe for another movie <3), though there's truly no telling at this point.
Anyway, it's mostly fluff/filler/what-have-you with a side of advertising/background worldbuilding for the game. It's not much, but I suppose it's nice if you're looking to include new dragons in fics or something. Or are actually interested in the game.
Speaking of the game! That card I got. "Online Video Game Card" it says, toting All-New Dragons, Viking Avatars, and Epic Battles. (From the packaging alone I'd assumed it was battles with other players, but the video advert made it look rather more like random wild dragon encounters and also said something about earning badges(? for honor or something?), which, well, the random battles is mostly what made me think Pokémon, but the badges aren't detracting from that.) On the back of the card, it gave me two codes to use to play the game, one for me and one advertised as "for a friend". From the television commercials, I'm guessing these codes are what give access to playing the game, though there could be other ways, either now or eventually.
Getting to the point! Anyone interested in the other code? I really do only need the one and would rather like to not be the only one I know playing it :D;;;
Gift of the Night Fury was ...almost your basic psuedo-Xmas episode/special thing? (They gave the holiday a rediculous name that I'm not going to look up right now.) Also it had baby dragons <3 Which the cover kind-of spoiled, but whatever, BABY DRAGONS, DON'T CARE.
Three of the four-and-a-half other dragons got canon names, and at least two of them got canon sexes, though there's still nothing on the Zippleback. I'm also somewhat conflicted with how to mesh Astrid's personality from this with her movie personality, which is... rather different! The meta reason is probably along the lines of "They're writing her inconsistently", but I'm more interested in trying to resolve it within the universe. Possibly she lightened up now that the village doesn't have to worry about fighting dragons anymore? Possibly working with her Nadder had a positive effect on her personality? (I rather like that one; I may adopt it as headcanon.) IDK, it'll take some more thought.
So, uh, plot synopsis. I should maybe include that. Okay, so the first Yule-analogue holiday since the vikings befriended the dragons is coming up and everyone's looking forward to it. Then a bunch of wild dragons fly past and pretty much all of the village dragons join the flock - whoosh! No one knows where they're headed.
Meanwhile, Hiccup and Toothless are out practicing a trick where Hiccup jumps off of Toothless and then lands back in the saddle. He loses his helmet as the same flock of dragons goes flying past. Toothless dives after it, but Hiccup convinces him it's not a big deal, they can get it later. They return to the village to discover that all the other dragons are gone, as previously stated.
Everyone in the village is kinda sad now that they can't celebrate Yule-ish Holiday with their new dragon friends (except Hiccup and Toothless), so Astrid works on trying to come up with new traditions to take everyone's minds off of their sorrows. This... goes less well than she'd like; her first attempt is Yak Nog, which. Uh. Apparently tastes even worse than it sounds (except possibly to dragons?). Blah blah, Astrid points out that at least Toothless isn't going anywhere, 'cuz hey, he can't without Hiccup! Hiccup gets a bright idea and makes a fabulous new tailpiece ofr Toothless that actually responds to what his remaining tailfin does, so he doesn't need Hiccup anymore. Toothless promptly flies off, presumably to where all the other dragons went.
Throughout all of this, Fishlegs has been acting rather suspicious. We learn now that he's actually had his Gronkle chained up in a barn or whatever, so he hasn't been missing it. Hiccup discovers this, the Gronkle breaks free with Hiccup clinging for his life, and the remaining Viking Kids discover that Fishlegs' Gronkle (Meatlump?) is a female and left eggs behind. Hey! Maybe the dragons were going to their breeding grounds! Gasp! Astrid then has her most brilliant(?) idea yet: since everyone's been missing their dragons, they (the kids) should wrap up the Gronkle eggs and leave them as surprise presents for the other villagers! The kids rush to do just that.
Hiccup and the Gronkle arrive at an island where all the other dragons are. Gasp! There's a bunch of baby dragons there! And also some eggs. Hiccup and the Gronkle land, Hiccup observes as a different Gronkle pushes its own eggs into a small pool. Kabloosh! The eggs hatch explosively. "Boy, I'm sure glad there's no Gronkle eggs in the village!" Hiccup blatantly foreshadows.
At the village, the predictible happens.
Hiccup goes looking for Toothless, but only succeeds in finding the other villagers dragons, particularly the other kids'. He asks if he can get a ride back. The Monsterous Nightmare volunteers (Curvetooth? Something along those lines) and they're off; Hiccup stops for a moment to assure the other dragons that they can take as long as they need to and get back to the village when they're ready. The dragons take this as a signal to take off and join Hiccup and the Monsterous Nightmare in flying back to the village, which exhasperates Hiccup slightly, but whatever. Unfortunately, the wind is too strong for the babies to join them, so Hiccup has to hatch an ingenius plan...
Meanwhile, back at the
Cut to the Yule-ish holiday feast, where almost everyone is happy. Hiccup's still a little down, since Toothless isn't there, but Astrid does her best to cheer him up. And then notices Toothless crawling through the door over Hiccup's shoulder and proceeds to troll him mercilessly. Then she whips him around to see Toothless, who pounces on Hiccup. Toothless is also carrying something in his mouth, which he deposits on Hiccup's head: turns out, Toothless when to fetch Hiccup's helmet! What a sweet dragon.
Blah blah, it's the next day, Hiccup is subject to a(nother) rude awakening via dragon-on-the-roof. (This has been a pattern I neglected to mention.) He goes outside to find Toothless with their old harness and tailfin replacement. Hiccup explains that no, they don't need to do that anymore, Toothless has the new thing that he can use to fly on his own. Toothless is having none of it, and eventually manages to get the new replacement fin off his tail by himself. Hiccup gets the message and they go flying. Happily ever after, yadda yadda.
So yeah, pretty basic, almost entirely fluff, but also BABY DRAGONS. YES.
Nice for canon worldbuilding. There were a few scenes cut out, which I will admit bugged me a bit. They were all apparently cut for time, which was the same excuse as all or at least most of the cuts scenes on the original movie - and honestly, I could've gone for more time on all of 'em. Then I took another look at the number of minutes for Gift of the Night Fury, and the penny dropped. I suspect Dreamworks was designing the short to be airable as a half-hour special on television. I'm also willing to bet they time their movies similarly (so they can fit nicely on TV schedules, not so they can fit in half an hour, of course). I still wouldn't mind longer movies/shorts, but I suppose I can live with this.
Interestingly, they don't try and hit us over the head with a huge Xmas-y Aesop at - well, any time, really. I mean, there was one at the end about how Hiccup gave Toothless a gift (the ability to fly independantly again) and Toothless gave Hiccup a better one (the clear signal that he would rather fly with Hiccup than on his own), but for Xmas-y Aesops, I usually expect something about not being selfish or being together with friends/family, all that junk. It almost makes the Yule-ish decor seem arbitrary, IMO.
Anyway, good for names/other worldbuilding and BABY DRAGONS, bad for shortness, and WTF for characterization.
Incidentally, the DVD also advertises a live stage show coming up. I am intrigued, though I'm not sure yet if I'm so much into this series that I want to see it or not. The dragon puppet things do look really cool/professional, though. IDK, maybe if I can find out what the plot is...
All in all, it's rather a lot of plastic and thin air for maybe forty minutes of film and ~$15 USD, but I haven't exactly explored many of the extras in depth yet. I'm apparently enough of a fangirl to make it worth it, but Y(K)MMV. *shrug* Anyone else get these and have thoughts on them?
no subject
I hadn't gotten them, figuring they would be some awful straight-to-video moral with a story attached sort of thing, and it's good to hear that isn't the case.
no subject
I know, right? It's almost like the team wanted to tell another story about dragons, and if putting out some "Christmas Special" DVD gave them the excuse to do so, they were damn well going to do it! So they slapped on some Xmas makeup and sent it out into the world. I am quite pleased :)
no subject
I might have to watch it at some point, then. (I tried reading the books and was promptly disappoint, but that's not much of a surprise.)
no subject
A friend of mine knows way more about both the movie and the books than I do, and she told me that the movie was originally going to be a lot closer to the books. The author herself told Dreamworks that she'd rather they make a good story than follow the books to the letter, and they took her at her word; she apparently is quite happy with the results!