How to Train your Dragon 2

I am going to get a lot of hate for this, but before I begin, I will be focusing mainly on the character designs and how they are animated in this film, and not the writing itself (I would have written about the first one, but I definitely remember this one a lot better). While it was an alright sequel, I was honestly quite disappointed in the writing for it as compared to the first one, if you wish to know why, you can read the tiny paragraph below , otherwise you can skip that annoying stuff and get to the more important stuff (I will help you out by even putting a dash over it!),.

While it is understandable for Hiccup to remain the peace-loving, naive, and optimistic person that he is, there were so many moments that made my sister and I want to pull our hair out (Particularly during the scenes where he doesn't get to the point when he wishes to tell his father something important, constantly pausing for the lamest comedic effect), even his friends had far more sense than he did, so this was clearly not a teenager thing (Don't get me wrong, I actually found him funny in this one, even with Jay Baruchel voicing him, but here... he was simply a nuisance). And the attempts at heart warming and tear evoking scenes were honestly really forced and unnecessary, I obviously won't share any spoilers, but their supposed turning point in the plot near the end was really weak to me... but hopefully it makes Hiccup a less annoying character in the next film.

Awhile back I had actually bought the art book for this film, especially since there was so much love being given for the character designs in the film by practitioners and fans alike, I felt that this was most definitely one of the art books I had to have in my collection.

These are just one of many wonderful concepts shown in the art book, where so many things were considered when it came to designing the characters and the costumes they wore. A useful tip that has been given by many character designers is to utilise silhouettes and basic shapes to create a wider range of designs, which can most definitely be seen in the concepts above. I really enjoyed the fact that so much thought was put into their hairstyles and attire (Something that really stood out to me when I was reading Astrid's section when they were redesigning her).

Seeing that vikings are all about the beards and animal fur, I really can't imagine how long it must have taken to model each and every one of them after that (Though I think they did use the same template for some of the background characters in the film, but then again, who hasn't?). I feel that it could have been a real challenge to design a wide variety of vikings seeing that they all tend to bear similar features, but a good character designer definitely knows how to still make them look different enough from one another (Aside from colouring each of them differently that is).

I sadly couldn't remember Stoich the Vast in this film as compared to the first one, but I was sure that he still retained all those qualities that made me like him as a character. While he definitely fits the archetype of the big and tough warrior with a soft heart... well that's just it, it works just fine for him, while he is known to be a conflicting force of sorts, he was still an incredibly reasonable character and it made sense whenever he reacted in anger or fear.

And I suppose I just have a soft spot for characters like these, the wonderful thing is that he still proves himself to be the competent viking leader, despite the issues he faces with his family. And as I mentioned before, the amount of time that must have been taken to model such detailed hair and fur on each character, I mean just look at Stoich's, good lord (I don't think many characters had beards that could compare to his?).

While Valka isn't one of my most favourite characters, I can see why she is so well received by the creators and fans. There is something so unique about her as character in terms of the way she is written, portrayed and designed (ESPECIALLY her design). 

The best thing about the designs for most of the female characters in this film is the fact that all of them DO look as if they actually belong in that world alongside the male vikings. And that's what probably made their female characters so unique looking too, they were designed to be just as strong and tough as the men, while also making sure that they still retained their womanly features and qualities.

I suppose none of us really expected Valka's wife to turn out like this... or maybe some of the bigger fans did as they immediately began making theories after the first film and during the TV series. But I definitely can't help but be one of many people who admires her dragon knight (God I know there's a name for that 'alter-ego' but I just can't be bothered...) look, it is just really neat to look at (Though it definitely made me think for a moment that she was one of the baddies).

Much like the first film, I think we all can agree that Toothless was what made the film, with his absolutely adorable behaviour and mannerisms that makes him seem more like a cat or dog (Though mostly a cat) instead of the fearsome dragon of lightning and death.

The second film was also notable for introducing a whole bunch of new dragons, but honestly, Toothless was definitely still the best dragon out of them all, not just because we already knew him and grew to love him since the first film, but because his design remains the most unique, even compared to the new ones.

While there are definitely some pretty interesting ones, none of them could match up to Toothless (Another personal opinion from me is that some of the new designs... just didn't seem to blend in well with the style of the show, as weird as that may sound, at times it kind of feels like these dragons came from a completely different universe. Like DC and Marvel superheroes coming together, yeah sure they may all be superheroes, but you can tell that they don't go together)

But yes, Toothless made this film a lot more bearable, and the animators did an absolutely wonderful job in bringing out his adorableness, even when he is not necessarily being focused on in the scene and merely appears at the back, it just shows how amazing he is.

Around the time, there has been an uproar over a comment made by one of "Frozen's" animators during an interview on the making of said film: "Historically speaking, animating female characters are really, really difficult, 'cause they have to go through these range of emotions, but they're very, very-" he pauses apparently, "- you have to keep them pretty and they are very sensitive to" yet another pause, "- you can get them off a model very quickly,". That point being was that it harder to animate female characters as compared to men, seeing that they had to be kept pretty and perfect most of the time if not the whole time (It's things like these that keeps making people feel disdain for Disney!.

Well, "How to Train your Dragon 2" definitely proved this Disney animator wrong with one of their now most beloved supporting female characters.

Ruffnut Thorston is the tomboy out of the two females in the Hiccup gang, while she initially didn't stand out that much when placed beside her twin brother, soon enough, her incredibly unique and quirky personality began to unveil itself as the story progressed. In a way, a lot of fans could probably identify with her a lot more than they do Astrid Hofferson (Though the latter also some some wonderful qualities of her own as a character aside from just being a love interest).

And despite the so-called unattractive and unfeminine faces she pulls most of the time, you could see that she is actually a pretty decent looking lady (Why else would she have gained the amorous attentions of two guys, otherwise?). So yes, it is really dumb if animators end up worrying that a character won't look good when they want to experiment with more interesting expressions. 

Pixar's rule of writing also applies pretty well to this matter: "Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likeable to you as you write, but it's poison to the audience."

So props to the designers and animators of this film, you guys did a spectacular job on the characters. If I ever need inspiration or a kick in the butt when it comes to designing better characters, I will always look back to your artbook.