The artwork is definitely intriguing, especially as the characters have so obviously aged since the last movie. Considering "Dragons: Riders of Berk" seems to leave everyone at their first-movie age, I wonder if this will signal the end of that series.
I don't think this movie is compatible with the stories from the books, but then again neither was the first movie, really. Which could be a good thing, as, oddly enough, I didn't like the books as much as the movie. I saw another pic from this set at another site mentioning a character named "Valka." As I didn't read far enough into the books to know all the characters, I'm not sure if she's from the books or not, but I'm wondering if she's supposed to be the movie version of Valhallarama, Hiccup's mother (who is hinted at being deceased in the movie\TV show but is definitely alive in the books, and I don't think it's ever been said EXPLICITLY in the movie even with the "breast hat.").
The TV show introduced the main villain from the books, Alvin the Treacherous; it doesn't sound like Alvin has a role in this movie, so I'm wondering if any of the elements\characters from the TV show will also be appearing in this movie.
Astrid looks great, and I'm glad to see they're keeping the TV\Shorts name for her dragon as "Stormfly," since that sort of indicates they won't be trying to "correct" the change from the books to the movie by hooking Hiccup up with an as-yet unintroduced Camikazi (whose dragon was also named Stormfly in the books; this sort of confirms that they're entirely replacing Camikazi's character with Astrid, which helps make the romantic element of first movie more meaningful; the only thing I'm going to miss from this change is it probably means we'll never see Big-Boobied Bertha animated). They seem to be pushing her and her dragon, Stoick, Gobber, Hiccup and his dragon, and this Valka person with her dragon as the main characters in the movie based on the early release artwork, as I have yet to see any artwork representing Snotlout, Fishlegs, the twins, their dragons, or any of the TV characters, or any dragons for Stoick or Gobber. I imagine many of these characters are in the movie, mind you, but I recall the other kids (and especially their dragons) being pushed more heavily in the promo material for the first movie.
Oh, yes -- and I like confident Hiccup's appearance, but I'm a little worried about Jay Burachel's ability to pull off a voice for a character who looks that fiercely confident. We'll see.
Edited by desaix, 24 April 2013 - 07:54 PM.
