How To Train Your Dragon 2 Teaser:Watch Hiccup And Toothless Return

By Nathan Bartlebaugh /

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When I walked into How To Train Your Dragon back in 2010, I wasn€™t expecting anything close to the bold, bright fantasy adventure that met my eyes. Boasting exciting visuals and a tone reminiscent of some vibrant blend of The Black Stallion and Willow, Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders€™s adaptation of Cressida Cowell€™s novels was a leap forward for DreamWorks Animation.

Earning a little less than 500 million worldwide, it was a hit with audiences and critics alike, and was later nominated for an Academy Award for best animated film. It lost out, unjustly in this critic€™s eyes, to Toy Story 3, but there was a deserving fan-base ready for more adventures that came in the form of a Disney Channel series. Now, the heroic Hiccup and his precocious Night Fury friend Toothless are returning for an adventure set five years after the first, involving Burk€™s fearless dragon riders discovering an ice cave filled with wild dragons ready for battle.

With the bulk of the voice-cast reprising their roles, including Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler and America Ferrera in the leads, and Game of Thrones' Kit Harrington joining as a new villain called the Dragon Prince, HTTYD 2 looks to maintain the awesome of the first film. If it follows in the footsteps of other DW series like Kung-Fu Panda, that found a way to burrow deeper into its story, world and characters, then Dragon 2 might well even exceed the high expectations placed on it. As this is poised as part of a trilogy, a strong second chapter is essential.

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The teaser isn€™t giving any hints towards the story, but it€™s an enticing return that joins its dynamic duo of Toothless and Hiccup in mid-flight and suggests that the latter has both embraced his inner Tony Stark and grown into a fine, strapping CGI man.

How To Train Your Dragon 2 opens June 20th, 2014 in the U.S. and on July 1st in the UK.

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