GULFWEEKLY: Live action fantasy film How to Train Your Dragon is out now in theatres.
The remake of the 2010 namesake animated film takes place in the rugged isle of Berk, where Vikings and dragons have been enemies for generations.
However, a boy named Hiccup (Mason Thames) defies centuries of tradition by befriending a dragon named Toothless, which paves the way to forging a new future and navigating a path towards peace.
The film also stars Gerard Butler reprising his role from the animated franchise as Stoik the Vast, the chieftain of Berk and Hiccup’s father.
In an interview, filmmaker Dean DeBlois broke down the process to bringing the Viking world of Berk alive, and the challenges faced to depict the dragon in a way that does the animated material justice.
Referring to the scene where the dragon first meets his future friend, Dean said the directing team used a foam head while animatronics were used during all the fight sequences.
Each dragon in the film had its own animatronic model to assist the actors in immersing themselves as dragon riders.
“We had to capture convincing movements from our actors when they were riding dragons rather than just having them sit in a box and be moved around,” he said.
“And that meant we built these giant gimbals that were about eight or 10 feet tall that could move in six different axes,” Dean added.
The trilogy, loosely based on the namesake 2003 novel by Cressida Cowell, is the 14th highest grossing animated franchise, with each film earning an Academy Award nomination for best animated feature in addition to the first earning a best original score nomination.
It was already revealed earlier this year that a live action sequel based on How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) was in development and is scheduled to release in 2027.
&uuid=(email))