With last Friday's release of HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON on Blu-ray/DVD (DreamWorks Animation Home Ent. and Paramount Home Ent.), we got the chance to speak with directors Chris Sanders & Dean DeBlois about DreamWorks Oscar contender in HD.
With last Friday's release of HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON on Blu-ray/DVD (DreamWorks Animation Home Ent. and Paramount Home Ent.), we got the chance to speak with directors Chris Sanders & Dean DeBlois about DreamWorks Oscar contender in HD. Bonus features include the BD Live making of exclusive, "Finding the Story," and a new short, LEGEND OF THE BONEKNAPPER DRAGON, about a legendary monster that is not what it seems (with 2D sequences by Duncan Studio).
First off, Sanders addressed what they accomplished with DRAGON: "Truly, the more time that passes, the more I am astonished at what our crew accomplished. It would have been an amazing achievement given any amount of time to make this film. But given the shortened time we had to make it, I am even more astonished. I've truly never seen the level of details and artistry our crew was able to achieve on this film."
Sanders then described how DRAGON has impacted his next DreamWorks film, THE CROODS (set for 2012) about a prehistoric rivalry between the leader of the hunt (Nicolas Cage) and a revolutionary inventor (Ryan Reynolds), which is co-directed by Kirk DeMicco.
"DRAGONS was my first 3-D film as well as my first CG film," Sanders admitted, "so every aspect of the film was a learning experience for me. I know much more about the process and strengths and weakness, what is hard and what is easy. So all of these have carried through to THE CROODS. Above all, it’s taught me the nearly limitless abilities of the artists at DreamWorks Animation.
Meanwhile, DeBlois, who will be directing the DRAGON sequel, told AWN that the logical next step would be to explore the impact of how Hiccup has altered the Viking view of Dragons and how they band together to fight an even greater force that threatens the existence of both. "I view the sequel as the second act," he said.
In fact, DeBlois, mentioned in passing that he's struck up an email rapport with AWN's adolescent blogger, Perry Chen (http://www.awn.com/blogs/perrys-previews).
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
