How to Train Your Dragon 2
Also known as HTTYD 2
2014 animated film directed by Dean DeBlois
Key facts
- Directed by
- Dean DeBlois
- Written by
- Dean DeBlois
- Based on
- How to Train Your Dragon , by Cressida Cowell
- Produced by
- Bonnie Arnold
- Starring
- Jay Baruchel America Ferrera Cate Blanchett Gerard Butler Craig Ferguson Jonah Hill Christopher Mintz-Plasse Kristen Wiig T.J. Miller Djimon Hounsou Kit Harington
- Edited by
- John K. Carr
- Music by
- John Powell
- Production company
- DreamWorks Animation
- Distributed by
- 20th Century Fox
- Release dates
- May 16, 2014 ( 2014-05-16 ) ( Cannes ) June 13, 2014 ( 2014-06-13 ) (United States)
- Running time
- 102 minutes
- Country
Article
How to Train Your Dragon 2 is a 2014 American animated fantasy film written and directed by Dean DeBlois, based on the book series by Cressida Cowell. Produced by DreamWorks Animation, it is the sequel to How to Train Your Dragon (2010) and the second installment in the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy. Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kristen Wiig and T.J. Miller reprise their roles from the first film, with Cate Blanchett, Djimon Hounsou and Kit Harington joining the cast. Set five years after the events of the first film, it follows 20-year-old Hiccup and his friends as they encounter Valka, Hiccup's long-lost mother, and Drago Bludvist, a madman who wants to conquer the world by use of a dragon army.
A sequel to How to Train Your Dragon was announced in April 2010, with the outline first drafted in February. DeBlois, who co-directed the first film, agreed to return on the condition he would be allowed to make a trilogy. He cited The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and My Neighbor Totoro (1988) as his main inspirations, with the expanded scope of the former being particularly influential. DeBlois and his creative team visited Svalbard to look for inspirations for the setting. Composer John Powell returned to score the film. It was DreamWorks' first film to use scalable multi-core processing and the studio's new animation and lighting software.