Looking mighty sweet!! Great job Chris and gang!!

I can defiantly see some of Chris Sanders flair in the way that Dragon is designed and animated, and nice to see Dreamworks trying out something quite different. Call me intrigued. :)

While I have not been blown away by most of Dreamworks’ output (I’m one of the rare people who didn’t care much for Kung Fu Panda), I will walk through fire for a new Chris & Dean movie.

Looking very nice indeed.
I like how the dragon has a more lizardy, salamander look. A nice departure from the feathery-scaled stereotype.

Love the animation and the concept, not completely sold on the voicing of the main character…

Ah so this is Cris Sander’s new movie? No wonder I love the design of the dragon. The humans are hard to tell, because the lead boy looks like a young Linguine (from Ratatouille). Looks great though and the plot is totally worth seeing but the lead boys voice doesn’t sound like a boy, it sounds like man. That’s the downside so far…

Toothless certainly does look like it’s Chris’s design, so thank god for that! The humans might be good or bad.

Not your typical voice for a hero… maybe a bit annoying at times… but I did enjoy his sarcasm. I really wish they’d reveal who the voices are.

I’m excited by the fact that one of my favourite young actors, Jay Baruchel, is in it, but is also doing a voice. He’s not using his regular speaking voice.

Thank goodness Dean DuBlois is writing and directing this. His work on Lilo and Stitch was AMAZING.

Giant monster dragon mouth thing at the end FTW – gonna be siiiiiiick in 3d. Looks like DW finally making something fun… even if the IRON GIANT sitting next to Hogarth bit and the Meg flying and freaking out on Pegasus in HERCULES are both shot for shot remade in this trailer…

*shrug* Doesn’t look all that interesting to me. The dragon looks really strange. Does Sanders always draw his main animal characters with saucer-shaped heads? And the kid’s voice…gah. Well, it’s just a trailer.

Wow, I can’t wait, I love the snappy animation and the cool character design, bring on the quirkiness !

@rodguen: I say this tongue-in-cheek, but it feels to me, all high-profile animation news journalist are afraid talking about Chris Sanders, considering how he “had to leave” his American Dog project. Explanations for his “leaving” were “business reasons” and he was also accused of being “too quirky” by Lasseter, then nobody wanted to talk about it. In interviews with Lasseter (about Bolt), he acted as if Chris never actually worked on the project. Something’s not right, I wish more people in the know would clarify what exactly happened.

If HTTYD makes more money than Bolt (and believe me it certainly will), Lasseter will look really bad for his “business decision” of playing it “safe” and destroying a director’s years of hard work and passion, So if anyone here have arguments to defend Lasseter, don’t hesitate and shut me up.

I can say this without being fired because I don’t work in hollywood :)

This looks great! Count me in.

Are people really complaining that the dragon doesn’t look enough like every other dragon? Are there rules now on how mythic creatures are supposed to look? Sheesh.

I think that it looks like a Chris Sanders dragon. Not at all what I expected by the title. And that’s a good thing.

I’m not convinced by this trailer that it’s gonna be good, funny and solid, yet again, it’s just a trailer, but you can still find something to suggest that it’s gonna be mediocre just like most of the dw’s animations, the whole character design is just ok, the guy’s appearance is not intriguing at all, i’ve heard that nicolas marlet is among the designers, but the major character design is still somewhat disappointing, at least not that fresh. the first dragon encounter scene shown in the trailer is a bit awkward i have to say, there’s no single funny stunning moment, i was expecting more interactions between that guy and dragon but did get anything from that; back to the dragon design, quite a lot of people are intrigued by the ‘unique’ design, but haven’t you noticed that the design is quite close to some pokemon monster design, and yes, as mentioned above by someone, stitch, but that’s quite reasonable since that guy’s directing the film, but i did find anything quite as ‘unique’ as someone yelled, it’s cute though; one more thing i was expecting a speaking dragon, althrough it might fall to the dw’s speaking animal stereotype, but IMO it could have been much funnier than a pet like side kick character, anyway, let’s wait and see on the big screen, not having faith in this one though (but since dw’s last AvM’s quite horrible, this one’s got a much lower level to start with).

I didn’t feel like the trailer suggested the Hiccup character was a child so the not-a-child voice didn’t bother me. It sounded like an awkward older teen voice.

My disappointment with the trailer is that I sense it has given too much away. I still think most trailers are counter productive that way.

But I look forward to the movie.

I find it interesting that only the dragon has even the slightest hint of the Chris Sanders style, unlike Lilo and Stitch in which his style completely governed the character design.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought Hiccup’s voice seems REALLY off to me. If Hiccup is meant to be the underdog kid trying to prove himself, he certainly doesn’t sound like it.
When his voiceover started talking, I honestly initially thought it was Michael Palin putting on an accent.

What a horrible voice for the main character! He sounds so flat and old for his design.

I’m getting genuinely excited about this movie from this trailer. Good job!

wgan, different jokes for different tastes I guess. I read the book, and it won’t be that kind of simple jokes (an alien dog, or a guy trying to put his belt, but he’s gotten too fat), so you might want to skip it. Your impression of the trailer is probably right, I don’t think you’ll like it.

The book transpires in the trailer, although they took a LOT of liberty with it, but the characters are spot on, Kamikazi will be awesome I think.

The voice of Hiccup is horrible!! I am so annoyed at how old it sounds and the voice is so bad to listen too. What the hell were they thinking? Jay Baruchel’s is 27 years old what the hell are they thinking. Everything else in the trailer looks great, but man that voice for that character as young as he looks is a really bad move. What a disappointment.

I saw a couple of sequences from the film before I saw the trailer, and I was blown away. Then I saw the trailer, and I wondered why the voice that fit so well in the film was annoying in the trailer, and why shots that looked great within their proper context looked contrived in the trailer, and why the trailer needed to give so much story away.

Then I said, ‘Oh, it’s a trailer, and trailers aren’t made by filmmakers or for filmmakers.” I’ve seen enough to feel confident that this is going to be a special film.

I’m shocked at all the negative comments about the voice of the main character. Jay Baruchel may sound 27 but he’s sounded like that since he was 17 and he still plays 17 year olds. Actually, that’s not his real voice, he’s putting it on, but that’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned.

He’s got a unique phrasing and tone. He doesn’t speak in the cliche rhythms of an animated movie main character.

Characters look awesome! I agree with changing his voice. Good job Chris and Dream Works. Looking forward to see this movie.

Looks really good to me. Can’t wait.

A little more footage…

http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/how-to-train-your-dragon/promo-screening

It’s good to see a movie like this coming out soon, especially after a year with Up, it’s nice to be reminded that animation can just be fun. Whilst I daresay the film will have some heart, I can see myself getting lost in it at the cinema, no thanks to the 3-D.

Until the dragon appeared, my first reaction was “Chris Sanders? Really?” But yeah, Toothless is 100% Sanders. Dunno if he focused on the dragon and Dean DeBlois did everything else, or what.

That’s a nice surprise. This thing looks about a million times better than I expected. The STITCH-dragon is almost-creepy alien, and very appealing. The design looks as if it was a team design by Chris Sanders and Wayne Barlow.

Is that Norm MacDonald, sped up, as the narrator? It’s a perfect voice.

I love the look of this, but the trailer makes the plot look like a “Dragonheart” re-hash – which makes me think the movie may be completely predictable (boy be-friends dragon, learns dragons have been mis-understood, convinces a love interest that dragons are friendly, others find out and capture dragon, boy must save dragon using his own ingenuity and resources) If that’s the case, I’ll be groaning through the whole flick.

In any case this movie now gets added to the short list of Dreamworks flicks whose production design hasn’t made me want to wretch. Looks gorgeous and well animated.

oh lord, that dragon looks like my black cat – the cutest bundle of love I’ve ever met. I’m sold!

I’m with Chris J. on this- it looks nice (I really like the dragon design) but story-wise, it seems to be a retread of old animation writing tropes.

Everything is perfect except for the kid. Who the hell voices him, it sounds very annoying!

Eh, I don’t know. The dragon looks a LOT like Stitch. And the story just looks like another “Maybe -we’re- the bad guys” retread a la Avatar or Battle for Terra but with a dragon instead of an alien. There’s got to be more original stories out there.

How many animated films as of late have featured a nerdy central protagonist who eschews traditional and/or customary behavior (in this case, “viking” conduct) in favor of mechanical ingenuity and inventor prowess (Bug’s Life, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, etc.)?

It’s funny how things don’t change, after all these years, the people hating Dreamworks claim they force the poor artists to work only on sequels. None of them actually work there, they twist the truth, and they ignore contradicting facts. The famous “Big Lie” technique (if you repeat a lie often enough, the population will believe it without question). Seems to be working.

I need coffee…

THAT’S a step up from the teaser. I’ll probably be seeing this now.

Robots! I had forgotten Robots. And Igor.

That makes Robots, Igor A Bug’s Life, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and likely How to Train Your Dragon as “nerdy-inventor-protagonist-who-isn’t-appreciated-for-his-skills-at-first-but-eventually-is-called-upon-to-save-the-day-and-by-the-end-of-the-picture-is-rightfully-heralded-as-the-special-person-that-he-is” movies. Am I forgetting any others?

This is obviously a sub-genre of the much greater genre of computer animated films that include under-appreciated heroes that don’t necessarily have to be inventors. For example, virtually every other CG movie (Antz, Bee Movie, Happy Feet, Chicken Little, Kung Fu Panda, Astro Boy, Valiant, etc, etc.).

Hey Brewsters…
I’ve seen part of this film. It’s just like a Pixar film. You’ll see.

I’d be extra-careful in assuming that any ‘jokes’ are from some phantom “exec notes’ and are NOT the work of the writer-Dean DeBlois-and Chris Sanders, as well as the story crew.
Contrary to a tired old beaten-horse belief, there is no battery of ‘execs’ writing or even AFAIK suggesting lines for any of the films at Dreamworks. You’re still free to hate what you see, of course-just be mindful that it might actually be artists who did the work you judge so harshly…from a trailer.

On the other hand, it couldn’t possibly be that wrong assumptions about how the films are made color some of the the perceptions around here…could it?

That trailer got my attention. Great story concept. Love the look of the dragon too.

Methinks the lawyers representing Chris Sanders should get involved here to counter the baseless disinformation.

“I just pray that they don’t intend to do a franchise treatment like they always do (Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda). But apparently this is DreamWorks we’re talking about.”

Well, as other are saying, this movie is based on a series of books, so the ‘franchise-ness’ is there even before the movie is made…