You’re going to have to wait until 2013 for the sequel to How To Train Your Dragon. But DreamWorks Animation has been filling in a few of the blanks…
Outside of Toy Story 3, How To Train Your Dragon, for our money, remains the animated treat of the year. It was a genuine surprise when it turned up, offering far more than the publicity had promised, and actually having 3D that offered something that complemented the film. And while it took a little while to catch fire at the box office, it proved to have legs, to the point where DreamWorks Animation announced that it would be making a sequel to it.
And now, new details of that sequel have emerged.
Firstly, DreamWorks Animation has confirmed that we'll be getting the new movie in 2013, and that the key voice cast will all be returning. That means Jay Baruchel, Craig Ferguson, Jonah Hill, America Ferrera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, TJ Miller and Kristen Wiig.
Also, one of the two original directors is coming back, too. Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders shared directing duties on the first movie, and while Sanders is staying involved, DeBlois is taking sole credit this time around. He's also writing the script, based once more on the books of Cressida Cowell.
DreamWorks Animation currently has a third Madagascar movie, a second Kung Fu Panda outing and a Shrek spin-off in the form of Puss In Boots on its roster. But it does seem to be trying a few things, too, and we can but hope it learns lessons from the creative decline of the Shrek franchise, and nurtures the Dragon sequel a little more successfully.
The first film, incidentally, arrives on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK next month.