{"id":35079,"date":"2014-12-13T01:20:50","date_gmt":"2014-12-12T17:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=35079"},"modified":"2014-12-12T23:33:46","modified_gmt":"2014-12-12T15:33:46","slug":"how-to-train-your-dragon-2-breathes-fire-with-golden-globe-nomination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/12\/13\/how-to-train-your-dragon-2-breathes-fire-with-golden-globe-nomination\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018How to Train Your Dragon 2\u2019 breathes fire with Golden Globe nomination"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"How<\/a>
How to Train Your Dragon 2 is a 2014 American 3D computer-animated action fantasy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by 20th Century Fox, loosely based on the book series of the same name by Cressida Cowell.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO\u2014Canadian writer-director Dean DeBlois says he thought about the \u201cStar Wars\u201d series when dealing with the \u201ctremendous pressure\u201d he faced in making the \u201cmore ambitious\u201d sequel to the Oscar-nominated \u201cHow to Train Your Dragon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all had it in our minds from the very beginning that if we\u2019re going to jump on to this, we have to make it a film that stands on its own and that will kind of live or die on its own merits and not repeat ourselves as best we can,\u201d said the 44-year-old.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we used \u2018The Empire Strikes Back\u2019 as kind of a model of: \u2018Well here\u2019s a film that not only lived up to its predecessor, which had a very fervent fanbase, but actually surpassed it.\u2019 So that was our goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The approach worked as the star-packed \u201cHow to Train Your Dragon 2\u201d got a Golden Globe nomination for best animated feature film Thursday morning. It\u2019s up against \u201cThe Lego Movie,\u201d \u201cBig Hero 6,\u201d \u201cThe Boxtrolls\u201d and \u201cThe Book of Life.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeBlois, who was born in Brockville, Ont., and grew up in Aylmer, Que., said he\u2019s been busy writing the third instalment in the \u201cDragon\u201d trilogy (which he also plans to direct) and was asleep in his Los Angeles home when his publicist called him with news of the nomination.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think writing for me is like going down a rabbit hole,\u201d he said with a laugh during a telephone interview shortly after the nominations came out. \u201cI just stop communicating with people and fall behind on email and phone calls and bills.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s a fantastic thing to wake up to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow to Train Your Dragon\u201d and its sequel are loosely based on the book series by British children\u2019s author Cressida Cowell.<\/p>\n

DeBlois said he and Chris Sanders were brought on as co-writers and co-directors of the first film \u201cat the 11th hour\u201d after DreamWorks had trouble developing it. \u201cIt was a real rush to the finish,\u201d he said, but the duo went on to earn nominations for a Golden Globe and an Oscar for best animated feature (the film also got an Oscar nomination for best original score).<\/p>\n

With the sequel, they had more time and money to \u201cdream big\u201d and \u201cget really ambitious,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

But Sanders couldn\u2019t do the sequel because he was busy working on \u201cThe Croods,\u201d so DeBlois was on his own as writer-director.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a challenge in and of itself and it definitely forced me to grow, because I couldn\u2019t rely on anyone else,\u201d said DeBlois.<\/p>\n

Then there was the pressure of not only living up to the first film but trying \u201cto surpass it, because the fans are so vocal and fervent,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The sequel was also the first film to put DreamWorks\u2019 new animation software tools to the test, which turned out to be a blessing as it allowed animators to have more control and use a stylis on a tablet to manipulate characters with real-time results, said DeBlois.<\/p>\n

Another blessing: getting Cate Blanchett onboard as for the part of Valka, a dragon rescuer.<\/p>\n

DeBlois said he wrote the part with Blanchett in mind and approached her about it at a cocktail reception prior to the 2011 Oscars telecast.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe replied saying that her three boys were huge fans of the film and they watch it often at their house and she wanted to know more about the character,\u201d<\/p>\n

he recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I described this kind of Dian Fossey\/Jane Goodall type of character who had been living alone with dragons for 20 years, it was amazing\u2014she was all dressed up but she immediately started to show some of the mannerisms of what a woman living among dragons would act like.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe started getting into it and then she smiled and said, \u2018Well, send me the script, I\u2019m not doing anything.\u201d\u2018<\/p>\n

The Golden Globes will air live from the Beverly Hills Hotel in California on Jan. 11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO\u2014Canadian writer-director Dean DeBlois says he thought about the \u201cStar Wars\u201d series when dealing with the \u201ctremendous pressure\u201d he faced …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":35080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hollywood","mauthors-victoria-ahearn","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}