#httyd rant

[scribbling-toby]

BRO WHY DO THEY KEEP MAKING HICCUP LESS PATHETIC IN EACH PIECE OF MEDIA HES IN.

If anyone read the books, they knows he’s supposed to be the most pathetic, kicked dog, soaking wet cat guy ever. Then they made him in the movies, and sure in the first movie he’s kinda pathetic, BUT IN THE FOLLOWING MOVIES HES LESS PATHETIC AND KINDA HOT??? LIKE STOP BRING BACK MY SAD LITTLE MAN.

And then in the live action(either going to suck or be ok) HE DOESNT LOOK PATHETIC AT ALL. HE LOOKS LIKE RTTE HICCUP WHO ISNT PATHETIC IN THE SLIGHTEST.

BRING BACK PATHETIC MEN PLEASE BRING BACK MY USELESS LITTLE TWELVE YEAR OLD NERD WHO CAN SPEAK TO DRAGONS NOT THIS FLYING GUY WHOS ACTUALLY COOL FOR THE LOVE LF GOD.

[hihhasotherfixations]

So, I finally caved and watched the Live Action httyd (by less conventional means) after hearing so many good things about it on the internet.

I did not like it.

But most of all, I absolutely despise what they did with Stoick.

Little rant incoming, spoilers for the LA (and original) ahead:

Now, first of all. No hate to Gerard Butler. He did fantastic as Stoick and I have no complaints there. My gripes are purely with the writing and decisions made here.

They took all the care out of his character. In the original, Stoick was hard and he was not being the best of dads to Hiccup but you could tell he was trying. Most of all, you could tell how much he cared.

In the live action? It is gone. The story is the same and follows the same beats. But in trying to not make it 1-1 with the original, they either made line deliveries awkwardly placed or changed lines slightly to differ, which ruined the character in the end.

Let me bring some examples:

- In the arena, when Hiccup is trying to tame the Monstrous Nightmare, in the original, Stoick runs in when it goes wrong and rips the gate open, calling the kids over to run to safety. To which Astrid does and Hiccup tries before being intercepted. In the LA? He first stands by the gate unable to get through and calls only to Astrid to come back? Now, was he calling to her to help open the gate? Maybe, but that still doesn’t make sense to me why he would call over Astrid and not even mention his son, or call in any of the other vikings to help instead of the one girl in the way of his son and death. What doesn’t help either is Hiccup saying right before ‘if something goes wrong don’t try to help, my dad respects you’. It puts a different meaning and implication to Stoick calling to Astrid in that moment. (Now I do really like what they did in how Stoick kept the gate open in the end, very cool)

- In the final battle, right after Stoick saved both Hiccup and Toothless from the water, in the original, Stoick stops Hiccup from going after the Red Death, grabbing his hand and saying. “I’m sorry. For- For everything.” And the conversation that follows between them after is pivotal and tugs at your heart. It shows how much these two characters care for each other, and how they’re finally expressing it. Especially after the blowout they had before. In the LA? Stoick also stops Hiccup, but instead, he says “I was only trying to protect you.” The rest of the scene follows roughly the same with some omitted dialogue and dialogue changes. But the fact that Stoick no longer says sorry to his son. The fact that he tries to justify his actions instead of owning up to them? It upset me greatly.

- Lastly, after the battle, when Toothless saved Hiccup and Stoick is searching for him and finds only Toothless without his rider, in the original, Stoick falls to his knees, a silent moment passes where you can see how he grieves. Then, when Toothless opens his eyes, Stoick quietly apologises. Recognising how sincere he is, Toothless opens his wings and shows Hiccup. Stoick grabs Hiccup and exclaims in relief and disbelief “He’s alive, you brought him back alive” to Toothless. With the music swelling and everything, it is a moment that- oh, chef’s kiss, my heart can’t take it. In the LA, Stoick sees him, falls to his knees and says sorry to the air. Because Toothless is not awake. (Then Astrid walks up and comforts him? Which is also a little messed up because that’s not the dynamic they have or are supposed to have). Then when Toothless wakes up the dragon instantly opens his wings, no longer because Stoick apologised. And when Stoick checks Hiccup, he calls out, yells it even. “He’s alive. He’s alive!” To the villagers waiting in the back. It is such a small change. But it changes Stoick as a character so much. It is not internal immense relief, also making him warm up to dragons, it feels more like a show to the village.

Changing all those little moments, no matter how small they seem, it flips Stoick’s character from a dad who is in a rock and a hard place but trying (if not failing) to a man who is chief and has an incompetent son he doesn’t care much for. Their bond and reconciliation doesn’t feel earned or earnest. And in not having the basis for their relationship set up properly, I worry for how the live action movie 2 is going to go if that is gonna be a thing.

In the end, I’m just a fangirl of this franchise who loves the originals so much. And also has daddy issues. So seeing changes like this makes me sad.

If you liked this movie however, I am very glad! So long as more people get introduced to this amazing franchise, I’m happy. I just wanted to give my two cents ^^

Thank you and goodnight

[frosty-iruma1969]

I've personally never seen the "Httyd 3 looks like plastic" complaint ever in my life, it feels like I'm being gaslight at large by the fandom and I don't know why

like, no, your 380p highly edited Pinterest photo isn't proof that it's plastic, I barley see any issues with the models when I watch it in actual good un-edited quality lol

love how detailed and real the skin looks in httyd 3, and I'll fight everyone on that. There's generally just a lot of details put into the models that I love to notice

also, never saw this criticism for httyd 2 or RTTE or Rob / dob lol, literally everyone but hiccup and stoick got their facial details practically washed out, this was just the direction of the franchise since 2011

[jesperestee]

hot take! (i know some may not care) but a female night fury would have been the same as the light fury!! just more toothless' species!! thw was made for fucking money, dont play with me <3 the light fury, techninally, was made to be a "pretty girl dragon", which was why people often change her personality, even i do that!! the light fury could have been a better dragon, and not get that much hate, if the dreamworks went off the first 2 movies and made her have a personality!! So, in conclusion, a female night fury would have looked the same and acted the same as the fucking light fury <3

[tillythemenace]

GENUINELY WONDERING WHERE WERE THESE SENTIMENTS IN HTTYD3...

[moniquegibaeu]

I wanna watch the httyd trilogy but it physically pains me to watch the 3rd movie purely because of things I've heard about it

[dopscratch]

mugshot meme with the trio :) i love fishlegs which reminds me....

INCOMING BOOKS-MOVIES RAMBLE- even if you only know the movies please stick around, i cant make you but maybe you'll find the rest of this interesting

SO, so so so. i love the movies (well the first two...) but i will never forget their transgressions on the original plot

they took away hiccups Heroic Hair why would you do that he's nothing without his Heroic Hair

they swapped hiccup and fishlegs's personalities why would you do that why would you take away my nerd protagonist my nerd self is weeping

hiccup and fishlegs are no longer best friends why why would you do that to me i live for their loser friendship its just like me

they took away camacazi and made a mid love interest i dont care what you say astrid is mid tier never liked her much apologies i also dont like love interests so take my opinons with a grain of salt

in the movies toothless is actually Super Cool and hiccup also becomes Super Cool and earns massive respect and is not a laughingstock ever since the very first movie which hurt his appeal to me in the movies since, believe it or not, i am a Loser and hiccup also being a Loser and Becoming A Hero The Hard Way was very compelling to me

hiccup is the Absolute Main Character in the movies and the supporting characters don't get much spotlight while in the books it's a pretty well balanced group which i like

snotlout is no longer hiccups cousin and is just comic relief which is a HUGE missed opportunity for drama and depth that i loved in the books

villains in general are sort of mid tier throughout (except viggo viggo was cool. also i love dagur he's the best)

WHERE'S ALVIN

dragons are no longer complex. i loved their society of sorts and their unique morals (generally selfish, cruel creatures who have full knowledge of their actions and just don't care- though have the capacity for kindness) and their whole language and the fact hiccup knew that language because he is a Nerd

HICCUP'S LANGUAGES!! GUYS WHO ONLY WATCHED THE MOVIES, DID YOU KNOW HICCUP IS FLUENT IN AT LEAST 4 LANGUAGES?? HE KNOWS NORSE, DRAGONESE, FRENCH, AND LATIN!! WELL YOU DO NOW

HOOOOLY CRAP the story is SO much darker i'll avoid huge spoilers but let's just say. war. slavery. torture. death. surprisingly generous amounts of blood.

more main-line content- technically yes the shows and other companion materials count for the movie-verse but some things are questionably canon and all that. meanwhile you have 12 whole books that are irrefutably canon and are incredibly well-connected especially through the end.

thats everything that my brain feels like spitting out now. there's obviously more (ESPECIALLY in regards to my uh... opinions about the third movie) but im too lazy to do anything about it at the moment

overall all two movies and the shows are still good and i cherish them so my smack talking is pretty lighthearted. still love the books more though

[autisticsharklover]

My thoughts on the how to train your dragon live action,

No one asked for this but I wanna do it! (Also writing this while baked)

I wanna list the positives first cause while I don't like the movie it still has good stuff in it.

Gerrad Butler, omg he was so amazing!!

Nico parker, I think she did amazing with her scenes (even though I didnt like the scrip)

The locations and scenery, alot of this was actually shot in Ireland and I'm losing my mind over that.

Snoutlout, I absolutely love how they framed snoutlouts character in the movie as he doesn't just come across as an asshole but rather takes aspects from the shows about his relationship with his father(Also loved the actor!)

Fishlegs, (He's literally me) I LOVE how fishlegs is even more nerdy about dragons in this, I also love how he doesn't just sit on the sidelines for hiccup but rather supports him, similar to how they are in both the shows and the books!

The negatives...

Hiccup, he lost every bit of sass, I don't want to just insult the actor but every bit of sarcasm and comedy hiccup had in the animated just got sucked out of him.

The missing scenes, I cannot stress enough how stupid it was for them to cut some of these scenes, ESPECIALLY the terrible terror scene, like that's a major plot point??? How else does hiccup know to blow up the red death???

Astrid, I kind of hate how they wrote her in this, for one she is now out right aggressive to hiccup unlike the original, I also hate how the writers tried to make her seem more "Badass" but it just comes across as annoying and her being a dick, I'm not saying I don't like Astrid in this movie but I just don't like most of the dialogue they gave her.

The Twins, I honestly had hoped for the twins to remain their comedy but I feel like they just sidelined them instead? I don't have much thoughts on them though as they didn't get a lot of screentime

Toothless, I HATE toothless in this, I hate how he looks, sounds and acts, they made him growl like a dog in one scene (his ass is a cat) Also they screwed up his wings in most of the flying shots (look up an image it's bad..) we also get none of the "GET DOWN NIGHTFURY" Scenes which I absolutely HATE it's like they took everything that made him the lightning of offspring and death and chucked in the bin, also when his charging up his blasts he has a green mist in his mouth but his blasts are purple??? I could honestly go on forever on why I hate toothless in this but I'm honestly so tired of him

The dragon nip, this is honestly more me nitpicking but they changed the dragon nip (a major thing in both shows and movies) to just blowing shit into the dragons face to make him sneeze? Idk this is just me nitpicking.

More hiccup, again I don't want to just hate on the actor but it feels like any scene with toothless felt so obviously CGI, idk know how to explain other then it felt like there was zero acting.

Gobber, they cut like half of his dialogue I swear 🙏 it feels like he just lost his charm, and his almost father like relationship with Hiccup.

Test flight, it just felt like a poorly made parody of the original, it doesn't have the tense and fast paced nature of the og.

The music, First off I absolutely love John Powell, I even went to see the orchestra live, but the music in this feels just half assed (like most of the movie) I can't really explain as I'm no good with music terms but it's just off.

The final battle, first off a lot of this is gonna be nitpicky so my bad 🙏 but my first issue is Astrid riding stormfly instead of hiccup because why would astrid who'd never flown a dragon be upfront when they need speed? Again that's just a massive nitpick, another nitpick is the scene where Astrid almost gets eaten by the red death, I think her getting slowly sucked into the red deaths mouth is more terrifying then her being stuck with an axe in the mouth, ALSO AGAIN LACKING THE "GET DOWN NIGHTFURY" DIALOGUE!!!

That's honestly it because I'm extremely tired and am just sick of this movie and I'm just gonna go watch the og.

[littlekirpichi]

the way httyd 2 gave up on world building it was trying to do... i'm forever mourning the world with meaningful connections that the Hooligans of Berk could have had, with their fast Viking boats and dragons. it's the perfect isolation, cultural and political. Hiccup is said to meet people when he explores the islands, but he just... what exactly he does? why isn't his father interested? where are the trade routes and alliances? why does Berk choose isolation, over and over? so many questions.

also, httyd 3. why are the three kings/chiefs/dukes/what ever they are even scared of Berk? it's just one island. they with their alliance have much more to offer in terms of warfare. and Berk is just _an_island_. they ARE isolated. dragons can do only this much, and they are not the ultimate weapon, as well as the power of friendship can't be the ultimate weapon. what about the alliance with the tribe of Eret, son of Eret? he was the chief. they just... relocated him. what about his tribe? what is going on there? were they consumed by the tribe of Hooligans or what? is it just an alliance? why is Eret there on Berk then? is he hostage? does he just visit Berk? why does he play such a huge role in Berks inner politics? why is he the advisor? i don't understand... *cries*

just a single island can't pose a significant threat to the alliance of THREE "countries" (i don't know what those warlords are rulers of, they never explain this). also, what is their interest in it? dragon trade? oh my, six young adults keep attacking their ships and freeing dragons... and they don't even know the location of Berk. what is actually going on in the Barbaric archipelago. what is the place of Berk anyway? they aren't in the middle of a Pacific. people have to know about this island. they have to have a little trade. you CAN figure out their location. it's impossible to be THIS lost in the goddamn ARCHIPELAGO. there's only so many islands. why is Berk in a cosmic void as it depicted. you can't be in such a void. it's impossible. why then. oh, why is it depicted this way.

what is even going on there. i try and understand nothing. it feels like Berk is in another dimension, which is impossible.

the world of the last two httyd movies feels so unreal it hurts.

[creeky-cricket]

tell me why an obscure franchise that has good character growth that gets thrown away in the third movie, has incredible character development in the first two tho. has 2 fucking series' including new characters and plot, new places, new fucking bits and yet LITTERALY I can't find a SINGLE person that's into it like I am?

[frosty-iruma1969]

Could we hear some of your personal criticisms/complaints of the hidden world? I'm really curious to see them coming from someone who likes it rather than people who talk about it despite already hating it

sure!!! I don’t mind, I suppose it would be a good idea to put them all in one place, anyway.

my personal criticisms and complaints about the hidden world as a huge genuine fan of the movie.

There’s a very specific scene that I don’t particularly enjoy, and it’s the one where tuffnut and hiccup walk together through the forest while making the their way back to where hiccup saw light fury last night. I, personally, feel that this scene was wasted potential and unnecessary in a sea of scenes that actually contribute to the plot. Me and a friend discussed this, and we thought it would be a better overall moment that would serve more purpose to the story if instead of us the viewers having to watch tuffnut babble on for like 30 seconds, we could instead use that time to show us the cut flashback off Stoick talking to young hiccup about the bird that has a broken wing. Not only would this lead to even funnier comedy at the end as Tuffnut bothers hiccup about if he’s ignoring him, but we would also be able to get the flashback that foreshadows hiccup eventually parting ways with toothless as he wants to and is capable of being on his own.

2. the warlords. While I personally think they lead to some unintentional comedy with Grimmel, and I personally like grimmel as a main antagonist anyway, they simply felt like toys that they put into a few scenes to spice things up. And their only tru purpose in the story is summoning Grimmel to help with capturing Berk’s flock. Other than that, they’re nothing characters that literally no one remembers the names of, including me.

3. the movie looks weird at times. It doesn’t look weird most of the time, but like, a handful of times it can look a bit weird. usually I’m an avid defender of the movie’s visuals, as I personally don’t get most of the criticism and I think every part of it is absolutely stunning, but there are very select times where i think toothless *specifically* looks a bit wonky and even a bit plasticy. Specifically during the epilogue, but I think he looks great 90% of the time. There’s also some minor complaints about how I wish I could see hiccup’s adorably cute freckles more often, but I can still see them 99% of the time so it’s moreso a personal thing rather than an actual critique of the movie lol.

4. as much as I love Valka, she shoudlve had a bit more to do. I understand that she might not feel like she has the authority to help hiccup with his internal struggles considering she’s been absent for 20 years of his life, but I think she shoudlve gotten more time to shine. Granted, she did get a fair amount of scenes to herself, and even had one of the most important conversations with hiccup pretty early on, but I think it wasn’t enough for her. Nothing movie breaking, though, just me personally wanting more valka, lmao

5. This one is weird, because it’s the moment where Grimmel shoots toothless and the light fury on the cliff and then chains them up and drags them away, but I never understood how fast he managed to do that? Yeah, I could say it’s one of those things where it happens parallel to other scenes showing on screen so he isn’t completely static when we switch to hiccup, but it somehow still feels like he chained up the two furies WAY too fast. And on top of that, how did Astrid, STORMFLY, Hiccup, or Toothless, or the light fury, not notice his airship carried by FOUR dragons near the cliff top? You could assume he was hiding until he got into place, but I don’t know.

6. the soundtrack doesn’t hit as hard as the other two movies… I’m sorry, it’s true. While John Powell and Jonsi cooked with this soundtrack like the others, I personally think the other movies have the better soundtrack. There’s more variety in them and such, while I feel like the third movie’s soundtrack repeats melodies a lot and has a generally calmer feel to it most of the time. Not saying tracks like Exodus, As long as he’s safe, The Hidden world, Together from afar, or Killer dragons aren’t banger tracks, but overall the other tracks from the other movies are solid 10/10’s with not a single bad track, meanwhile the httyd 3 soundtrack is like, a 9/10.

7. As much as I love the light fury in every aspect, I would not be opposed if she had a different design in the Final Cut. That’s literally it, I don’t even know if this is a criticism, but I would actually love if she had a different design or a slightly different design that kept the essence and feel of the final one. I just feel like they could’ve done a bit more with her visual appearance, that’s it.

8. I wish, I truly wish, we just got ONE solo flight scene between hiccup and toothless. Technically, we did get one that paralleled where no one goes (movie 2) and coming back around (movie 1), and it also doubled as hiccup sharing the joy of flying with his family 10 years later, but I truly wish we just got a solo flight between the two, just them.

And that’s about it, at the moment, that’s literally all my criticisms of the film. I generally love everything else about the movie, and things like the ending I’ve expressed some confusion towards on twitter because of how nuanced it is and how it isn’t black and white and even hard to understand for me, but I think the film is really great! It’s a worthy addition to the franchise, and a fantastic ending to a fantastic trilogy.

[sentient-mawce]

Part four :)

<<FIRST<< <PREVIOUS< Update I finally did the thing! Oh and cami and fishlegs will show up pretty soon so you can look forward to that.

[professor-cold-ramen]

it's simple really:

"The live action adaptation made so many changes" Then they should have made a different movie with the new characters and story themes

"The live action adaptation was exactly the same as the original animated film" Then they should have made a different movie because that one already exists

[asphodeline-lutea]

WHAT ANCIENT GOD HATH I ANGERED TO BE PUNISHED SO??????🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

The how to train your dragon movies are like someone put a very specific curse on me, with a level of vitriol hitherto unseen. What kinda sick bastard thinks up “I hope your favorite childhood book series gets adapted into a movie that has almost nothing to do with the source material. I hope your favorite characters get replaced with lookalikes with a totally different personalities. I hope these movies are beloved, that they’re so much more popular than the books you loved that nobody knows what you’re talking about when you mention them. I hope they’re genuinely good movies, so you can’t even hate them for being bad, there shall be no ground for you to stand on as you sink into the sea.” WHAT ANCIENT GOD HATH I ANGERED TO BE PUNISHED SO?

[waywardsou2]

"There were dragons when I was a boy"

AND THERE SHOULD STILL BE DRAGONS NOW, THEY SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN SENT AWAY. THEY SHOULD NOT HAVE DISSAPEARED OF THE FACE OF THE PLANET

The Dragon's were never meant to leave, they shouldn't have left.

Toothless would have NEVER left Hiccup

Literally the third movie undid the beautiful message at the end of the second movie. Berk was their home, they were going to defend it with everything they had. The Dragons are their friends, their family, their people. They belong with the dragons just as much as the dragons belong with them. Berk was a paradise on Earth for Dragons and humans. Separating them was the worst possible plot route.

I cannot stress enough how devastating it was for the final instalment of the How to Train your Dragon franchise (I'm ignoring that shit tv series and those short movies) to have taken the dragons away from the characters. I cannot state how distraught I am thinking about it now

What the fuck, and how dare you

[nokkiart]

As a long time httyd fan who has been heavily involved in the fandom since the first movie and who has spent years working in the animation industry, I’d like to share my thoughts on the new httyd movie. Keep in mind, this is just my personal opinion and it's completely fine if you disagree with me. I just want to say a little something about all this that really bothers me.

The core reason that Dreamworks and Universal made this film is that it’s a quick and easy cash grab for them. Thats it. They don’t care about telling a good story or making a “better” version of the original movie for fans or even having an accurate portrayal of the characters/story. It’s purely about money. They know that fans of the original film will go see this movie, whether it’s good or bad. And those guaranteed ticket sales are all that matter to the studios. And with Universal, it has the added bonus of being a cheap promotional and merchandising opportunity for the new HTTYD land in Orlando that opens around the same time that the film is premiering in theaters.

And to help the studios make even more money out of this, they are using non-unionized VFX companies around the world to make this film, so that they can get cheaper labor and push the artists to do more that would be against American union standards. The same thing has probably happened with the costuming and fabrication for the filming, hence why the costumes look un-weathered and the sets look cheap. They don’t want to pay for the extra time and effort that it would take to make the practical bits of the production look good.

On top of all this, Dreamworks has already announced that they’re shutting down all their in-house animation projects in favor of using AI and outsourcing projects to cheaper international non-union studios.

With all this in mind, I just can’t support this film and I will not be seeing it in theaters. And I hope that others will do the same.

The only way to stop all these horrible “live action” remakes (which are actually just realistically animated remakes) is to not buy tickets to see them. Money is all that matters to these studios, and if they don’t make any money off of it, then they will stop and try something different. Maybe they'll even go back to focusing on original stories!

That’s the power that we hold as audiences. Our wallets help drive the decisions that the executives make. So support unique storytelling and gorgeous cinematography in movies. Support indie films. Support animators as they're fighting for fair pay and better contracts. But don't support a mediocre shot-for-shot remake riding on the coattails of an already successful film.

And I just want to wrap all this up by saying I have absolutely no hate towards anyone that has worked on the new film. Toothless looks incredible and I know the artists and creatives involved in this project did the best they could with what they were given.

But I also know that those same artists have so many more brilliant ideas that they would’ve loved to be given the creative freedom to do. I just wish hollywood would be willing to take a chance and let them do it.