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allywrites360 · 6 years

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HTTYD Q&A

1. Which movie is your favorite?

Definitely the second one; although that is subject to change after Friday! Though the first one is amazing, you can’t beat the emotional intensity of the second one. I was brought to tears several times throughout the film, and completely blown away by the voice acting. That’s not even mentioning the amazing animation quality and writing.

2. Who is your favorite dragon rider?

Astrid Hofferson, one hundred percent. I completely love how strong she is, both mentally and physically. She’s such an amazing role model for young girls; and everyone to be honest. I also love her witty sense of humour, and I find her the most relatable out of all the dragon riders.

3. Who is your favorite dragon character?

Okay, unpopular opinion but I don’treallycareaboutthedragonsallthatmuch, Don’t get me wrong; they’re adorable, but I watch it for the plot and amazing characters and bonds. If I had to choose though, probably Hookfang. His relationship with Snotlout is hilarious.

4. Which dragon species os your favorite?

Definitely the deadly nadder. I love sharp class dragons, what with their second line of defence and all. I also think that their bird-like qualities are adorable. They’re fast and agile, though not to the extent that strike class is, yet another reason I like them.

5. Which villain is your favorite?

I don’t know, but if I had to pick probably Dagur. He’s one of the only ones to get a redemption arc, though I would have appreciated some more backstory on him. He seems to me like a lonely kid who lost his way, never truly wanting to be evil. I also like his relationship with Heather; which can be summed up in his line “Well, when you only care about yourself, life is simple. Your actions are clear, consequences... (laughs) Who cares? But when that changes...”. He really did have a change of character when Heather showed up, which I guess makes him more of an anti-hero than a villain.

6. Movies or shows?

Ahhh okay, that’s a tough question. Though Httyd 2 is my favourite piece from this franchise, I have to say shows, simply for the fact of character development within the secondary characters. If you haven’t seen Rtte, I highly recommend watching it. It’s such a surreal experience to witness the characters growth over time, not to mention their bond maturing. It adds a whole new layer of depth to the show, which makes it that much more amazing.

7. RTTE or ROB/DOB?

Definitely Rtte, after season two that is. Rob and Dob tend to have a very two dimensional view of the characters, having them act one way the entire show. They also don’t tend to strengthen the bond between the characters, or develop it in any way. Yes, I do bring up their bond a lot. It’s definitely aimed at a much younger audience, so I view it as something entertaining to watch as a filler, as opposed to something I can emotionally connect with.

8. Which Jónsi credits song was your favorite?

Omg Together From Afar had me in tears! That is the best one by far. “You are the reason to go on livin'” is my favourite part of the song, it really showcases Hiccup’s fears of being without Toothless. Which I’m assuming will be a main plot line of the third film. Like I said, haven’t seen it yet.

9. Which score was your favorite?

To be honest, I’ve only listened to part of the second and third films’ scores. I will say that I absolutely adore the score from the first film, and it basically got me through exam week. It’s obviously the most iconic one, what with ‘This is Berk’ and ‘Forbidden Friendship’. I have to listen to the others before I can say for sure though.

10. Favorite song from the 1st score?

It’s a tie between ‘Romantic Flight’ and ‘Forbidden Friendship’. Yes, I know I picked the two most popular tracks, but you say basic, I say iconic. Romantic Flight is so surreal to me, I can almost see myself in the sky with Hiccup and Astrid when I listen to it, and experience none of the other songs quite achieved. Forbidden Friendship on the other hand completely sums up the movie. It always makes me fall in love with the franchise all over again.

11. Favorite song from the 2nd score?

The only one I can recall is ‘Dragon Racing’, though I may be biased because of how often I watch Rtte.

12. Favorite song from the 3rd score?

So far, the only one I’ve allowed myself to listen to is ‘Together From Afar’, though I have no doubt that John Powell will top all of his other work in this film.

13. Favorite moment from the 1st movie?

You know that moment, right before they battle the Red Death? The one where all of the future dragon riders are together in the arena, ready to fight by Hiccup’s side; for dragons; for the very first time? It still sends chills down my spine from how amazing it was. I can’t even describe it, but it was the turning point in not only Hiccup’s life, but the entire franchise. They all knew each other growing up, but that was the first moment their bond was truly forged. Can you spell character development? It was a tie between this and ‘For Everything Else’, but you guys probably don’t want to read an essay about that; you already know how amazing it is.

14. Favorite moment from the 2nd movie?

My favourite moment in the entire franchise is at the beginning of this movie. The scene where Hiccup and Astrid are talking and working on the map. Not only was it super romantic, it really highlighted their personalities, and the development that had occurred since the first film. It also set the tone of maturity for the film, as well as foreshadowed some character development which had yet to come. The very character development which I hope will continue into the third film.

15. Favorite moment from the 3rd movie?

Haven’t seen it yet, though I feel like it might be the Hiccstrid wedding.

16. Toothless or Light Fury?

Again, haven’t seen the movie yet, but I doubt they’ll be able to create the same connection to the Light Fury as they have with Toothless. Not to mention that I read she’s the cause of many of the problems in then third movie.

17. Hiccstrid or NightLight?

Okay, not even a question - Hiccstrid. They have such an amazing dynamic, and are one of the most relatable couples I’ve ever seen. I could go on for days about how amazing they are, but I’m sure you already know. They have a history together, something that can’t be created in one movie’s film length.

18. Fly with Toothless or fight alongside Hiccup?

I have to choose fight alongside Hiccup. After all he’s been through, and with the threat of having to let go of Toothless, he need all the support he can get. He needs to know, more than anything, that people will still stand by him without his dragon. I mean, I probably wouldn’t be much help in a fight, but I’d still try.

19. Own any merch? If so which things?

So far, other than DVD’s, the only piece of mercy I own is a Httyd 3 poster. It’s just the standard one, with Hiccup standing between the Light Fury and Toothless, but I love it nonetheless. I hope to get more though when it all is released after the third movie.

20. Which have you seen/read:

HTTYD 1 -Yes!

HTTYD 2 -Yes!

HTTYD 3 -Not Yet!

Riders/Defenders of Berk -Mostly!

Race to the Edge -Yes!

Live Spectacular -Where Can I Watch It?

Gift of the Night Fury -Yes!

Book of Dragons. -Yes!

Legend of the Boneknapper -Yes!

Dawn of the Dragon Racers -Yes!

ROB Comics -You Mean the Graphic Novels? Yes!

Original books -Working on it!

#httyd #httyd q&a

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ahouseoflies · 5 years

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The Best Films of 2019, Part II

Part I is here. ENDEARING CURIOSITIES WITH BIG FLAWS

106. Alita: Battle Angel (Robert Rodriguez)- I'm not looking at a list of films with budgets over $175 million, but I guarantee this is the one with the lowest stakes. It concerns a cyborg who tries to uncover the identity that the audience knows she has all along, and it takes place on three sets. I was intrigued by the prospect of Robert Rodriguez directing a James Cameron production, since the former uses effects to be lazy and the latter uses effects to challenge himself. Alita is more of a Rodriguez movie in that regard. Although it looks slightly better than those pictures he used to make in his backyard, it ain't by much. 105. The Upside (Neil Burger)- As good enough as movies get, good enough right up to the childish screenwriting contrivances of the third act. ("I guess he knows about wheelchairs now, so he gets a job at a wheelchair factory? Or maybe it's his own factory? I don't know--I'm still spitballing in this production draft.") Queen Nicole is criminally underserved though. Have you read that story about how Keanu Reeves's friend forged his name onto the contract for The Watcher, but Keanu didn't want to go through a prolonged legal battle, so he just showed up despite the fraud? Surely it's got to be something like that. Or maybe she was under the impression her character was still being fleshed out, but she got there and saw that nothing has been changed since the last draft? It's just like, "Yvonne looks stern. More to be added." I know for sure that no one told one of the greatest actresses in the world about the part in which she's supposed to be a good dancer. She would have prepared. 104. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (Dean DeBlois)- HtTYD is still the most visually experimental animated franchise. For example, DeBlois hazes the image when a character is looking at another through a torch, there's a five-minute wordless sequence of dragons falling in love, and a lot of work has been put into crafting peach fuzz. I also appreciate that these films retain consequences. Hiccup has a prosthetic leg, and his dad is still dead. Narratively though, everything feels like a holding pattern, a brand extension that doesn't offer real stakes or real laughs. (Fishlegs has a beard now. That's his character development. That's it.) Even if The Hidden World offers an ending of sorts to the trilogy, it's a story of retreat/escape that can't help but feel like a sideways step from its already disappointing predecessor. My daughter tuned out and got really restless with about twenty minutes left. 103. Greta (Neil Jordan)- Such a boilerplate thriller that I was actually predicting the dialogue at points: "Miss, I'm sorry, but there's nothing we can do if she's just standing there across the street. She's not breaking the law." There is one notable thing that happens though. In a scene at a church, Huppert makes the Sign of the Cross incorrectly. As an actress, kind of negligent. As a French person, pretty exquisite. 102. Anna (Luc Besson)- The timeline-jumping didn't work for me, but without it, I don't think there's much notable about the quadruple-crossing here at all. The awe-inspiring restaurant fight sequence is the film's saving grace; I'm awarding an extra half-star for its slashing-throats-with-plates viscera. 101. Captain Marvel (Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden)- Was I supposed to know what a Skrull was before this? Lee Pace and Djimon Hounsou show up playing Guardians characters, so I think I was supposed to connect more of the sci-fi dots of the first twenty minutes than I did. All of that inter-planetary stuff was tough sledding for me, and I preferred the Elastica music cue and Radio Shack jokes. As it turns out, especially in this genre, it's dramatically frustrating to go on a hero's journey with a character who doesn't know who she is. It was nice to see Samuel L. Jackson, with convincing de-aging effects, get a real arc in one of these movies, rather than just posing here and there. Brie Larson does enough posing for the both of them. 100. Frozen II (Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee)- Frozen begins with sisters being separated after one injures the other. It plays for keeps from minute five. Frozen II, whose smaller stakes are felt in the one-or-so location, B-team songs, and forgettable new characters, never feels as real. 99. Aladdin (Guy Ritchie)- Even if the songs still bang and Nasim Pedrad is very funny, Aladdin feels as cynical and--don't say it, don't say it--unnecessary as all of these live-action remakes do. I'm looking forward to the animated remakes of the live-action remakes, which might figure out a way to reincarnate Robin Williams. One can dream, even cynically. 98. El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (Vince Gilligan)- Finally, the TV movie--and no shade, but this ending we didn't ask for is definitely part of the TV movie tradition--that answers a burning question for Breaking Bad fans: Was Jesse ever interesting by himself?

97. High Life (Claire Denis)- As uncool as it makes me, I have to admit that I just don't care for Claire Denis's aesthetic. Knowing nothing going in, I was captivated by the mysterious first half-hour, but once the film started to explain itself, it seemed like a B movie with more ponderous music. High Life is effectively claustrophobic, but I found myself "yes-anding" most of it. Yes, for example, space is lonely, as I've learned from every other movie about space.

96. Where’d You Go, Bernadette? (Richard Linklater)- From the get-go, this movie doesn't work--structurally, tonally--but the miscalculations of Linklater and Blanchett and especially the mawkish music don't have enough consequence for the film to even fail on a noteworthy level. It's not unpleasant. You just laugh sparingly and think, on the way out, "I don't think she loved her daughter as much as she said she did" or "Get to Antarctica twenty minutes earlier or twenty minutes later." Linklater, an inestimable talent, has added an entry to his filmography that might as well not exist. Making movies, especially adaptations of epistolary books, is hard. I'm being too understanding of that or not understanding enough. 95. Dumbo (Tim Burton)- Just as Dumbo begins to take chances--fashioning itself as an anti-corporate parable with Keaton playing a Disney-esque "architect of dreams"--it settles back down to its own low expectations. Expectations that come from the storytelling and characterization and not the production design, which seems grandly practical except for the CG [rolls up sleeves, adjusts glasses, tightens shoes] elephant in the room. Of the performances, Farrell comes out on top, displaying Movie Star confidence despite very little to work with. (Can a World War I veteran who lost his arm and his wife be allowed a bit more pain?) It gives me no pleasure to dunk on child actors, but both of the kids seem to be reading their lines, and their monotones nearly sink the movie at the beginning. 94. Echo in the Canyon (Andrew Slater)- A nice enough introduction to the scene, but Jakob Dylan's constant presence as an interviewer and performer turns it into a vanity project. The film shuffles among talking heads interviews, prep for an anniversary concert, and an anniversary concert, and I'll let you guess which one of those is interesting. The access that the filmmakers got is impressive, but if a person didn't participate (Carole King is the obvious one), the filmmakers just pretend he or she didn't exist. 93. Diamantino (Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt)- I like the notion of someone so specialized in his profession that he has a child-like understanding of the outside world, and Carloto Cotta sells the innocence of the title character. (The Donna Lewis needle-drop killed me too.) But too often this film feels as if it's focusing on sheer weirdness over satisfying narrative. Cult classics are fine, but you should try for the regular classic. 92. Ma (Tate Taylor)- There are some cool ideas here--the innocent entrees that technology provides, the way the movie earns its R rating. But the script needs a few more passes for everything to congeal past the silliness, especially with regard to the hammy flashbacks that attempt to provide motivation for the Ma figure. I respect the attempt to humanize a monster, but she would be more scary if left opaque. 91. Bombshell (Jay Roach)- The films that try explicitly to comment on our current social climate are never the most successful ones, especially if their internal politics are this muddled. The film takes great pleasure in implicating the toxic system of Fox News, taking shots at anyone who would participate. Then it starts to pick and choose who to like in that system, which is where it gets weird. Obviously, a Fox News employee who sexually harasses another employee is "worse" than an employee who gets harassed. But then the Charles Randolph screenplay starts to sort closeted lesbians and career-strivers, and it's not sure who the bad guys really are. The film moves quite swiftly in its first half, and Charlize Theron's mimicking of Megyn Kelly is eerie. But I don't think Jay Roach knows what he believes. The lurid, claustrophobic scene between Margot Robbie's composite Kayla and John Lithgow's breathy Roger Ailes is the transcendent moment. It teases out the humiliation slowly and powerfully. With a quite meta flourish, the scene makes you hate yourself if you've ever objectified one of the most objectified actresses in the world; she's that great at illustrating her discomfort.

90. Glass (M. Night Shyamalan)- 1. A great example of "story" vs. "things happening." A negative example, I'm afraid. 2. The Osaka Tower represents the literal and figurative highs that the film will literally and figuratively not reach. 3. Spencer Treat Clark back!!! 4. The flashbacks are actual deleted scenes from Unbreakable, which is amazing. 5. Not since Lost has there been a work that seems like obsessive fan service, but the fan in mind is the creator, not any member of the audience. We do not want your explanations about Jai the security guard's role in your universe, Night. 6. This is a sequel to Unbreakable and a sequel to Split, but it somehow does not feel like a third chapter of anything. 7. It makes sense that I watched this on the same day that I listened to Weezer's The Teal Album, their surprise collection of punctilious '80s covers. In both cases, there's an artist who was really important to me in formative years but who has used up the last of whatever capital he has accrued by giving in to his worst instincts. In Shyamalan's case though, at least it's a confident swing. The second act pretty much tells us that we were dumb to believe what he sold us on. Even though it's dramatically inert and completely stops halfway through, this is exactly the movie he wanted to make, which I stupidly still admire. 89. Five Feet Apart (Justin Baldoni)- I checked this out because I have the sneaking suspicion that Haley Lu Richardson is a Movie Star, and she is continuing to progress into that power/responsibility. Otherwise the movie is a by-the-numbers weepie that doesn't really have a new spin on anything but hits its marks adequately. I was surprised that Claire Forlani got neither a "with" nor an "and" card in the credits. How rude. 88. Pet Sematary (Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer)- I like the bleak dive the film takes following its second big twist, which is handled well, but there is a ceiling for an adaptation of one of King's least ambitious and most predetermined tales. 87. Wild Rose (Tom Harper)- So conventional that Jessie Buckley almost got nominated for a Golden Globe. 86. Judy (Rupert Goold)- Just as the leaves start to change, we get biopics like these: too earnest to be cliched, too safe to be original. I'm on the ground floor of the Zellwegerssaince, but Judy is a slog in stretches. 85. The King (David Michod)- Capable but superfluous. Animal Kingdom was nine years ago, so it's quite possible that David Michod, even when he has an imperious Ben Mendelsohn at his disposal, has lost the urgency. The reason that anyone should see this--at least until someone puts together a YouTube compilation of just his scenes--is for Robert Pattinson, whose take on The Dauphin is the frontrunner for Most On-One Performance of the Year. 84. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (J.J. Abrams)- There are just enough moments--the first Force battle between Kylo and Rey being one of them--that remind the viewer of the magic of Star Wars. Kylo Ren's arc concludes in a more satisfying way than I expected, Babu Frik is officially my dude, and Daisy Ridley's post-Star Wars career intrigues me. My Dolby seat was rumbling, and I was pretty charged up on candy. But, man, most of the business here feels compromised, undermined, and inessential. It's a rushed connect-the-dots compared to The Last Jedi. There's a scene in which the gang has to risk wiping C-3PO's memory to gain important information--they need a thing to get to another thing to get to another thing--and there appear to be stakes for just a second. Then, as if to reassure the audience that there will be ten more of these movies, Rey adds, "Doesn't R2 have a backup of your memory?" That's the whole movie in an expensive, nostalgic nutshell.

83. Queen & Slim (Melina Matsoukas)- Capable of tender moments but shot in the foot by its episodic nature, Queen & Slim is the most uneven picture of the year. The characters work well as foils to each other, but Jodie Turner-Smith's performance is overshadowed by Kaluuya's. I have no idea what Chloe Sevigny and Flea are trying to do in their brief time on screen, and I have no idea what the film is trying to do when it disturbs the point of view for a misguided protest sequence. 82. Hustlers (Lorene Scafaria)- It has been a long time since I was so surprised that a movie was over. The coda comes up telling us about, in real life, what kind of criminal slaps on the wrists the characters received, and I got pushed out of the theater wondering what it all amounted to. Yeah, that's the point. I know. Just as none of the 2008 bankers went to jail in the wake of their destruction, none of the women who drugged and exploited them did much time beyond "14 months of weekends" either. But should I applaud moral confusion? Can I be angry about the lack of consequences for both parties? If you want me to judge the film I watched instead of the film I wanted to watch, I can be more complimentary. Some of the most electric moments in 2019 cinema are here, rooted in 2008 strip club music. And saying 2008 strip club rap was good is like saying 1890 French Impressionism was good. Nearly every performance works, from Lili Reinhart's bashfulness to Wai Ching Ho's gratitude to Jennifer Lopez's intractable confidence. Also, I don't know if anyone has noticed this before, but J. Lo has a nice butt. 81. The Report (Scott Z. Burns)- There are some interesting things going on here. For example, this feedback loop: An hour or so in, protagonist Daniel Jones watches a fabricated news feature that explains what waterboarding is, and I had an instinct as an audience member to go, "Like we don't know by now. Don't hold my hand." But the only reason I know is because of news reports like that, informed by work that the real Daniel Jones did, dramatized in the events of the first half of this very movie. Still, this movie is a lot like one of those dishes in which every single element sounds like something you would like--"Ooh, pork belly, delicious. Oooh, lemongrass. Bet those would go well together"--but you take a bite, and it doesn't taste good. Is that your fault or the restaurant's?

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