%2BPoster-(BIOSKOP).jpeg)
DeBlois, who co-directed the first film, agreed to return to direct the second film on the condition that he would be allowed to turn it into a trilogy. He cited The Empire Strikes Back and My Neighbor Totoro as his main inspirations, with the expanded scope of the The Empire Strikes Back being particularly influential. The entire voice cast from the first film returned, and Cate Blanchett and Djimon Hounsou signed on to voice Valka and Drago, respectively. DeBlois and his creative team visited Norway and Svalbard to give them ideas for the setting. Composer John Powell returned to score the film. How to Train Your Dragon 2 benefited from advances in animation technology and was Dreamworks' first film to use scalable multi-core processing and the studio's new animation and lighting software.
The film was released in the United States on June 13, 2014, and like its predecessor, received near-unanimous universal acclaim. Critics in particular praised the film for its animation, voice acting, action scenes, emotional depth, and darker, more serious tone compared to its predecessor. As of November 3, the film has grossed over $618 million worldwide, making it the highest grossing animated film of 2014 as well as the eighth highest-grossing film of the year overall. While How to Train Your Dragon 2 has performed lower than its predecessor at the US box office, it has performed much better than the first film internationally. The third and final film in the series, titled How to Train Your Dragon 3, is scheduled to be released on June 9, 2017.
Plot:
Five years after the Viking village of Berk made peace with the dragons, they now live among the villagers as helpful companions. Hiccup goes on adventures with his dragon, Toothless, as they discover and map unexplored lands and territories. Having come of age, he is being pressed by his father, Stoick the Vast, to succeed him as chieftain, although Hiccup remains unsure if he is ready for this responsibility.
While investigating a wildfire, Hiccup and Astrid discover the remains of a fort encased in a colossal blue ice formation and encounter a dragon trapper named Eret, who blames them for the destruction of his fort and attempts to capture their dragons for an insane conqueror named Drago Bludvist. The two riders return to Berk to warn Stoick about the dragon army that Drago is amassing, and Stoick orders the villagers to fortify the island and prepare for battle. Stoick explains that he once met Drago at a gathering of chiefs, where Drago, mocked after offering the chiefs his service in return for their servitude, murders them all, with Stoick as the only survivor. Hiccup, however, refuses to believe that war is inevitable. After Stoick interrupts their plan to get Eret to take them to his master, Hiccup flies off with Toothless in search of Drago, to try to reason with him.
They are captured by a dragon rider named Valka, who is revealed to be Hiccup's long-lost mother. She explains that she, like her son, was unable to kill dragons, and so, after being carried off during a dragon raid, she spent twenty years rescuing dragons from Drago's traps and bringing them to an island haven created out of ice by a gigantic Alpha dragon known as the Bewilderbeast, to whom all dragons answer. Stoick tracks Hiccup to the island where he discovers that his wife is still alive. Simultaneously, Astrid and the other riders kidnap Eret to find Drago, but they are also captured and Drago learns of Berk's dragons.
Drago and his army lay siege to Valka's sanctuary, where he reveals that he has his own Bewilderbeast to challenge the Alpha. A battle ensues between the two colossal dragons, which ends with Drago's Bewilderbeast defeating and killing Valka's Bewilderbeast. Drago's Bewilderbeast then seizes control of all the dragons, including Toothless, using a strange form of dragon hypnotism. Hiccup tries to persuade Drago to end the violence, but Drago orders him killed. Toothless, under the influence of Drago's Bewilderbeast, approaches Hiccup and launches a plasma blast. At the last moment, Stoick pushes Hiccup out of the way and is hit instead, killing him. The Alpha then momentarily relinquishes control of Toothless, but Hiccup drives him away in a fit of despair. Drago essentially maroons Hiccup and the others on the island and rides Toothless, again under the control of the Alpha, to lead his enlarged army to destroy Berk. Stoick is given a Viking funeral and Hiccup, now filled with grief and regret at the loss of his father and his dragon, doesn't know what to do anymore. Valka encourages him by saying that he alone can unite humans and dragons. Inspired by her words and his father's, Hiccup decides to return to Berk to stop Drago.The dragon riders fly baby dragons back to Berk, as they are immune to the Alpha's control. They find that Drago's Bewilderbeast has already attacked the village and taken control of the dragons there. Hiccup confronts Drago and a brainwashed Toothless while the other riders work to distract the Bewilderbeast. Hiccup succeeds in disenchanting Toothless, much to Drago's surprise. Drago then orders the Alpha to attack them, and the Bewilderbeast encases them in ice, seemingly killing them. However, Toothless blasts away the ice, revealing that both he and Hiccup are unharmed. He then challenges the Alpha and repeatedly shoots fire pulses at it. This frees the other dragons from the Bewilderbeast's control and makes them side with Toothless, now the new Alpha dragon. All the dragons repeatedly shoot fire at the massive dragon until Toothless fires a final massive blast, breaking its left tusk. Defeated, Drago and his Bewilderbeast retreat into the ocean as the Vikings celebrate their victory and Hiccup is made chieftain of Berk.
The film ends with Berk being rebuilt, a statue of Stoick being constructed in his honor, and Hiccup proudly declaring that while others may have armies and armadas, Berk has its own dragons as Toothless roars one more time.