海角大神

罢丑别听How to Train Your Dragon聽sequel pick up a few years after the events of its predecessor (possibly close to real-time, e.g. four years later), with Hiccup (still voiced by Jay Baruchel) now older, smart, and more courageous than last we saw him, as he and Toothless now spend their days聽鈥渆xploring new worlds and charting unmapped territories.鈥�聽On their latest, and biggest, adventure yet, the pair end up facing off against new enemies like the war-mongering Drago Bludvist (Djimon Hounsou), in addition to finding a new ally in the older dragon expert聽Valka (Cate Blanchett).

A previously-released聽teaser trailer聽for聽How to Train Your Dragon 2was all atmosphere, reintroducing moviegoers to the joys of dragon-riding while also showing how Hiccup and Toothless have both matured since the original movie (as has their friendship) through almost pure visual storytelling. The subsequent聽full theatrical preview聽hinted at the heightened stakes and scale of the film (relative to the first installment), but also pulled back the curtain on a detail that might鈥檝e been better saved for the actual movie.

As for the third (and, potentially, final) trailer, it鈥檚 the most story-oriented of the聽How to Train Your Dragon 2聽previews yet; it examines the 鈥渉eart鈥� of the story (see: Hiccup鈥檚 repaired family), presents a good deal of humor, and offers the best tease to date of the film鈥檚 3D elements and genuinely epic action sequences.聽You can watch the preview and see all the fine details for yourself.

The original聽How to Train Your Dragon聽animated feature was a very loose adaptation of the fantasy book series of the same name, authored by Cressida Cowell; by 鈥渧ery loose,鈥� we mean that co-writers/directors Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders, along with co-writer William Davies (Puss in Boots), basically took the name and ran with it, spinning their own adventure narrative with coming of age elements from the source material (plus a subtext about bucking outdated traditions and overcoming prejudice).

How to Train Your Dragon 2聽keeps going in that newfound direction, with DeBlois as the sole writer and director. Fortunately, much like Sanders was able to put together a charmingly idiosyncratic family adventure with his first solo project聽The Croods, early signs (read: trailer footage) indicate that DeBlois will prove equally successful at evolving the characters, story, and themes of the聽How to Train Your Dragon聽universe with the sequel.

Sandy Schaefer blogs at Screen Rant.