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Arriving at the height of the 3-D craze, Dreamworks’ How To Train Your Dragon is set to surprise a lot of people. Dragon is a dizzy and thrilling adventure and I’m well prepared to suggest that much of it will have the same impact upon young audiences that movies like Star Wars had on me in the 80′s. Everything about it has been very meticulously designed and planned and when you look at the screen you are seeing a fully realized world.

Recently, I got a chance to sit down and have a phone conversation with the two men responsible for heading up this vision as it came to the screen, Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois (Lilo and Stitch). Both very spirited and satisfied with the film they have made, the boys talked about what it was like to work with Gerard Butler, the tricks of catching those flying sequences and what they both have coming down the pipeline, film wise.

How To Train Your Dragon opens in theaters everywhere today.

[The interview began with Chris, and then I was transferred over to Dean. ]

Both of you went from 2-D hand drawn animation with Lilo and Stitch, your last animated feature, to Dragon, which isn’t just CG animation but there’s the 3-D presentation as well. What was the transition like for you and Dean? Was there a learning curve there?

Chris Sanders: Yeah, we had a crash course in CG and also a crash course in 3-D. To us it was exciting because the whole thing gave us access to some just incredible new tools, and it opened up so many new avenues for storytelling.  You know, with  Lilo and Stitch we worked around the shortcomings of not only 2-D–or I should just say the natural, native attributes of 2-D–but also we did have a very small budget on the film.

So, coming to this film and having a lot more capabilities as far as shadows and effects and textures and things like that… we were absolutely thrilled. The 3-D thing ended up being really just not very difficult to deal with at all.  It was actually the opposite.  It was just exciting.

One thing about the 3D process as it is done at Dreamworks; they really build it into the pipeline–you know the process by which these things are made, they call it the pipeline—and it is integrated so you never have to add it on later. Everything you’re doing is authored in 3-D. The other thing about it that was really very easy and fun was that every single person working on the movie, from the animators, to the lab department, to us, were all aware that the whole thing was going to be in 3-D so everybody’s looking for opportunities to push things that are inherent in the story, but also to watch out for possible trouble anywhere and try to avoid it as things are finished.

You have mentioned that one of the big draws of the movie for you was the opportunity to do the flying scenes. As a viewer, that first scene where Hiccup rides Toothless was just breathtaking from a visual perspective. It didn’t feel like I was just looking at animation, but rather, I was seeing some really interesting cinematography–there was some pretty intense editing going on there– and the dynamic felt real.  How did you approach capturing those scenes so they felt organic and cinematic?

Chris: Yeah, you know , I’d say a huge amount of thought and work went into all of those moments but it was a very welcome extra task because everybody was extremely excited about the flying possibilities and nobody wanted to see this film come out and find themselves wishing that we had worked harder on it.  So, we wanted to make sure that we got everything out of those sequences that was possible.   

One of the things that we found that we needed to have in the room from the very beginning was a little model airplane. Because you couldn’t talk to the animators or even the camera people without having that thing in your hand. it made things so much easier… and the funny thing about that was it really took you back to when you were 10 years old and you’ve just finished gluing together your spitfire model and you’d be spending the next few months flying it around your house.

This movie feels like a real departure from the previous Dreamworks animated films and even Lilo and Stitch.  The feeling I got from it is very similar to fantasy films from the 80’s, stuff like The Neverending Story or Dragon Slayer. There’s more danger there then the standard children’s animated film.  What prompted you to take the film in this direction?

Chris: Yeah, you know there were two things going on there.  First, the actual original book sets for a very bold world. It’s certainly very dangerous and full of giant Vikings and dragons, and huge mountains made of old volcanic rocks.  So the world itself is very bold, but when we came onto the project, they wanted us to take this story and give it a little more weight and scope and fulfill the adventure that was promised. So we took that to heart and they pushed us to keep going and really deliver something that felt like a large-scale adventure.

Story wise, there really are some big differences between the film and Cressida Cowell’s book. There are two big general changes, one being that here, in your film, the dragons don’t speak, and in the books they were not only capable of speech but they were already sort of pets. The movie has the dragons and Vikings in full out war with one another and you really have the emphasis on the Hiccup-Toothless relationship.  There’s an almost ET or a Black Stallion vibe there and because they can’t talk, it’s like they have to find a new way for you guys to handle that relationship.  What brought about that decision?

Chris: Yeah- well it was a big decision, but it was one that was supported by the studio.  We noticed that very same thing; inside the book there are elements of the Viking-Dragon relationships that are symbiotic but there are also elements of Vikings and Dragons being at war.  So we knew that those two things really couldn’t exist in the movie at the same time because the whole thing would short out, so we knew we had to make a decision right away. Are these guys at war or do they live together in some sort of relationship?

And we opted to put them into a relationship where they are at war because it meant that Hiccup would have to take the greatest risk possible in befriending one of these dragons, so everything followed that decision.

By the way, good for you for picking up on the Black Stallion relationship.  It’s one of Dean and mine’s favorite, favorite movies and it’s one of the things that we referenced when we were creating that sequence where Hiccup and Toothless have that first approach.

One of the neat things about the film is the variety of dragons we get to see.  They all have their own personality and species and you get the idea that peeking into the dragon world, you’d just find more and more of these things.  Can you talk about what it was like bringing them to life in the film?

Chris: You know that came from a couple different places.  One of the things that we were very excited about was the different species of dragons that were presented in the book. We felt that dragons by themselves weren’t really a big draw these days. You’ve seen a lot of them… and the fact that they were different species, we thought really reinvigorated the whole idea of dragons and then we were able to give them different personalities that would match their exteriors–so that was one of the cool things.

In the case of Toothless, we had tasked them with building a dragon that in a Viking world, would be a bit of a ghost; a dragon that even Vikings were frightened of. And Vikings really don’t fear much in the story and they certainly don’t fear dragons–they take them on head-to-head– but this dragon is different. They’ve actually never seen one in person, so he’s terrifying to them because he comes and goes at night at incredible speed and his attack is devastating

So he starts terrifying but ends as this very warm, friendly creature that Hiccup befriends and learns a lot about. So he[Toothless]  has to do a great deal of acting and that’s one of the guiding principles behind his design,  that he be frightening and a bit of a Stealth Fighter in their world, but also have the design elements that would make him friendly and cute and really adorable when it comes time to really get to know him.

At this point Chris transferred me over to Dean and we discussed some of the themes and ideas in the film, as well as working with the voice cast.

A question regarding the film’s themes. By changing the story from the book, you’ve made it so that Hiccup doesn’t really have a mom anymore and he’s got a dad who doesn’t really understand him at all. Toothless is sort of an orphan as well.  There was a lot of that going on in Lilo and Stitch too, with families working to come together as a whole.  Why is it that you think those elements resurfaced here in this story?

Dean: I think–Chris and I both–well , we started on Mulan which was a  complete family and you can absolutely make a film work with those ingredients. But we do find that de-stabilizing our main character is great for the start of a film, and particularly giving main characters a hurdle to overcome and parent-child relationships are definitely pretty universal.

So, the idea was to have Hiccup not only feel out of place in his own world, but even out of place in his own home. He’s living effectively in this Viking bachelor pad where everything is toothy and larger than he is, and that relationship is reflected with he and his dad who is charged with such heavy responsibility with having to look after an entire Viking tribe and deal with this menace that they can’t seem to ever get control of, and then a kid who is constantly getting in the way.  I mean we just wanted to stack the odds against him.  

We thought if his mother was there, ever-present, she’d be the voice of reason. She’d probably diffuse a lot of the tension that we were looking to create so we deliberately just avoided her as a subject and only touched upon her once or twice.  There is a sentimental moment where the father exchanges an heirloom with Hiccup, and we saw that as a nod to the mother.  For the most part it is a coming of age story and a kid learning to stand on his own with a domineering parent and that to us reflects better the ultimate representation of a Viking and Hiccup who is anything but.

Much of the voice work in the film is really fascinating because of how well it meshes with the character animation. For example, [Gerard] Butler has taken that guy who could become the classic misunderstanding, sort of anti-nurturing father figure and given him a certain amount of depth.

I kept thinking; “Oh, wait, yeah this guy is a Viking, this is how he shows love.”  It’s impressive that the character shading would come across that well in this medium; the animation and the voice acting really felt seamless in the way they were presented.  What was it like directing those performances from those two fronts like that?

Dean: Wow, thank you for noticing, and it’s certainly something that we pushed for, Gerry [Butler] in particular.

When we had a conversation with him it was a good lengthy conversation when he came onto the project. We talked about where we wanted to take the story and specifically his character, and shading him with a lot more dimension, for which he was super thankful because he felt before his role was always just giving speeches. He really did feel like King Leonidis in 300, without the dimension in a way.

So the moment that we really started building upon the father-son relationship–making it a little more dynamic and textured– Gerry jumped into that with both feet, and he loved exploring the dimensions of his character and giving him something that’s universal and empathetic and even at times sympathetic, but also, keeping at the forefront the image of a guy who has to maintain his cool at all times and be a leader. That dichotomy of being a parent to a trouble-maker of a kid and maintaining responsibility on a large scale like he has to was great texture for Gerry.

He’s the kind of actor who really, really gets into it and really works hard. He probably worked harder than anyone on the movie and that’s a lot to say because everyone busted their butts.  He wanted to come back after he had seen the film nearly complete and redo all of his lines because he felt like he could do them even better and I love that about him.

 I think he’s got such great energy and drive, and in particular his dynamic with Jay Baruchel in the room is something that really shows on screen because we were able to mic them in the same room and get them doing some of their scenes together. We got both the uncomfortable, awkward dad visiting son moments, but also the fight moments, and a lot of that meant spontaneity.  We don’t have a lot of that in animation and everything’s kind of worked on in pieces, but we were able to have them double up over their dialogue and step on each other and it felt organic and real.

Next thing you’ve got coming up is The Banshee and Fin Magee, which is going to be a live action film, right? For Disney? 

Dean: Yes that’s a script that’s complete and working hard at getting it made… so that’s definitely one that’s in the works and Chris is back on the project that he had been working on before the Dragon situation came up…

Which is The Croods, right?

Dean: The Croods.  That’s under way, and that’s about to be completed… and beyond that Chris and I have a slate of projects that we’re always working on and we’re planning on doing together.

Do you think you’ll approach a Dragon sequel if it comes up?

Dean: Well, we’re already actively involved in that now.  I’ve been doing some development on it, so sure, absolutely.  I’ve had such a great time working with Dreamworks and it’s such a–not to sound like it’s a company line– a really healthy studio because we don’t have a set house voice, if you know what I mean. There’s no style that’s absolutely consistent in Dreamworks and that allows for all sorts of projects to come up of different types… so absolutely. I want to stick around and get projects off the ground there and take it in all sorts of directions.

Now will the next movie be the next book, or is it going to be something different… an amalgamation?  Can you tell me anything about that?

Dean: Well, we’ve departed rather heavily from the source material in that our dragons don’t speak and the world is a little bit different than the one as indicated in the book and Toothless is certainly a different character.

Nathan: Right, yeah completely.

Dean: I think there may be ideas that we borrow from the other books, but for the most part this will probably remain true to itself… continue down the path that we’ve now set and be its own thing.

Great.  Well thank you very much.  I think you’ve got a hit on your hands. The audience we saw it with seemed to really dig it. There was a 4 year old behind us and it was the first movie he’d ever seen and he was squealing with delight the whole time.

Dean: That’s great! Thank you so much.  We’re about to go talk to a bunch of kids right now at the library so it should be fun.

Thank you very much Chris and Dean.  Good luck with the movie!

Thanks! Talk to you soon.