Its directed by Dean DeBlois, who steered the first movie alongside Chris Sanders.
Heres how the chat went…
Whats your day-to-day these days?
Between knowing what the next project is and this one being finished, what have you been doing?
Well, up until Thursday I was working on the outline for the third film.
I pitched that to Jeffrey Katzenberg last Thursday, then I got married on Saturday.
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Thank you.
So you pitched the outline last week, but the film was, effectively, always going to happen?
Surely you told them something about where its all going?
There were a lot of questions.
Okay, if were introducing this character here, how does that play out in the final chapter?
But a version of the specifics are on paper now.
So, without having to give anything about the story away, put me inside that pitch meeting.
What really happens in a meeting like that?
There were two meetings.
Thats what I pitched on Thursday.
You say a forty beat structure.
So were you working to some sort of paradigm there?
There is a book calledSave the Catwritten by Blake Snyder…
I know it well.
Thats how we structured the first movie…
I do it with everything I work on.
I kind of have it…
When youre doing a sequel, maybe you dont need that beat any more.
Did you still want to include that?
It was a big problem for me on the second film, in fact.
This was part of the decision why we opened up this movie five years later in Hiccups life.
Hes at a different rite of passage.
I think I can just about remember back to feeling felt like that.
Were you able to get back into that headspace quite easily?
I remember the feeling Hang on, hang on, I need a minute to figure things out.
Thats really what Valka means in the story.
Having read Cressida Cowells first book, the element that were most compelling to me were the opening lines.
It was Hiccup, as an adult, reflecting back on a time when there were dragons.
Could the come back?
All of that is very compelling to me.
I didnt know you felt so committed to that.
I think theres something bittersweet and powerful about it.
Its quite upsetting just thinking about it.
It is, but thats whats compelling.
Can that story be satisfying?
Nobody wants to tell a disappointing story.
There are great examples out there of stories like this.
I think that element is very compelling to me as well.
I really have to ask you this.
Is this in reference to the posters?
Its as if theres some kind of institutional bias in how the studio approaches its animation.
Do you know what I mean?
I know what you mean.
Are we included in that as well?
Is that aHow To Train Your Dragonthing?
Ive seen images from Dragon in this.
That would be a question for marketing, though, wouldnt it?
Maybe they want to freshen it up a little.
But the idea of an institutional bias is a bit of a reach, isnt it?
Well, it could exist.
Maybe its the same thing.
How did that come up?
Its been there sinceThe Secret Of Nimh, though, or maybe evenBanjo The Woodpile Cat.
We couldnt get way from it.
How did you shake this?
Did it just fall away naturally when you went to work somewhere else?
No, not really.
There were things that got thrown out because they were too challenging.
And why did that go away?
Why is his Mom taking away the dragons?
Thats why hes introduced so late, you see?
I cant resist a political reading of anything, your film included.
[Laughs]
Do you think your film is political?
Im always very conscious of not being didactic.
I dont like being preached at and I dont want to be preachy.
Thank you very much, and congratulations once again.
