Dragons Have All Moved In with Gerard Butler in “HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2”
From DreamWorks Animation, “How
To Train Your Dragon 2” is even more exciting than the first Oscar-nominated
film. The 3D adventure is stunning, with beautiful animation, great characters
and a powerful storyline about a boy named Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) and his
dragon, Toothless.
Gerard Butler
returns as Hiccup’s dad, Stoick The Vast, mighty Chieftain of the Island of
Berk. Hiccup,
now a young man, is contentedly flying with Toothless and exploring the
frontiers of the Viking world, much to the annoyance of his father. Stoick feels it’s high time his son stepped up
to his leadership responsibilities and his heritage. As the plot unfolds, Hiccup has to defend
the villagers from the power-crazed Drago (Djimon Hounsou) and his army of
dragon trappers. And in a dramatic
twist to this exhilarating coming of agestory, there is an emotional family
reunion with Valka, Hiccup’s courageous mother (Cate Blanchett),an inspiring
dragon protector.
“At first I
thought it would be impossible to surpass the first one, which was so magical,
but they have surpassed it. There are some fantastic surprises in this film and
we get to see the other sides of Stoick. I love the relationship between Stoick
and Toothless, it’s hilarious, it’s touching, it’s heartbreaking and really inspiring. I think audiences will relate to that
relationship because we’ve all been there. We have all had issues with our
parents who have affected us in powerful ways and many people have kids, so
they’ll relate in that way too,” Butler muses.
Into the
character the second time, Butler says that “Stoick the Vast is still a big,
hairy mountain of a man. He’s burly and brawny and he’s loud and obnoxious, but
he’s also a great leader and protector. He cares more about his people than he
does about himself. He has learned that his way is not necessarily the way it
should have been. His rules are, well number one: you live for the people.
You’re a warrior. You have to be ready to lay down your life for those greater
principles. It’s all about defending custom and principles and tradition.
Stoick is bound by those principles in a way that’s stupidly stubborn, but he
believes it’s the only way this place [Berk] is going to survive—if everybody
toes the line. He tries to pass that on
to his son.”
Hailing from Scotland, Butler’s Stoick has special
meaning for the actor. “Vikings are in
our blood in Scotland. Everything that I’ve been given as an actor comes from
my culture, my nation and through my blood. So the role was fantastic for me.
There is a warrior mentality in Scotland. Even as I was doing [the 2007
film]300, I would think of the hills in Scotland, I would think of my ancestors
and what they’d been through. I used my passion for my country to play Leonidas
in 300. I would almost hear his voice echoing through the ages. And it was the
same with Stoick. My favorite three
places on the planet are Scotland, India and Iceland. Whenever I think of those countries, my stomach
starts churning in the best kind of way, just bristling with excitement.
Scotland means the most to me, though, because it’s my life. I grew up in that
country, wanting to make it as an actor and wanting to go to Hollywood. But it
was always through the prism of me as a Scottish kid – a Scottish kid doing
well,” enthuses Butler.
It’s not just the superb animation that the actor is
excited about, but also the lessons everyone can learn from the movie. “Yes, there’s the theme of tolerance here and
is something that I have a very strong opinion about and it is an interesting
question. Both movies are about
tolerance and the courage that comes with tolerance. The Vikings are learning to trust and they
actually realize that dragons are beautiful. That is great because it’s often
natural for Mankind to fight instead of trusting. But we can be brave and rise above that. One
little kid [Hiccup] comes along and
says, ‘Why don’t we just listen and pay attention and really see each other?’
You realize that these dragons have their own integrity and they’re as scared
as we are. This new film shows how we can face people who are way less tolerant
than us and come from a dark place. I
think that is a great lesson for the world we live in right now. If everyone
would just pay a little more attention and be a little more tolerant, we would
live in a far better place.”
A DreamWorks
Animation film, “How To Train Your Dragon 2” opens June 11 in theaters
nationwide from 20tn Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.
Post a Comment