Dreamworks Dragons

The hit franchise How to Train Your Dragon includes not only two movies, specials, and an arena show, but an entire t.v. series as well called Dreamworks Dragons. Currently on its fourth season, the show has been featured on both Cartoon Network and Netflix, with the later seasons being only available on Netflix.

In general, this is a much better Dreamworks movie-based show than the others, and has a similarly darker tone. But, while the animation is still fantastic on its own, the superior animation of the movies, especially the second, is very noticeable. Also, the movies are both very dark, deep, and mature, and the show tends to stray from that a bit. There are moments where the characters don't act like themselves, and where the humor is obviously aimed at a younger audience. Despite this, the show in general is well done and boasts good stories.

One thing that the show does very well, perhaps even better than the movies, is introduce new dragons. Compared with the movies, there are many more dragons interacting with the teens in the show. They include the Skrill, Whispering Death, Screaming Death, Scauldron, Thunderdrum, Changewing, Razorwhip, and Sea Shocker, to name a few (there are many, many, more, but that list would be way too long). Each new dragon to the franchise is explained as it usually wrecks havoc on Berk or Dragon's Edge, given a motivation and a complete story revolving around it. And, once the dragons are introduced, they are established within the universe, and will usually show up again in the show another time.

One thing that I particularly find interesting and memorable about the Race to the Edge episodes is their inclusion of aspects in the second movie, only in an introductory way. For example, it shows Stoick meeting his future dragon, the Rumblehorn known as Skullcrusher, and Hiccup first making his flight suit, the outfit he will eventually bare in the second film. This really shows the continuity in the franchise as a whole (maybe not over individual episodes). Speaking of continuity, Race to the Edge has been much better in that regard, developing and staying true to a definite story about dragon trappers.

The show has also done a fairly decent job at adding in some of their new characters. Some of them, aka Mildew and Trader Johann, are downright annoying, but they are supposed to be. Others, like Bucket, Alvin, and Spitelout are boring and one-dimensional. But, the additions of Dagur and Heather are good. While Dagur is not a likable character, he poses a real threat to the teens and is a more interesting character. Meanwhile, Heather is a very interesting, complex character who is likable and hard to read- all that you want in a character who is essentially neutral in the conflict.

I can't say the same about some of the main characters. There are all of two characters who have kept their original personalities in the franchise, and that is Hiccup and Toothless. Everybody else has either been dumbed down to even dumber than they are in the movie- aka Snotlout and the twins- or their character oversimplified to exhibit only one quality that the character original possessed- like Astrid's aggression, Gobber's strangeness, Stoick's commanding nature, or Fishleg's intelligence.

Overall, while the show is far from perfect, it has continued to make strides in the positive direction and is a lot better than some of the current shows.