--- title: How To Train Your Dragon 2 Review: Call it Game of Dragones description: The tone is dark, the stakes higher in this DreamWorks animated feature that is at heart a medieval war movie — if not 'Game of Thrones,' then 'Game of Dragones.' canonical: https://time.com/102678/how-to-train-your-dragon-2-review-cannes/ author: Richard Corliss article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-17T13:01:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:53:04.326Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: How To Train Your Dragon 2 Review: Call it Game of Dragones og:description: The tone is dark, the stakes higher in this DreamWorks animated feature that is at heart a medieval war movie — if not 'Game of Thrones,' then 'Game of Dragones.' og:url: https://time.com/102678/how-to-train-your-dragon-2-review-cannes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd73d8ba08fad0aef/69868ffc06f2c1e76932ef1e/how-to-train-your-dragon-2-d2_sq400-s16-f103_4k_w3_0_rgb.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How To Train Your Dragon 2 Review: Call it Game of Dragones twitter:description: The tone is dark, the stakes higher in this DreamWorks animated feature that is at heart a medieval war movie — if not 'Game of Thrones,' then 'Game of Dragones.' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd73d8ba08fad0aef/69868ffc06f2c1e76932ef1e/how-to-train-your-dragon-2-d2_sq400-s16-f103_4k_w3_0_rgb.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _How to Train Your Dragon 2_ at Cannes: Beasts of the Viking Wild ## Video: How to Train Your Dragon 2 Trailer [Watch (HLS stream): How to Train Your Dragon 2 Trailer](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YHSL05n1.m3u8) (2:31)  _Published 2014-05-17. Dreamworks How to Train Your Dragon 2 hit Cannes Film Festival._ by [Richard Corliss](https://time.com/author/richard-corliss/) ## Richard Corliss May 17, 2014 1:01 PM UTC  DreamWorks Animation by [Richard Corliss](https://time.com/author/richard-corliss/) ## Richard Corliss May 17, 2014 1:01 PM UTC Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux rarely — a closer estimate would be _never_ — introduces a film’s creative personnel before a black-tie screening in the Grand Lumière theater. But he did so tonight, to pay tribute to DreamWorks Animation and its boss Jeffrey Katzenberg, celebrating 20 years as the man who birthed the _Shrek,_ _Madagascar_ and _The Croods_ franchises and this evening’s world-premiere attraction _How to Train Your Dragon 2_, which opens in North America June 13th. “Jeffrey _is_ American animation,” Frémaux proclaimed, somehow forgetting that John Lasseter’s résumé as the animation honcho at Pixar and Disney includes _Finding Nemo_, _The Incredibles_, _Ratatouille_, _WALL·E_, _Up_, _Toy Story 3_ and _Frozen_. These were mammoth hits, critical successes and Oscar-winners all. The only original DreamWorks cartoon feature to receive the Academy Award was _Shrek_ a dozen years ago. There’s no question that Pixar, with its one-man one-film credo, may have won the quality race, but the DreamWorks movies — often fashioned by an army of writers, directors and animators under Katzenberg’s acute eye — developed the impish, parodic gestalt that has influenced a host of animated films, from _Ice Age_ and _Despicable Me_ to _Wreck-It Ralph_ and _The LEGO Movie_. **(READ:** [**Why DreamWorks is the most influential cartoon studio**](http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2032304%5F2032746%5F2035980,00.html)**)** _Shrek_, the first Hollywood-bred animated feature to have played in Cannes’s official selection since Disney’s _Peter Pan_ in 1953, set the standard for a Katzenberg cartoon: snappy, zippy vaudeville. The DreamWorks ogres, zoo animals, cavemen, monsters and aliens are masters of shtick, avid custodians of pop-cultural references. The merry pranksters behind the screen will do anything for a laugh, and have reaped them — audience laughs and box-office bucks — by the billions. Then there’s the _How to Train Your Dragon_ franchise. The first movie, about the Viking kid Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) who tames and raises a Night Fury dragon, nicknamed Toothless, as his Best Flying Friend, tried a different tone. Ithad a supporting cast of comedic voices — Jonah Hill, Kristen Wiig, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T.J. Miller and Craig Ferguson — but not much use for them. This was a boy-and-his-pet story; they grow up together, with much mutual learning and hugging and, from Toothless, slobbering kisses. The palette was darker, the mood occasionally somber, the moral less Looney Tunes than Lifetime. The first _Dragon_ earned nearly $500 million dollars at the global box office, so here’s No. 2. **(READ: Corliss’s** [**review of** **_How to Train Your Dragon_**](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1975321,00.html%20)**)** More serious by far, writer-director Dean DeBlois’ sequel is akin to _The Empire Strikes Back_ or the second _Lord of the Rings_ episode: a war movie with aching betrayals and heavy casualties. The comic roles of Hill, Wiig and Co. quickly take a back seat, as _Dragon 2_ expands the first movie’s universe from the medieval-fantasy kingdom of Berk to the wider world, where mortal dangers lurk not just for Hiccup and his pals but for all Vikings and their dragons. Nearly as fierce and brooding as _Game of Thrones_, this one will test the emotional resilience of its youngest viewers. Call it _Game of Dragones_. Hiccup (still voiced by Baruchel but looking more like the young Jake Gyllenhaal) is now the choice of his dad-King Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler) to assume the Berk peerage. But Hiccup still has a lot of kid in him: he wants to pursue the game of aerial drag-racing, or dragon-racing. “With Vikings on the backs of dragons,” he boasts, “the world just got a whole lot bigger.” Too big for the comfort and security of his homeland. A crew of pirates leads Hiccup to the land of the evil Drago Bludvist (visualized as a muscle-bound Klaus Kinski and voiced by Djimon Hounsou). Drago’s deadliest weapon: a ski-slope-tusked dinosaur called the Bewilderbeast. Drago’s black magic has transformed this calm creature into the Alpha Dragon, whose power may be greater than the hundreds of flying beasts Hiccup can summon. **(WATCH:** [**The first five minutes of** **_How to Train Your Dragon 2_**](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JEh8-py4WA)**)** If you’ve seen [DreamWorks’ promotional featurette for the movie](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZukAsk0o0I%20) — and **if you haven’t, or want nothing spoiled, then skip the next two paragraphs** — you know that Hiccup’s mother Valma, missing and presumed dead in the first _Dragon_, is alive and flourishing as the den mother of [a sanctuary for lost, escaped or abused dragons](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUYiJE-bNbI%20). Voiced by Cate Blanchett, Valma is Galadriel, Jane Goodall and a Greenpeace activist in one elegant package. As Hiccup mutters, “It’s not every day you find out your mother is some crazy feral dragon lady.” But melodrama giveth, and melodrama, even in cartoon form, can taketh away. Be warned that one core member of the _Dragon_ family will be mesmerized into killing another core member. We will say no more except to imagine out loud that E.T. had suddenly gone rabid — and to add that _Dragon 2_ is a very odd movie to be opening on Father’s Day Weekend. **Hi again.** All this clan-imosity climaxes with a David-and-Goliath smackdown between the one-legged Hiccup and the one-armed Drago — finally involving the one-tusked Alpha Dragon. The fighting and the family ructions may prove too intense for wee viewers. Too bad, because the movie’s luscious 3-D palette, overseen by creative consultant and master cinematographer Roger Deakins, is a wonder of bright creatures popping out of or soaring into sepulchral places. If _Dragon 1_ served as the trainer wheels for a more complex DreamWorks tone, _Dragon 2_ is a fully mature DreamWorks 2.0. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/102678/how-to-train-your-dragon-2-review-cannes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/102678/how-to-train-your-dragon-2-review-cannes/"},"headline":"How to Train Your Dragon 2 at Cannes: Beasts of the Viking Wild","datePublished":"2014-05-17T13:01:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:53:04.326Z","description":"The tone is dark, the stakes higher in this DreamWorks animated feature that is at heart a medieval war movie — if not 'Game of Thrones,' then 'Game of Dragones.'","url":"https://time.com/102678/how-to-train-your-dragon-2-review-cannes/","keywords":["movies","Cate Blanchett","Cannes Film Festival"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd73d8ba08fad0aef/69868ffc06f2c1e76932ef1e/how-to-train-your-dragon-2-d2_sq400-s16-f103_4k_w3_0_rgb.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Richard Corliss","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/richard-corliss/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd73d8ba08fad0aef/69868ffc06f2c1e76932ef1e/how-to-train-your-dragon-2-d2_sq400-s16-f103_4k_w3_0_rgb.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2","caption":"HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2","creditText":"DreamWorks Animation","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/102678/how-to-train-your-dragon-2-review-cannes/","name":"How to Train Your Dragon 2 at Cannes: Beasts of the Viking Wild"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How to Train Your Dragon 2 Trailer","description":"Dreamworks How to Train Your Dragon 2 hit Cannes Film Festival.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/YHSL05n1/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-05-17T16:42:02.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YHSL05n1.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/102678/how-to-train-your-dragon-2-review-cannes/","duration":"PT2M31S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/102678/how-to-train-your-dragon-2-review-cannes/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```