Trimming the fat for HTTYD 3, an important read
Posted: 14 Feb 2015, 17:44
Hey forum!
As you may know, I'm a strong advocate of trying to trim the fat, aka simplify the formula for HTTYD movies. What do I mean by this? By simpler I do not mean dumbed down, I mean it rids itself of unnecessary plot elements that in many cases have adverse affects on the movie.
When I compare HTTYD 1 and HTTYD 2, I find that though both movies are amazing, the second movie suffers from overcluttering. HTTYD 1 was undoubtedly a simpler movie than the second, and by that I don't mean a more simple message, but that there were fewer variables the directors had to play with: fewer characters, fewer motives and issues.
What benefits does a simpler formula have? Having less subplots gives you more time to flesh each subplot out and fulfill their potential, rather than having many unexplored and shallow story arcs. An example of the latter was Eret, though he was a charismatic character, his role in HTTYD 2 was unnecessary, and his story was not covered with the thoroughness that you should expect from a proper character. Same with Drago; he ended up being a rather superficial villain, primarily because there just wasn't enough time to explore his character. HTTYD 1 could also dedicate more time to developing its core issue (Hiccup's rebellion against dragon slaying ways) than the second movie could.
Another way HTTYD 1 benefited from being simpler was the magic in some scenes where there was no dialogue. Dean and Chris made the right decision here in making many scenes music-driven, such as test drive, forbidden friendship and romantic flight. Beautiful and memorable scenes; very simple in concept, but executed perfectly. This illustrates how the directors managed to extract as much as possible from the simple scenes they have: they did more with less.
And frankly, if we need to evaluate what makes HTTYD a good movie, we need to identify what it does better than most other movies. I believe it's few but strong character relations (mainly Stoick, Hiccup, Toothless, Astrid in HTTYD 1 than Stoick, Hiccup, Toothless, Astrid, Valka, Eret, Drago, Ruffnut with Snotlout and Fishlegs), and powerful music driven scenes. Though music driven scenes were present in the second movie, they lacked the punch the first one had (except for Stoick's ship scene, that was simply beautiful). That's because in the first movie you can properly focus on and extract all the raw emotions and small gestures made in the scene, and place it in the context of the general storyline's progression, without being confused by unnecessary clutter in storylines.
To perfectly sum up these arguments, have a look at the respective release posters for HTTYD 1 and 2:
The posters reflect the mentality of the movie.. Look at the HTTYD 1 poster: simple and powerful. 1 boy, 1 dragon, radiates emotion. The HTTYD 2 poster, meanwhile, is generic, riddled with characters and not as memorable. Trim the fat so the pure essence of what makes the movie so great is what remains. Concentrated awesomeness.
What are the implications for HTTYD 3? Dean has already introduced these characters, so we now encounter the issue of having to keep them in the plot for the sake of continuity from the 2nd movie. We cannot just remove Valka because she played such a pivotal role in HTTYD 2. That being said, I think to improve the third movie, we need to cut down the presence of weak side characters (mainly the 'gang') and put more focus on the main characters, to prevent a watered down experience. We should also make full use of the incredible soundtrack, and integrate that closer with the movie (more music driven scenes).
What I view as best is a compact, self-contained plot with few characters that all have strong and many links to eachother, take the Hiccup-Toothless-Stoick triangle. So simple, so powerful.
Now it's a pattern for sequels to expand the scope of the story by introducing more characters who have their respective subplots. I say, HTTYD is better than this, we don't have to and we shouldn't follow this pattern. Though Dean won't see this, I hope you can help share this view with others within this great community! Thank you
As you may know, I'm a strong advocate of trying to trim the fat, aka simplify the formula for HTTYD movies. What do I mean by this? By simpler I do not mean dumbed down, I mean it rids itself of unnecessary plot elements that in many cases have adverse affects on the movie.
When I compare HTTYD 1 and HTTYD 2, I find that though both movies are amazing, the second movie suffers from overcluttering. HTTYD 1 was undoubtedly a simpler movie than the second, and by that I don't mean a more simple message, but that there were fewer variables the directors had to play with: fewer characters, fewer motives and issues.
What benefits does a simpler formula have? Having less subplots gives you more time to flesh each subplot out and fulfill their potential, rather than having many unexplored and shallow story arcs. An example of the latter was Eret, though he was a charismatic character, his role in HTTYD 2 was unnecessary, and his story was not covered with the thoroughness that you should expect from a proper character. Same with Drago; he ended up being a rather superficial villain, primarily because there just wasn't enough time to explore his character. HTTYD 1 could also dedicate more time to developing its core issue (Hiccup's rebellion against dragon slaying ways) than the second movie could.
Another way HTTYD 1 benefited from being simpler was the magic in some scenes where there was no dialogue. Dean and Chris made the right decision here in making many scenes music-driven, such as test drive, forbidden friendship and romantic flight. Beautiful and memorable scenes; very simple in concept, but executed perfectly. This illustrates how the directors managed to extract as much as possible from the simple scenes they have: they did more with less.
And frankly, if we need to evaluate what makes HTTYD a good movie, we need to identify what it does better than most other movies. I believe it's few but strong character relations (mainly Stoick, Hiccup, Toothless, Astrid in HTTYD 1 than Stoick, Hiccup, Toothless, Astrid, Valka, Eret, Drago, Ruffnut with Snotlout and Fishlegs), and powerful music driven scenes. Though music driven scenes were present in the second movie, they lacked the punch the first one had (except for Stoick's ship scene, that was simply beautiful). That's because in the first movie you can properly focus on and extract all the raw emotions and small gestures made in the scene, and place it in the context of the general storyline's progression, without being confused by unnecessary clutter in storylines.
To perfectly sum up these arguments, have a look at the respective release posters for HTTYD 1 and 2:
The posters reflect the mentality of the movie.. Look at the HTTYD 1 poster: simple and powerful. 1 boy, 1 dragon, radiates emotion. The HTTYD 2 poster, meanwhile, is generic, riddled with characters and not as memorable. Trim the fat so the pure essence of what makes the movie so great is what remains. Concentrated awesomeness.
What are the implications for HTTYD 3? Dean has already introduced these characters, so we now encounter the issue of having to keep them in the plot for the sake of continuity from the 2nd movie. We cannot just remove Valka because she played such a pivotal role in HTTYD 2. That being said, I think to improve the third movie, we need to cut down the presence of weak side characters (mainly the 'gang') and put more focus on the main characters, to prevent a watered down experience. We should also make full use of the incredible soundtrack, and integrate that closer with the movie (more music driven scenes).
What I view as best is a compact, self-contained plot with few characters that all have strong and many links to eachother, take the Hiccup-Toothless-Stoick triangle. So simple, so powerful.
Now it's a pattern for sequels to expand the scope of the story by introducing more characters who have their respective subplots. I say, HTTYD is better than this, we don't have to and we shouldn't follow this pattern. Though Dean won't see this, I hope you can help share this view with others within this great community! Thank you