Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1109293
5 6 P E R S P E C T I V E | M A Y / J U N E 2 0 1 9 C D E During research it was learned that, with the exception the dragon designs that originated in Asia, they all look the same: big, fire-breathing lizards with wings. The film needed to develop its own ingredients that would work with this narrative, so each dragon was instilled with some aspect of a more familiar animal. Looking at Cloudjumper, Valka's dragon, one will notice it is half reptile and half an owl. Stormfly, Astrid's dragon, takes after a peacock, while Grimmel's Deathgrippers are obviously inspired by scorpions. There are also more traditional dragons like the Monstrous Nightmare, but often the key to unlocking their designs was found within the animal kingdom. In Cressida's books, Toothless is described as a tiny green gecko-like dragon (about the size of an average dog). It was Chris Sanders (director of the first installment, along with DeBlois) who initiated the redesign of Toothless to match the new story crafted by DeBlois and Sanders. (Easter egg: the Terrible Terror that appears in all three movies is actually the original design of Toothless!) In the quest to find a more substantial challenge for Hiccup, Chris thought that a more mammalian approach would be interesting, starting with a bat-like creature that eventually evolved into a black panther inspired-dragon under Simon Otto's pencil. Many character designers helped to bring this dragon world to animated life: Nicolas Marlet established the style of many of the dragons, Jean Francois Rey was responsible for the Bewilderbeast, Cloudjumper and the Deathgrippers, and once again, Simon Otto for the beautiful Light Fury, to name just a few. A B