Tag: dragons

Geekscape Interviews: Art Brown and Doug Sloan-Executive Producers of ‘Dragons: Race to the Edge’

by Kari Lane

Fans of the How to Train Your Dragon films and the subsequent series will be excited to learn that there is a brand new 13 episode show, Dragons: Race to the Edge, coming to Netflix June 26th! At WonderCon, Art Brown and Doug Sloan, executive producers of Dragons: Race to the Edge, were special guests at the Sunday-morning panel DreamWorks: Dragons, Dinos & More. Attendees were treated to a special first look at the series which looked awesome! The series takes place a year and a half before the second film and fills us in on what happened during the gap in time between the two films. Sloan told the audience that there will be “tons of new dragons”. In one of the clips, Hiccup finds a mysterious ship where he discovers the Dragon’s Eye which “is a game-changer, both for Hiccup and for all of the Dragon Riders,” Brown said.

After the panel, I was able to speak with Art Brown and Doug Sloan. Read on to learn what it is like making an animated show for Netflix, what kind of dragon they would choose, how they got involved with the dragon world and more!

DRTTE_ep0103_01001012_RGBDreamWorks Dragons:Race To The Edge ©2015 DreamWorksAnimation LLC. All Rights Reserved.

 

Q: With the current success of live action shows on Netflix, what is it like doing an animated show? Is it any different for Netflix versus regular television?

Art Brown: I think it is exciting for Netflix. They’re constantly breaking new ground. I think that is one of the cool things about them and there is potential for our show and big international shows to have some effect internationally. So, I think those two things combined are pretty cool.

Doug Sloan: I think our show hopefully will span a wide demographic. They’ll be able to show it – adults will watch it, kids will watch it, and I don’t know if they expect that, but we are hoping that that’s what happens. I think that will be great, but it’s going to be awesome.

Brown: You have the kids that were the fans of the first movie who have grown up and you’ve got the next group who have watched the show and you have the new ones coming in, so it has potential to be pretty wide.

Sloan: Yeah. It’ll be cool and Netflix is really good about letting us do the show. They don’t… they are not as hands on as normal networks, so they know that we know what we are doing. They know that we know how to do it, so they pretty much let us do what we do and it works out great.

Brown: Yeah.

Q: What kind of dragon would you like to have?

Sloan: Oh my gosh. Wow! That has never been asked to us.

Brown: Yeah.

Sloan: That’s awesome.

Brown: Right!… You know I think the relationship of Toothless, obviously. I think the sense of humor of Hookfang…

Sloan: Yeah.

Brown: You know Hookfang loves to mess with Snotlout. I mean, I enjoy that…

Sloan: Toothless is, for me, if I really were to have a dragon, I think I would probably want a real huge one that I wasn’t going to fall off of because Toothless seems like he would be a little small for me. I’d probably fall off. He does some crazy stuff which I am not that into.

Brown: Right. He might be better for me.

Sloan: He might be better for you, yeah. I think a big… like a Hookfang or something like that…

Brown: A Monstrous Nightmare

Sloan: Something where I have a lot of room…

Brown: Like a Titan Wing Monstrous Nightmare…

Sloan: Yeah, there you go. Now we’re talking. Absolutely.

(both laugh)

Q: How did you get involved with this dragon world?

Brown: We had just done a movie for Nickelodeon and got approached when they were initially doing the first couple of seasons of the show. We hadn’t even seen the movie. Our representation sent it to us and we watched it at his house and we were like “Oh my God!”

Sloan: It blew us away. We were like, “You’ve got to be kidding, this is brilliant!” We really really wanted to work on the show. We didn’t care in what capacity – writing, producing, show running, whatever. So, we started off on the show as writers, just writers, and, as time went on, we ended up running the show, but we would not have taken that job, I don’t think, had it not been for how great the first movie was. We probably would have said “Nah, it’s not…”

Brown: And for a couple execs at Dreamworks who we really enjoy working with – Gregg Taylor, Ann Daly, and people like that who we really… It was a combination. We loved the movie and wanted to be involved with it and we love the people there, so we…

Sloan: And when you get a chance to work with Jeffrey Katzenberg, I mean you take it.

Brown: Yeah.

Sloan: This property is so important to them that he does peek in every once in a while and to learn from him and Ann and those guys is… I mean, when do you get that chance? It’s amazing.

Brown: Yeah, you don’t get a lot of chances to work on great great shows, shows that are both huge hits and quality, so you kind of go “I want to stick around for awhile.”

Sloan: Yeah! Yeah, you’ll have to drag me out kicking and screaming.

Brown: Drag you out?

Sloan: Dragon…

Both: Ooooh… (laughing)

Sloan: Bad. Really bad, I’m so sorry.

Brown: It’s late in the day.

Sloan: Yeah, it is.

Q: Yeah, I think the clips that you showed and the teaser trailer look really good because it often happens, I feel, when you go from a movie to a show or movie to sequels, the secondary product just doesn’t look right. The colors are wrong. Something is off.

Sloan: Yeah, it’s just that to make a movie costs an enormous amount of money – animated movie or live action – and we make our TV shows for what half a minute of a movie costs so it really really does take all of our thinking and planning and all of that to make the show look good, but our goal is to make it look somewhat close to the movie.

Brown: And we’re able to… these seasons, we were able to… You know, we are lighting it differently. The first two we had to just sort of do what we could afford and it is more dynamic, more filmic now.

Sloan: People think we spend millions and millions of dollars on the show and that is absolutely not the case. I mean, we are the same as any other show, it is just the people who work on our show are really smart and they really have figured out ways to make our show look brilliant without breaking the…

Brown: And they care!

Sloan: Yeah, the really do care which is good. Caring is sharing… Or, sharing is caring. One of those two.

Brown: One of the two.

Q: I definitely think you can tell when creators and people involved with the project actually love the material versus when they are just trying to turn out something to make money.

Sloan: If you go through our office, every single desk is decorated with dragon stuff. There are little dragon toys on all the desks and everybody has a picture of a dragon and they just love the show which is awesome.

Q: Anything else that you would like to tell the fans?

Sloan: Just thank you for watching and thank you for being so into the show. We really… we make the show for them, we make the show to take them on a ride, to make them happy and make them excited about the adventures. We really want to thank them for being there and supporting us and being interested in it.

Brown: And for knowing the show better than we do in many instances which keeps us on our toes.

Sloan: Yep. It’s awesome.

Q: Cool. Thank you very much.

Both: Thank you.

 Check out the awesome teaser trailer here!

Make sure to check out Dragons: Race to the Edge on Netflix June 26th.

Geekscape Book Reviews: Seraphina

by Allisonnnnn

When I was little, I was obsessed with dragons.  They were the beasts that replaced my beloved unicorns once I realized that the single-horned equines were for weaklings—scales and breathing fire?  So much cooler than a horn and the ability to attract virgins.

Rachel Hartman gets that.  Stepping away from the vampire/werewolf/zombie nonsense that has caught the young adult genre by its under-developed… er… boot-straps, Hartman has created an amazing world in Seraphina that doesn’t just feature dragons, but is defined by their presence.

The eponymous Seraphina is the latest assistant to Goredd’s court composer, Viridius, taking on the job just as one of the city’s beloved princes has gone and lost his head… to a dragon.  Well, the theory is that a dragon was the cause of death, but in a city only four decades into a rather unstable treaty with dragon society, that theory rapidly becomes “fact”—whether it’s true or not.

What makes things worse than they already were is that Hartman’s dragons can take human form.  That doesn’t sound too bad until we learn about the doubtful social skills of the dragons— skills a few steps removed from the comparatively charming cordiality of Star Trek’s Vulcans.  The culture clashes in the story hearken back to the race riots of the mid 1900s—with only one side erupting in violence.

But it is because of the dragons’ ability to take human form that Seraphina exists at all.  The supposedly impossible offspring of a human and dragon, Seraphina possesses physical and metaphysical manifestations of her blended heritage and does her best to hide them—something that was infinitely easier before she caught the notice of the royal family.

Running through a city slowly going mad, trying to uncover political machinations worthy of Lord Littlefinger while keeping her origins hidden, Seraphina finds that she might not be the only child of mixed blood and that sometimes that very blood comes back to haunt you.

Seraphina is one of those books that, if you risk putting it down, thoughts of it will stay with you until you pick it up once more.  The prose is simple and intense, dreamily romantic yet cuttingly precise.  You will fall in love with Seraphina and the beautifully wrought world she inhabits in minutes, so prepare for a captivating ride.

 

Seraphina is published through Random House Children’s Books.

Game of Thrones Post Game: A Man Without Honor

by Joe Starr

We’ve come to it: The first episode of Game of Thrones that I didn’t really enjoy. About half of it ran like a collection of deleted scenes that would have been cut for running time. But still I carry on- for I, who can be followed @joestarr187, am the man that must write the jokes! TO THE MAP!

BEYOND THE WALL!

I’ll say this: ‘A Man Without Honor’ was boring as hell until Ygritte finally said her catch phrase, and then the episode literally took off running. I’m not even sure where to start. Jon and Ygritte woke up. She made a boner joke. Then they walked around for a while. Then we watched scenes with other characters that accomplished nothing. Then Jon and Ygritte walked around some more. Ygritte said ‘You know nothing, Jon Snow,’ and the heavens opened up, and light cascaded down onto the nerdy indoor kids that devour these books. Meaning me. Then we watched scenes with other characters that were much better than pre ‘know nothing Jon Snow’ scenes. And then Ygritte got away and led Jon right into a rebel encampment. Those uniforms look familiar… Are they on Hoth? If they’re on Hoth, then if Jon finally bangs Ygritte he had better say ‘and I thought they smelled bad…on the outside!’ At least we’ll know that he’ll shoot first.

Burn.

WINTERFELL!

Really? You’re going to open the show with Theon and his gross rape whistle nipples? Fun fact: Girls that think Theon is hot are to dorkdom what girls that were like ‘grrl don’t u judge Chris Brown u don’t know him’ are to hip hop.

Anyway, Theon isn’t happy about the Stark kids escaping. I’ll give him this: the reaction on his face when one of his guys laments that ‘the giant must have taken them’ was pretty priceless. But seriously, fuck this guy for terrorizing Winterfell and its twelve residents.

Meanwhile, Bran and Rickon are making their escape with Hodor and Tonks from Harry Potter. Honestly, I can’t remember her name right now and I’m too mad at her to look her up.

Why U a hater Joe Starr?

I’m a hater because there are supposed to be two awesome kids named Jojen and Meera Reed helping the gang escape and teaching Bran about his weird dreams, but it looks like they’re rolling the characters into Osha. I totally get that there are already too many characters and sometimes for an adaptation, people have to go and that Game has done a remarkable job juggling its massive supporting cast but, well, this one got me a little butt hurt, ok?

Just a little butt hurt.

Oh and Theon comes back to Winterfell with two burned up little boys. Are they Bran and Rickon? Would HBO have really passed up the opportunity to burn two young main characters alive on screen?

THE ROBB ZONE

Robb meets with Redshirt Lannister, who informs him that Cersai isn’t all that impressed by his being the King of the North. Robb rewards him by putting him in a cell with Jaime Lannister. AND WHAT A REWARD IT IS. Wait for it.

Lady Nurse drops in and lets Robb know she needs supplies to treat the wounded and suggests that the Westerlings of the Crag, whose surrender Robb is leaving to oversee will have them. Robb suggests she just come with him and get the supplies herself, which she doesn’t seem crazy thrilled about. Or does she? Is she someone important? SPOILER ALERT: She stole the dragons!

Redshirt Lannister might as well be a 14 year old girl/46 year old creepy dude in a cell with Justin Beiber. He is gushing to be in a cell with Jaime Lannister. We haven’t seen much of Jaime, so he’s back with a vengeance: The two have an awesome scene about how Redshirt once squired for Jaime and Jaime squired for Barristan Selmy and how amazing it was. And then Jaime beats him to death so that a guard opens the cell. And then Jaime chokes out the guard and bails. This is why I’m assuming there are more than 20 variations of a ‘Fuck Yeah Jaime Lannister’ tumblr. The Kingslayer deserves every animated gif the world makes him.

He’s not out for long, however. He gets dragged back and the camp is pissed. And Catelyn Stark needs him alive to trade him out for her daughters. So her and Brienne are gonna do something real dumb. Like, really dumb.

That scene with Jaime and Redshirt was so good though. Thank god Ygritte said her catchphrase or the whole episode could have been Daenerys making frumpy faces. And speaking of frumpy faces…

QARTH

Dragons are still gone. Daenerys yells at some people. She has a repeat of last week’s chat with Jorah Mormont. That weird blanket face lady is back and she’s sort of stupid. The Warlocks have the dragons and kill the Thirteen. Xaro Ducksauce reveals himself to be The Outsiders’ third man and crowns himself the King of Qarth, brother.

“You know something, Mean Gene…these dragons can stick it, dude”

Qarth is stupid in the books, too. We can’t get out of here fast enough.

KING LANDING

Oh shit, Sansa is bleeding out her vag! Now Joffrey gets to hit her with props have kids with her! Shae tries to help her hide it but then The Hound finds all that blood on the sheets! It’s like a Judy Bloom novel: ‘Are you there God? It’s Me Sansa and This Guy With a Burned Face Knows I Had My First Period.’

But don’t worry! It’s…Cersei to the rescue? Cersei was weirdly nice to everyone in this episode. I’m getting scared that the next one is just going to with a ‘Cersei slits all the throats’ montage. She has a quiet scene with Sansa where she tells her that love is a weakness she should only give to her children, and then an even touchinger scene with Tyrion of all people. But would it have killed them to give us a hard cut to of Bronn making a funny reaction face at the end?

HARRENHAL

I can’t say enough good things about Tywin and Arya. The whole show could be about them with ravens flying in every now and then to give updates on the other 106 characters and I’d be ok with it. Every now and then Tyrion and Bronn could stop in because they’re staying in the guest house. It’ll be like a Neil Simon play. Except good.

Overall, this was a rough episode. It meandered and dragged and a few killer scenes and performances carried it across the finish line. You know, like the Dark Knight. Oh really? It’s a perfect movie? What was your favorite scene that didn’t have a Heath in it?

The boatz wuz so dramatic!

Man. I’m really negative today. See what happens when you take away my Reeds? I turn into a little bitch. A little Reedless bitch.