Honest Trailers - How to Train Your Dragon is the 283rd episode of Screen Junkies comedy series Honest Trailers. It was written by Spencer Gilbert, Dan Murrell, Joe Starr and Lon Harris. It was narrated by Jon Bailey as Epic Voice Guy. It parodies the animated fantasy movie How to Train Your Dragon (2010), along with its sequel How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014). The video is 4 minutes long. It was published on February 12, 2019, to coincide with the US theatrical release of the sequel How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. It has been viewed over 1.2 million times.
Watch Honest Trailers - How to Train Your Dragon on YouTube
"A dragon crossed with all your favorite cat videos." ~ Honest Trailers - How to Train Your Dragon
Script[]
From the studio [Dreamworks] that made a movie about a bee in an inter-species relationship with a lady [Bee Movie], comes a fantasy adventure so solid, it will almost make you forget Dreamworks made a movie where a bee falls in love with a lady [Romantic saxophone music plays. A bee serenades a lady while picnicking. The lady appears to be into it.]. I mean, he's a bee! And she's a lady! How is that suppose to even work?! It's physically impo-! Wait, what movie were we talking about again?
How to Train Your Dragon 1 & 2
Visit the magical land of Berk: a place full of happy vikings and happy dragons. And when they team up, you can assume they'll bring untold pain and carnage to the rest of the world [shows clips of brutal dragon warfare from Game of Thrones]. Ahh! My eyes! I can't unsee that! It's horrible! IT'S A NIGHTMARE!!!
So let's turn the dial back to family-friendly to experience the saga of an unlikely hero: Hiccup. He didn't inherit his father's viking strength, or his Viking Scottish(?) accent. But he's got more droll Viking apathy than a Viking Judd Apatow character.
Hiccup: (drolly apathetic) "I see a dragon and I have to just... kill it, you know?" [Hiccup unconvincingly mimes throttling a small animal]
Hiccup: (apathetically droll) "You know, you sir, are playing a dangerous game, keeping this much raw Viking-ness contained." [Hiccup gestures to his scrawny chest.]
Hiccup: (apathetic and droll) "They wouldn't know what to do with all... this..." [Hiccup waves his hands around in the general vicinity of his diminished physique.]
Still funnier than Funny People.
Everything will change when he meets Toothless, a dragon crossed with all your favorite cat videos [Clips of Toothless chasing a light and twirling around with a large stick]. They'll prove that working together makes people stronger. And their friendship will transforms Berk from a land that used to hate and fear dragons to one that uses them for Quidditch or something. I mean, progress is progress, right? Meh, whatever. [Clip of Toothless smiling and wiggling]. Look how cute he is! [Toothless licks Hiccup over his entire body, salivating prodigiously. Hiccup: "Aw!"].
Strap in as Hiccup teams up with his pals: Astrid and the Warriors 4, who even have less character development than Syf and the Warriors 3. Like: the boy one, the nerd one, the other girl one, and the other boy one. Man, what a waste of Jonah Hill. Or is that Mc'Lovin? It's hard to say.
Together that'll take you deeper into the world of dragons. Whether it's discovering that dragons are all drones serving a bigger dragon. Or, that dragons are all drones serving a bigger dragon. Or, that bigger dragons can fight over who gets to make dragons into drones serving a bigger dragons. Huh! There's actually very little dragon training in the entire franchise. Then again, "How to prevent the submission of your dragon to the will of a homicidal apex predator" doesn't have quite the same ring to it.
So if you want a fantasy series for all ages, that swaps out Dreamwork's usual pop-culture references for some actual heart, make sure to check out some of the best modern fantasy movies today, that aren't most of the Harry Potter movies... or Lord of the Rings... or terrible! [grid of movie posters showing over a dozen recent bad fantasy movies]. How to Train Your Dragon: it's the best of whats left!
Starring: [Jay Baruchel as Hiccup] The Boy With The Dragon How-To; [Gerard Butler as Stoic] This Is... Scotland?; [Craig Ferguson as Gobber] No Arm-ie Hammer; [America Ferrera as Astrid, side-by-side with Lydia from The Elder Scrolls video game] Lydia; [T.J. Miller as Tuffnut, Kristen Wiig as Ruffnut, Jonah Hill as Snoutlout & Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Fishlegs] Dragonforce; [Cate Blanchett as Valkyrie] Mother Of Dragons; [Djimon Hounsou as Drago Bludvist] DRAGOOOOO!; [Kit Harrington as Eret] Yawn Snow; and... [Hiccup pushes Toothless away from Stoic's dead body. Hiccup: (to Toothless) "No! Get away from him! Go on! Get out of here!" Toothless cowers and retreats.] Dragon Bawl Me [Epic Voice Guy cries and hiccups]. I'm gonna need a second.
How To Prevent The Submission Of Your Dragon To The Will Of A Homicidal Apex Predator
See? Not catchy.
Tuffnut: "Everyone knows I'm more irritating, see?! [Tuffnut makes an annoying sound]
Very true, T.J Miller, very true.
[Ruffnut smashes a large shield directly onto Tuffnut's head. It lands with a satisfying clunk.]
Trivia[]
- Writer Joe Starr is a passionate fan of the entire HTTYD series, but writer Spencer Gilbert was much more lukewarm towards the sequel.
- The writers discussed which "bad fantasy movies" to include in their grid. Dan Murrell argued that they shouldn't include the first Narnia movie The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe because he anticipated many viewers would comment that it wasn't terrible.
- Some of the deleted jokes included: a reference to the bongo cat meme; and calling the supporting characters "NPCs." The writers intended the NPC reference to call back to the video game term "non-player character." However, they decided the term NPC had been co-opted as a political insult which muddied their intended meaning.
- Screen Junkies have also made Honest Trailers for several other animated movies including Despicable Me 1 & 2, Minions, The Boss Baby, The Secret Life of Pets, Toy Story, Inside Out, Finding Nemo, Finding Dory, Cars & Cars 2, The Incredibles, Shrek, Frozen, Moana, Wreck-It Ralph, Big Hero 6 and Zootopia. See list of Honest Trailers for more.
Watch the full Honest Trailer commentary on YouTube
Reception[]
Honest Trailers - How to Train Your Dragon has a 96.7% approval rating from YouTube viewers. Many media outlets commented on the positive tone of this Honest Trailer. Slate wrote, "The How to Train Your Dragon movies are so well made that even their Honest Trailer has to look elsewhere to find much worthy of mockery." Screen Rant noted that "by Honest Trailer standards, the video is incredibly kind, taking more shots at rival movies than HTTYD itself. In 2019, there are few better endorsements of a movie's quality than when Honest Trailers can't find much to make fun of."
Screen Rant also wrote, "Highlights of the trailer include comparing Toothless' behavior to internet cat videos, pointing out the wildly different accents of Hiccup and his father, and questioning why the dragons in Game of Thrones need to be quite so violent." Epicstream found the Honest Trailer notable for commenting on the dire state of cinematic fantasy, writing "The trailer also makes a jab at the fantasy genre in general. Besides Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, Hollywood hasn’t been able to pump out any noteworthy fantasy epics on the big screen."
Production credits[]
Voiceover Narration by Jon Bailey
Title Design: Robert Holtby
Written by Spencer Gilbert, Dan Murrell, Joe Starr, Lon Harris
Produced by Spencer Gilbert, Dan Murrell, Joe Starr & Max Dionne
Edited by Kevin Williamsen
Assistant Editor: Emin Bassavand
External links[]
- How To Train Your Dragon Honest Trailer: Family-Friendly Game Of Thrones - Screen Rant article
- The Honest Trailer for How to Train Your Dragon Roasts Other Fantasy Movies Instead - Slate article
- Catch Honest Trailer for How to Train Your Dragon Before The Final Movie Comes Out - Epicstream article
- 'How to Train Your Dragon' Gets an Honest Trailer - ComicBook.com article
- ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ Honest Trailer: So Good That It Might Make You Forget About ‘Bee Movie’ - SlashFilm article