Jay Baruchel
Hiccup (voice)
How to Train Your Dragon 2
“Training is over. The adventure begins.”
2014
1h 42m
Director: Dean DeBlois
Overview
Five years after uniting the dragons and Vikings of Berk, Hiccup and Toothless soar beyond their homeland, charting the vast unknown. During one of their adventures, the pair discover a secret cave that houses hundreds of wild dragons -- and a mysterious dragon rider with a startling connection to Hiccup. And as the ruthless dragon conqueror Drago Bludvist rises to seize control of both dragons and people alike, Hiccup must step into his role as a true leader and, alongside his friends and Toothless, protect Berk from a devastating war.
Cast
12 people
Reviews
3 min readThe Weight of the Sky
Animated-hit sequels usually make me tired before they even start. The formula is familiar: add more side characters, raise the volume, drain out whatever feeling made the first one special. latestnetflix.com's take is that Dean DeBlois goes the other direction with How to Train Your Dragon 2.
He takes the buoyant joy of the 2010 film and gives it consequences. That’s the gamble here, and it’s a big one. This sequel doesn’t just continue the story.
It makes growing up expensive.
Five years later, Berk has folded dragons fully into daily life. They’re companions, transport, entertainment, part of the whole social fabric. Hiccup is twenty now, but Jay Baruchel still gives him that same half-apologetic, half-deflective energy that keeps the character from hardening into generic heroism.
He still sounds like someone thinking sideways around responsibility. So when Stoick (Gerard Butler) starts pressing him to become chief, Hiccup does the most Hiccup thing imaginable: points Toothless toward the unexplored horizon and bolts.
I love how patient the film is at first. DeBlois, directing alone this time, gives the opening room to breathe. You feel the air and altitude before the plot tightens.
Audience Opinions
Audience 7.9/10
"A visually spectacular and emotionally weighty sequel that deepens Hiccup and Toothless’s journey while leaving some side characters and story choices undercooked."
Sweeping animation, soaring flight sequences, and a powerful score stand out, with many calling the story more mature, emotional, and in some cases even stronger than the first film. latestnetflix.com's view is that the evolving bond between Hiccup and Toothless, the time jump, and richer world-building earn a lot of praise, though comic-relief riders, a familiar lost-parent twist, and a somewhat thin villain keep it from feeling flawless.
What viewers praise
- Spectacular animation Highly detailed environments, inventive dragon and character designs, and breathtaking flying scenes make it a visual high point for modern animation.
- Emotional impact Key moments involving family, loss, and Hiccup’s growth hit hard, with many viewers admitting the film made them cry.
- Strong music and sound The score and songs are frequently singled out as memorable, elevating action and emotional scenes far beyond typical family fare.
- Richer world-building New lands, dragon sanctuaries, biomes, and tribes flesh out the setting and give a grander sense of a wider Viking–dragon world.
- Character growth for Hiccup Hiccup’s older, more mature portrayal and his struggle with leadership and responsibility are widely appreciated as a meaningful step up from the first movie.
Common complaints
- Thin side characters Hiccup’s fellow riders and background Vikings are often described as underwritten, appearing mostly as jokes without real development or importance to the plot.
- Familiar parental twist The long-lost-mother storyline feels cliché to some, with her return and motivations not explored as deeply as the premise promises.
- Uneven villain execution Drago is praised for a menacing voice but criticized for shallow motivations and limited nuance, making the central threat less compelling.
- Occasional pacing and tone issues Shifts between heavy drama and goofy humor, along with a rushed-feeling finale and some underexplained ‘alpha’ powers, leave parts of the story feeling slightly off-balance.
Recommended for
Epic fantasy animation fans Emotional family adventure seekers Dragon and creature-design enthusiasts Coming-of-age story fans DreamWorks animation followers Parents watching with older kids
Full Plot (Spoilers)
Spoiler warning
This section contains the full plot, including major story reveals. Overview above stays spoiler-free.
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsDRAGONS, SCANDALS & RED-CARPET CHAOS: The Juiciest Real-World Gossip Behind How to Train Your Dragon 2
Berk looks wholesome on screen, but behind the scenes? Let’s just say the drama was HOTTER than a Night Fury blast. latestnetflix.com's view is that From Cannes chaos to Oscar heartbreak and messy cast controversies, here’s the real-world tea swirling around How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) and its dragon-riding gang.
On-Set Drama & Red-Carpet Mayhem
The Cannes Dress-Invader Incident
The biggest “dragon attack” happened on the red carpet, not in the skies. At the 2014 Cannes premiere, notorious Ukrainian red-carpet prankster Vitalii Sediuk crashed the How to Train Your Dragon 2 event and literally tried to crawl under America Ferrera’s gown while she posed with the cast, including Cate Blanchett and Kit Harington 
. Security dragged him away as cameras kept flashing. Ferrera later called it “violating,” while trade outlets dryly dubbed it “Crasher Hides Under America Ferrera’s Dress” . Cute title, deeply not cute moment.
Cate & America: Ice-Queen Calm in the Chaos
Variety framed it as America Ferrera and Cate Blanchett “dealing” with the crasher—translation: they held it together like absolute pros while a grown man tried to turn a family movie premiere into a YouTube prank reel .
Cast Feuds & Fallout
The T.J. Miller Problem
T.J. Miller’s Tuffnut is very much present in HTTYD 2… but if you noticed his sudden “disappearance” from later entries, your dragon senses were spot-on. Entertainment coverage and fan discussions point out he was quietly removed from the franchise after multiple controversies, including a sexual assault allegation and an arrest over a fake bomb threat 
. Fandom posts talk bluntly about him being “booted” and compare it to other high-profile recastings in genre franchises . The official line was never a big press release, but the recasting spoke volumes.
Jonah Hill: The Vanishing Snotlout
Fans on Reddit still ask why Jonah Hill was replaced as Snotlout in later projects; no juicy confirmed scandal has been tied directly to HTTYD 2, but the unexplained recast fuels plenty of speculation threads 
. Rumor-wise, it sits in that grey zone of “creative decisions vs. PR cleanup,” but nothing concrete links it to on-set drama from the 2014 movie.
Scandals, Controversies & Awards-Season Rage
Oscar Night: The Great Dragon Robbery
When Big Hero 6 beat How to Train Your Dragon 2 for the Best Animated Feature Oscar, fans LOST IT. Reddit threads and fan forums are still arguing the case a decade later, calling it the bigger, better, more emotionally mature film that got robbed by a “Disney bias” . HTTYD diehards label it one of the all-time animation snubs, with some blogs defending Big Hero 6 in response—so yes, this feud lives rent-free in awards-season discourse.
Leaks, Deleted Scenes & What DreamWorks Didn’t Want You to See
The Secret Dragon Moments That Got Axed
A whole hoard of deleted scenes left fans wondering what could’ve been:
- A longer Hiccup vs. Eret confrontation that was finished enough to be released as a bonus clip later .
- Extra Valka/Astrid and Stoick material, plus alternate versions of emotional beats like Stoick’s funeral, listed and discussed in detail on the How to Train Your Dragon fan wiki .
- Fans obsess over what these scenes would’ve done to the emotional pacing—some argue the darker, longer funeral cut would’ve “broken” younger audiences; others insist it would have made the film even more powerful .
None of this is “leaked scandal” territory, but the fandom treats the lost footage like sacred artefacts.
Wild Fan Theories & Fandom Obsessions
Dark Toothless Theories
Fan sites and explainer pieces highlight some disturbingly juicy theories:
- That Toothless chose to be caught by Hiccup, playing 4D chess with his own capture.
- That Drago might have killed Toothless’s parents, making the Bewilderbeast showdown way more personal.
- And the big one that got coverage: a dark theory about Toothless biting Hiccup in a key moment that “changes everything” about how fans see their bond .
These are unconfirmed fan speculation, but they got enough traction to warrant full-blown articles breaking them down .
Behind-the-Scenes Trivia with a Side of Chaos
Drago’s Scream Was So Intense They Kept It
Djimon Hounsou reportedly did such intense, guttural vocal exercises in the booth that director Dean DeBlois fell in love with one of his terrifying screams and used it in the film as Drago’s dragon-summoning cry 
. That chilling roar? Straight from Hounsou going full method in a recording studio.
Director’s Personal Grief Baked into the Story
Reporting on the making of the film describes how DeBlois drew on a personal family tragedy to shape the sequel’s heavier themes and the death of Stoick . Not gossip in a trashy sense—but it explains why this “kids’ movie” emotionally wrecks full-grown adults.
Bottom line: For a film about learning to live in peace with dragons, the real-world saga of How to Train Your Dragon 2 involves red-carpet violations, recast controversies, award-season fury, and fan theories darker than the Bewilderbeast’s lair. Berk might be fictional—but the drama around it? Very, very real.
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.