How to Train Your Dragon 2 is a 2014 American animated action fantasy film loosely based on the book series of the same name by Cressida Cowell. Produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by 20th Century Fox, it is the sequel to the 2010 film How to Train Your Dragon and the second installment in the trilogy. The film was written and directed by Dean DeBlois, and stars the returning voices of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T.J. Miller, and Kristen Wiig, along with Cate Blanchett, Djimon Hounsou, and Kit Harington joining the cast. Set five years after the events of the first film, the film follows twenty-year-old Hiccup and his friends as young adults as they encounter Valka, Hiccup's long-lost mother, and Drago Bludvist, a madman who wants to conquer the world.
A sequel to How to Train Your Dragon was announced in April 2010. DeBlois, who co-directed the first film, began drafting the outline in February 2010. He had agreed to return to direct the second film on the condition that he would be allowed to turn it into a trilogy. He cited The Empire Strikes Back and My Neighbor Totoro as his main inspirations, with the expanded scope of The Empire Strikes Back being particularly influential. DeBlois and his creative team visited Norway and Svalbard to look for inspirations for the setting. Composer John Powell returned to score the film. The entire voice cast from the first film also returned, while Blanchett and Hounsou signed on to voice Valka and Drago, respectively. How to Train Your Dragon 2 was DreamWorks' first film to use scalable multi-core processing and the studio's new animation and lighting software.
How to Train Your Dragon 2 premiered at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 2014, and was released in the United States on June 13. It received positive reviews for its animation, voice acting, musical score, action sequences, emotional depth, and darker, more serious tone compared to its predecessor. It grossed over $621 million worldwide, making it the 12th-highest-grossing film of 2014. It earned less than its predecessor at the US box office, but performed better internationally. The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film and six Annie Awards, including Best Animated Feature, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The final installment in the trilogy, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, was released on February 22, 2019.
Plot
Five years after the Viking villagers of Berk and the dragons made peace,, Hiccup and his dragon, a Night Fury named Toothless, maps out unexplored lands. His father, Stoick the Vast, wants him to succeed as chieftain, although Hiccup feels unsure he is ready.
While investigating a burnt forest, Hiccup and Astrid discover the remains of a fort encased in ice and meet a group of dragon trappers. Their leader Eret attempts to capture their dragons for their employer, Drago Bludvist, who plots to capture and enslave all dragons into becoming his soldiers. Hiccup and Astrid escape and warn Stoick about Drago. Stoick fortifies Berk to prepare for battle. Hiccup, however, refuses to believe war is inevitable and flies off to talk to Drago. Stoick tries to stop him, explaining that he once met Drago at a gathering of chieftains, where Drago had offered them protection from dragons if they pledged to serve him; but they refused him, so he had his dragons attack them, with Stoick the sole survivor.
Undeterred, Hiccup flies off with Toothless in search of Drago to try to reason with him. They instead meet a mysterious dragon rider, who is revealed to be Hiccup's long-lost mother, Valka, who was assumed to have been killed by a dragon after being carried off during a dragon raid. She explains that, like her son, she could not bring herself to kill dragons, so she's been rescuing dragons from Drago and bringing them to an island nest created out of ice by a gigantic, ice-spewing alpha dragon called a "Bewilderbeast", which is able to control smaller dragons by emitting hypnotic sound waves. Stoick and his lieutenant Gobber track Hiccup to the nest, where Stoick discovers his wife is alive. Meanwhile, Astrid and the other riders force Eret to lead them to Drago, who captures them and their dragons and, learning of Berk's dragons, sends his armada to attack the dragon nest. He also attempts to execute Eret, but Astrid's dragon, Stormfly, saves him. A grateful Eret later helps her and the others escape.