The show also replicates the characters of the movie pretty well. The characters all follow their personalities from the movie, quirk for quirk. Some of them do grow and change as the season goes on. People have to learn to put down their weapons and take up new jobs now that the dragons are on the island as friends. Gobber (Chris Edgerly) has to put his blacksmithing skills to a new use other than making weapons. Even for the best and first dragon trainer on the island, Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) has a lot to learn about starting a training academy. He pretty much is charged with integrating dragons into everyday life on the island, making them behave well enough so that they don’t destroy the island with their own natural behavior.
Actually, the similarities to the movie can be a bit too much at times. You can see the show trying to replicate certain scenes from the movie over and over. There’s the scene where Toothless looks under his belly at someone he’s holding and smiles. It’s cute, but it’s exactly like the movie scene. Then there’s a scene where Toothless has his artificial tail fail him, again. And just about every scene with Hiccup reminds me of just about every scene with Hiccup from the movie. I mean, it was cute in the movie, but in a new series, you expect something a little different. These "movie moments" seemed to detract from the better qualities of the show, like the humor. There are some really funny moments, but when you feel like you’ve seen half the situations in the show before, it’s hard to be ready for the humor when it hits.
The Sneak Peek of the How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular is actually a pretty nice bonus. It’s more of a making of special than just a small teaser. You get to see the models, the robotics, the actors, and the technology behind the show. There are interviews with the actors, the model builders, and just about everyone else involved into the production. Just seeing the tech behind getting these giant dragons to fly in the live show is amazing.
You also get 5 dragon training cards in this box, which you can use with an Iphone or Android app on your phone. The app triggers little animations when you take pictures of the cards, which have pictures of the different dragons from the show. Nothing fancy, but a nice little extra diversion. Even though this DVD only has 4 episodes from the TV series, it feels like a pretty good deal with the extras, especially the Sneak Peek of the live show. This DVD is a good taste of the style of the series, and should be a pretty good holdover for anyone looking forward to the new movie.
