How to Train Your Dragon came out on DVD & Bluray yesterday!  To celebrate, Speaking of Animation is giving away an autographed copy of The Art of How to Train Your Dragon, featuring signatures from writers/directors Chris Sanders & Dean DeBlois, Head of Character Animation Simon Otto, and several other animators, and more signatures will be added in the next few days.

‘How can I get this amazing book,’ you ask?  Well, SOA is hosting an animation related trivia/riddle/puzzle question game.  (triviriduzzles?)

Starting next week (Monday 10/18) we will make our first game post:  three riddle-like questions per day for five days.  You email us your answers each day.  Whoever has the most correct answers by the end of the week will receive this autographed book.  And with enough participants, we will give away second and third place prizes as well.  (HTTYD Poster, and DVD)

Each question will have three clues to an animated film.  They might be really general, or they might be really obscure.  How easy it is depends on how well you know the film.

Here are two examples:

QUESTION 1
Stay away from the butt
P. Sherman D.D.R.
Chum for Chum

QUESTION 2
Unaccompanied Miners
Its a good thing the hunter isn’t a murderer
Beware of apples

So what movies do these two sets of clues suggest?  That would be your job to figure out.  In this case, the answers are Finding Nemo and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

See what we did there?  ‘Stay away from the butt’ is a small idea near the beginning of the film.
And Unaccompanied Miners is like a misleading pun, but it also describes the dwarfs before they meet Snow White.  Get the idea?

So starting Monday, make sure you check back at the site for your first three questions.  Let’s see if we can have some fun.

|the SOA team

Unfortunately, due to complicated contest laws and fees in many other countries we can only declare winners in the United States.  Our sincerest apologies to our international readers.  Anyone outside the US is still more than welcome to have fun playing the game, but the contest and prize(s) are only for the United States.  Perhaps in the future we will have a team of lawyers that can sort through intricate international contest legality.  We reserve the right to change the rules as we see fit.  Void where prohibited by law.

UPDATE:
You can check out the progression of the game below:
| Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Tie-Breaker Announcement | Tie Breaker | Official Game Results |

Our very own Adam Strick and our friends and fellow animators Dane Stogner, Ron Pucherelli, Tyler Phillips and Mike Stern talk to Animation Mentor about How to Train Your Dragon. Check it out!

We sat down with Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois to talk about How to Train Your Dragon. Chris and Dean have long been a creative team; their brief history includes writing together on Mulan, writing/directing Lilo and Stitch, and writing/directing How to Train Your Dragon.

The two were gracious enough to spend time speaking with us about creative decision making and articulate their thought processes while making a film. It was very inspirational to hear such talented people discuss how they bring their visions to life. We talked with them about story structure, design, cinematography, character animation, directing, and much, much more.  A lot of very talented people came together to create the film, and these wonderful directors are never shy about handing out credit! Among many others, they discussed the amazing contributions of Simon Otto (Head of Character Animation) and the famed cinematographer, Roger Deakins. You can find a larger crew list here to search for any other names they bring up.

Enjoy!

The promo video for our new podcast is up! We interviewed Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois about their latest film, How to Train Your Dragon. This is a really great interview, and we hope you guys get excited for it!

UPDATE: The podcast is now available and can be found here.

How to Train Your Dragon Podcast Promo from Speaking of Animation on Vimeo.

Oh yeah, and we started a vimeo channel.
We will still be uploading videos to youtube (like the above promo), but having both channels keeps our options open.  Plus, we like the embedded vimeo player better than youtube’s.

So check out the promo and then come back on Monday to hear the whole podcast! Oh, and feel free to repost the promo and help us spread the word!!!

How To Train Your Dragon is now in theaters and is getting great reviews from within and outside the animation industry!  It’s currently sitting at a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a lot of people are saying it’s the best DreamWorks Animation film to date!  Go check it out this weekend and let us know what you think.  We hope you all enjoy it!

Here are a few links to some comments and reviews of the film:

Rotten Tomatoes Link

Jim Hill Media

Shane Prigmore