The hit DreamWorks animated movie ‘How to Train
Your Dragon’ has inspired many incredible offshoots for its fans, such as
TV shows, games and toys. In keeping with the quality and appeal of the
original production, the makers of related merchandise have likewise taken care
to maintain high quality standards with their creations. However, in spite of
certain incredible products such as the DreamWorks Dragons television show and
the School of Dragons online game, nothing quite reaches the excellence of the
‘How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular’ theater production!
What
is the ‘How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular’?
The ‘How to Train Your Dragon Live
Spectacular’ is a mind-blowing theater production based on the animated
movie of the same name. Now you must be wondering how brilliant a theater show
based on dragons and dragon riders can get when enacted by real people, live in
front of an audience. The makers of the show have grappled with this problem
and come up with a performance that is truly one of its kind. We’re talking
about life-sized dinosaurs that look and behave exactly as a live animal would,
roaring and stomping about the stage, flying through the air and interacting
with Vikings. And yes, the Vikings too fly, on the backs of these dragons! Now
we know what you’re thinking – having realistic flying dragons is pretty
impressive, but what about the rest of the factors, such as the breath taking
setting for the story? How can you recreate something like that inside a
theater in front of a live audience? The brilliant team behind the show have
come up with an answer for that as well, and here’s how it works.
The
Making of ‘How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular’
The entire theatrical production takes
place on a stage whose back wall alone can fit nine movie screens, with double
that space on the ground floor. The settings are brought to life with 2000
square meters of projections, providing an animated backdrop that is constantly
changing and shifting to reflect changes in place and time. Twenty four larger
than life dragons move about on this stage, breathing fire and smoke, and
flying about with the help of rigs hanging from the ceiling. The concept for
these dragons was inspired by various other forms of puppetry such as shadow
puppetry and marionettes, while the dragons themselves are brought to life
through animatronics –
a combination of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering,
telecommunications engineering, control engineering and computer engineering to
create machines that seem animate rather than robotic. Toothless alone has over
thirty servers to articulate body movements, resulting in a creature that has a
distinct style and personality of its own. The skilled cast was hired after two
trips around the world, while around one thousand people in all have worked to
bring the story of ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ to life inside an arena. And in
spite of the scale, the entire set can be packed and put on the road in one
day. The real hero behind the show is director Nigel Jamieson, whose inspiring
vision, creativity and perfectionism is evident in every aspect of the production,
and under whose guidance the team was able to recreate some of the most
memorable scenes in ‘How to Train Your Dragon’.
For something so unique and spectacular, seeing
is believing – check out the trailer for the show on YouTube and be amazed!
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