When it comes to animation, there is no limit to what can be achieved. From intricate worlds with fairies and witches to emotional stories that feel real enough to leave their audience teary-eyed, the inferiority that many think this medium to have, has no basis. There is no better example of this than the How to Train Your Dragon film series.
Having a dedicated fandom of viewers who have followed this series into their adulthood, these films have managed to do more than just capture their audiences’ attention, and also make a massive profit in the process.
The story of Hiccup and Toothless is one full of adventure, which all started with an olive branch in the form of the former reaching out to the latter. Their friendship ended up breaking a rivalry of many centuries between Vikings and dragons.
What many might not know is that the dragon that fans love and adore, looks a lot different from the source material. Not only was he a different color, but he was also another breed of dragon, lacking his iconic Night Fury.
Toothless Looked A Lot Different In The Books
The How to Train Your Dragon films are based on a book series written by Cressida Cowell. Naturally, with any adaptation, there are things that will be left on the drawing board, and things were added that would better translate on screen. One of the bigger changes in this series was the character of Toothless. In the books, Toothless is a young Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus dragon, who is smaller than others like him.
These dragons are usually dark green color in color and have red membranes in their wings. He is also so small in size that he can actually sit on Hiccup’s arm with ease. His name also comes from the fact that he has no teeth. He did manage to grow on a single tooth, however, it did not last very long after being subjected to his dragon fire.
Also Read: ‘The Hidden World’ Will Mark An End To The How To Train My Dragon Franchise
The How to Train Your Dragon Film Changed Toothless’ Design
While this character design worked perfectly well in the books, the directors of How to Train Your Dragon had a different direction they wanted to take with his character. Rather than his green and red build, he was turned into a black dragon with jet-black scales, and green eyes, which was true to the source material. His breed of dragon was also changed, from a Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus to a completely new one called Night Fury.
The relevance of his name was also changed, going from having no teeth at all, to ones that were retractable and hidden into his jaw when he was using his explosive pulse. After getting the blessing of Cressida Cowell, these changes were put into place. These changes, which could have easily had some pushback, ended up becoming one of the most iconic parts of this franchise.
