I think we made How to Train Your Dragon three times at DreamWorks. So many rewrites, director changes, character redesign, etc. If you ever wonder why a feature length animated film can cost over $300 million dollars, this is one reason.
Really random follow up question - there's a How to Train Your Dragon advert that I assume played before the first film in cinemas, advertising the cinema's popcorn and other concessions, but the only two copies on YouTube are in really terrible quality. (one in English https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f37fI14Ne0I, the other in Finnish I think https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0Hr4mD3G1Q). I really really want a high quality version of this, and I'm wondering if you know of anyone at DreamWorks who I can contact about this? I've tried tweeting at a couple of people but unsurprisingly heard nothing back, so I'm maybe looking for someone in marketing?
I've been working on hardware, firmware, backend, frontend, crypto, hft, mobile apps and games. I think that on average you need to rewrite your game 3 times so it feels 'right'.
Seriously though, did they have to record the voice acting three times, or partially again several times?
In general, I found the talent to be really fun to be around and no-one just phoned it in. They really liked to work on the films. I ended up sitting next to Gerard Butler at the employee screening of Dragon at the now non-existent Universal Amphitheater. He stayed for the whole film. Unlike me, he hadn't seen it in thousands of tiny chunks during dailies, and had a blast.
I teach in an animation program. We tell our students over and over that animation is not like the movies: re-=shoots, pick-up shots, multiple take etc are simply not possible. That is why the bloopers reel in Toy Story was so ironic.
Not only did DWA have bloopers, there are entire sequences rendered and ready to go that didn't make it in the final movie. There is also some shorts and an entire film that made it to pre-viz that never were released.