15 Times The Sea Beast Copied How to Train Your Dragon

Similarities Between The Sea Beast And How to Train Your Dragon!

It seems like everyone’s watching Netflix’s animated movie, The Sea Beast. But, did this animated adventure story remind you of another fan-favorite flick that also had a lot to say about the relationship between monsters and their hunters? If so, you were probably thinking of the 2010 DreamWorks classic, How to Train Your Dragon. These movies had a lot in common with each other right off the bat, but some of the similarities are a bit deeper and more difficult to put your finger on. Some characters have a lot of similar qualities – like Red and Toothless, Hiccup and Maisie, Hiccup and Jacob, and Stoic and Captain Crow. The vikings and the sailors in these two universes are very alike, as are their off-duty hangout spots and even the magical worlds they live in. There are beasts that are kept as pets, hunters that change their misguided ways, and ancient texts that teach about the wild beasts of their respective worlds. You may have even noticed that the two movies have similar opening scenes as well as parallel fight sequences. And, of course, they have morals and plots that are very much aligned. It’s not easy for How to Train Your Dragon fans to watch The Sea Beast without thinking of the qualities it shares with the sweet monster hunting film that came before it. So, let’s talk about all the things that make The Sea Beast remind us of How to Train Your Dragon for a brand new generation.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro
00:29 Red and Toothless
01:22 Reformed Hunters
01:52 Beasts As Pets
02:21 Hiccup and Maisie
02:56 Hiccup and Jacob
03:40 Captive Creatures
04:04 Stoic and Crow
04:42 Hunting How-To Texts
05:12 Humans VS Beasts
05:36 Opening Parallels
05:55 Wide Variety of Beasts
06:25 Vikings and Sailors
06:45 Sea Monsters
07:14 Off-Duty Hunters
07:34 The Real World with a Twist
08:03 Outro

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Written by: Lauren Waters
Narrated by: Richard C
Edited by: Lucía Canabal

[TheThingsAnimated]

The Sea Beast or How to Train Your Dragon? 💙

[bigfootsb]

How to train your dragon and Sea Beast have similarities. They are about a group of humans who are scared of monsters and the main characters are children who want to get away from their home and find mythical creatures and they show the village that the creatures were friendly to humans as long as they coexist

[godzillakingofmonsters]

Slighter spoilers but something I loved so much in sea beast was they showed how much this war has done. When red swims over the sea floor and you see all the bones and sunken ships you really now feel how old the war is. We get to see the casualties of war on both sides and and makes me remember the quote from the first HTTYD

“They’ve killed hundred of us!”

“And we’ve killed thousands of them!”

Just everytime I see that scene that quote comes to mind

[Kurotama]

Giving Toothless catlike eyes is still one of the best design choices *ever*

[tia]

Edit: Thanks to all the comments - I'll admit I jumped the gun but I still believe Sanders has an influence regardless that his name isn't posted anywhere. For that I apologise however I do stand my ground.

There is a very valid reason why both HTTYD and Sea Beast are similar... Chris Sanders.
If you search for any information on William's art style there is none easily found or identified whilst there is a tone for Sanders given his illustration background. This art style mimic goes back to 2008 when Williams replaced Sanders after the base concept and style were done for Bolt. We're taught in Art School to mimic famous art styles, and Sander's style is relatively simple compared to others, given I've tried to draw like him for Illustration practice (when finding my own style). Since 2008 when Bolt took off it's possible that Williams may have retained the ability to mimic Sander's style despite not being too evident in movies such as Frozen, Big Hero 6 and Moana - it's almost identical to Sander's in HTTYD given the similarity in the storyline as well (Sea Beast is said to be a middle ground between HTTYD and Moby Dick).


Despite Sanders having nothing to do with Sea Beast it's obvious Williams is highly influenced by Sander's art style and it's sad to see that there is almost a complete ripoff with the art style in this movie. I can also speculate that any artists who worked under Sanders could have moved back to Disney to work under Williams which brings in the same issue, given artists work under one or more styles throughout their lifetimes. It's sad to see that it wasn't picked up on in concept.

[aharttsx]

While yes, the Red Bluster design has strong resemblance to Toothless (mostly just the face) and the plot is generally similar to HTTYD, i think many of the points made in the video are a bit of a stretch. The characters in Sea Beasts are distinct and different enough to stand apart from HTTYD, and if anything, Cpt. Crow reminded me more of John Silver from Treasure Planet than Stoic. Comparing Hiccup to Maisie and Jacob felt pretty off too as for every similarity they might share with Hiccup, they have just as many if not more differences. Many of the other points made in the video are such generic things that you can't even really say it was copied from HTTYD, and that its just more cliche than anything. Sea Beasts, while sharing similarities to HTTYD, having a pretty predictable plot, and having a weaker ending than it could have had was still a solid film in its own right with great animation, and was a pleasant surprise compared to many other Netflix animated films.

[hellen]

Do you want to know something? I'm not even there for that! This movie was a miracle, considering the terrible series we received after the last movie, it shows the monsters in a natural way, not just "I tame you, you become good", no. See that Red is still acting like a wild animal instead of a dog. Even so, I won't belittle the golden years of the HTTYD franchise.

[REX-dssg]

And let’s say it, that’s why we love this movie. Please stop trying to find which one is the most loved, because sea beast is literally the reincarnation of how to train your dragon…

[imag-nonespaghet]

There is a difference between similarities and copying. These were very similar.

[Kaikaifilu]

The confrontations between Hiccup/Stoick and Jacob/Captain Crow.

Obviously one’s, well, *Hiccup* with his biological father and the other’s a strapping guy with his adopted father-figure, but at the same time both were knocked down by their respective paternal figures over their perceived betrayals over the very monsters they’ve traditionally hunted. 

Except Crow *really* wanted to kill Jacob at that point, and it kinda hurts less considering Jacob’s overall physique, whereas with Stoick he *knows* about Hiccup’s own physicality, but is too enraged over his son’s perceived betrayal to think clearly.

In some ways, you feel for both Crow and Stoick, except Captain Crow was willing to kill Maisie over the first loss of Red, so ‘Beast’ kinda took a darker turn regarding said paternal figure.

[cheesequaked]

I love the HTTYD series but as soon as the concept blew up, I KNEW that any films involving friendship between man and beast in future would swing all the way back around to HTTYD. When I was coming up with character ideas as a kid (2004) the number one thing I wanted to see was a person riding a dragon, ya know, a typical plot. When Eragon came out, oh I lost my shit. But when HTTYD came out it was even better!

But the moment that series took off...that was it. The entire concept was layered over any other concepts to a point plots similar to befriending mighty creatures are snuffed out and called "HTTYD Ripoff" The same guy that designed this film worked on HTTYD anyway. So all the pointers don't matter anyway, his ideas he put into the HTTYD franchise was put into this film too, WITHOUT a "ripoff" effect

[Anime_theatre_lover]

I love the sea beast but how to train your dragon is way better!! I haven’t seen the third movie yet I should watch that sometime

[amthoughts]

Honestly sea beast was great. I also really like how to train your dragon as well. I think that both are new kinds of movies that you don’t see a lot and I can appreciate the effort put into them. We don’t need to compare them and talk about which is better. We can just enjoy the fact someone decided to make them

[gigimakesartworks]

nothing will ever beat httyd! HTTYD LIVES ON

[Joshingsoybeans]

Hey, you want to know something? I honestly don’t care. It was a great movie and it is helping me through my HTTYD withdrawal phase because the phase has been ongoing for awhile now and it’s so bad that I legitimately binged the entirety of the second season of the Nine Realms just to see the skrill again and to be honest, I am really trying not to cry while typing this.

[Dawne]

There was one similarity to HTTYD that you didn’t mention that I noticed immediately. When the ship is going for a sleigh ride with Red, Maisie cut the lines. Just like when Hiccup cut the lines in the first movie.

[punkbeluga]

It definetely has similarities, but the Sea beast is it's own thing, it's an awesome movie. If it was another movie about dragon hunters that takes one individual to change it all, then yeah, it was copying

[jade_]

I strongly disagree. While I can see how people can pinpoint similarities, there are many things that make them different. The Sea Beast reminds me more of Drifting Dragons(Netflix animated show and Manga) in it's hunting style, especially when it came to Red. However, instead of hunting the beasts out of necessity, the Hunters hunted them out of sport. The 'necessity' of hunting the Sea Beasts is actually passed down through generations of false history planted by the government. Whereas in HTTYD, the only reason the vikings wanted to kill the dragons is because they posed a real threat to livestock and living on Berk in general. It wasn't until the end of the first movie where the vikings found out the reason why the dragons would raid their village, so they killed out of temporary necessity.

[hornedtoadstudies]

"Both inspire their killers to give up their killing for good" Hiccup didn't want to kill dragons directly after he met Toothless, while Jacob still wanted to kill Red even after he saw how gentle she was with Maisie.

[hansgetzekokain]

Httyd forever. The first movie is just a masterpiece.