DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. report they have entered into a televised promotional partnership with NBC, debuting today (Tuesday, February 9th), three days before the start of NBC’s broadcast of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
DreamWorks Animation produced seven winter sports-themed, CG animated ‘vignettes’ tied to the upcoming Paramount release “How To Train Your Dragon”, opening March 26th.
The vignettes will be fully integrated across all NBC platforms, including the “Today” Show, CNBC, USA and MSNBC as well as during the network’s regularly scheduled telecasts of the Vancouver Games.
The entire series is narrated by late-night talk show host Craig Ferguson and directed by Tim Johnson, an executive producer of “How To Train Your Dragon”.
Featuring characters from “Dragon” competing in variations of sports from the movie’s ‘Viking Games of 1010’, the custom vignettes include competitions in snowboarding, speed skating, bobsledding and ski jumping.
“We were inspired by the Nordic-like setting of this year’s Winter Games in Vancouver and tied it to our imagined story of burly Vikings on a desolate island we call ‘Berk,'” said Chris Sanders, co-director of “Dragon”.
“How To Train Your Dragon” is set in a mythical universe of Vikings and wild dragons, based on the book by author Cressida Cowell, following ‘Hiccup’, a Viking teen who doesn’t fit in with his tribe’s tradition of ‘dragon slayers’.
“Hiccup’s world is turned upside down when he encounters a dragon that challenges him and his fellow Vikings to see the world from an entirely different point of view…”
“Dragon” features the voice talents of Ferguson, Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T.J. Miller and Kristen Wiig, produced by Bonnie Arnold, directed by Sanders and Dean DeBlois.
Sneak Peek “How To Train Your Dragon”…