DreamWorks Dragons (TV Show)

DreamWorks Dragons is an American computer-animated television series airing on Cartoon Network based on the 2010 film How to Train Your Dragon. The series serves as a bridge between the first film and its 2014 sequel. A one hour preview consisting of two episodes aired on August 7, 2012, with the official premiere of the series on September 4, 2012. A total of 40 episodes will air during the first and the second season. The second season has the new subtitle of Defenders of Berk, replacing season 1's subtitle Riders of Berk.

DreamWorks Dragons was announced by Cartoon Network on October 12, 2010. Unlike previous DreamWorks Animation TV series spin-offs, it is much darker and deeper, like the film. It is the first DreamWorks Animation series for Cartoon Network instead of Nickelodeon.

The series features Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T. J. Miller and David Tennant reprising their roles from the How to Train Your Dragon film. New cast members includes Julie Marcus and Andree Vermeulen as Ruffnut (who was previously voiced by Kristen Wiig), Zack Pearlman as Snotlout (who was previously voiced by Jonah Hill), Chris Edgerly as Gobber the Belch (who was previously voiced by Craig Ferguson), and Nolan North as Stoick the Vast (who was previously voiced by Gerard Butler).

Plot
Following directly after the events of How to Train Your Dragon but before How to Train Your Dragon 2, Riders of Berk follows Hiccup as he tries to keep balance within the new cohabitation of Dragons and Vikings. Alongside keeping up with Berk's newest installment — A Dragon Training Academy — Hiccup, Toothless, and the rest of the Viking Teens are put to the test when they are faced with new worlds harsher than Berk, new dragons that can't all be trained, and new enemies who are looking for every reason to destroy the harmony between Vikings and Dragons all together.

Dragon Riders

 * Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III (voiced by Jay Baruchel) — The sarcastic, sophisticated, and intelligent teenage protagonist of the series and Head Dragon Trainer of the Berk Dragon Academy. As the frictions of human/dragon co-habitation on the Isle of Berk become apparent, Hiccup is charged with resolving them as the leader of the Dragon Academy with his skills as a "born-leader", thinker, planner and an unparalleled rider. He lost the lower part of his left leg in the fall following the fight with the Red Death in the series's feature film. Since the beginning of the second season, Hiccup's weapon-of-choice is multi-purpose shield, developed himself using Gronckle Iron as its primary material, providing both offense and defense when Toothless is unavailable to fight in battle.
 * Astrid Hofferson (voiced by America Ferrera) — Striking, energetic and tough, Astrid is Hiccup's close friend, mutual love interest, and right-hand woman as second-in-command of the Dragon Academy. An exceptionally skilled teenaged warrior of Berk who is equally formidable with either weapons or her dragon, she is shown to have an occasional temper as well as a tough personality. But under her tough surface, she is caring and willing to do anything to protect her friends, especially Hiccup and her dragon.
 * Fishlegs Ingerman (voiced by Christopher Mintz-Plasse) — Normally nervous and timid, Fishlegs has an inexhaustible arsenal of dragon-based facts and enjoys studying and learning about dragons (among other things). Fishlegs, like Hiccup, is intelligent, but he prefers learning from books rather than Hiccup's riskier hands-on approach. He is extremely reluctant to fight or put himself or his dragon in danger, often voicing his pessimistic feelings towards a risky plan's worst possible outcome. His aversion to danger is the primary reason why he's not remarkably skilled as a rider, but he's still a very valuable member of the team.
 * Snotlout Jorgenson (voiced by Zack Pearlman) — Unintelligent, brash, vain, tactless and overconfident, Snotlout is a tough, ideally-trained warrior. Snotlout is also a typical bully, often trying to push around the other youth riders but usually faltering in a situation where he does not appear to have a clear advantage. He shows romantic interest in Astrid and constantly tries (unsuccessfully) to impress her. While he boasts of having superior abilities as a warrior and dragon rider, his skills as a rider are somewhat lacking, though the fault is not entirely Snotlout's.
 * Tuffnut Thorston (voiced by T. J. Miller) and Ruffnut Thorston (voiced by Julie Marcus in Season 1, Andree Vermeulen in Season 2) – Male and female fraternal twins of the youth Viking group, they both have low intelligence and a rather crude, immature personality; they are often found pulling mindless pranks around Berk, admiring disaster and destruction, or, most often, beating each other. As riders, they may be better than some of the other teens, if not for their sibling rivalry, which usually translates to opposite commands being given to their dragon, resulting in very chaotic flying/crashing as the dragon tries to follow both commands simultaneously. However, while almost always arguing or at odds with each other, they are inseparable, and where ever one goes, the other is not far behind.

Inhabitants of Berk

 * Stoick the Vast (voiced by Nolan North) — The Chief of Berk and father to Hiccup, Stoick is immensely strong, utterly fearless and a fierce warrior, embodying the traditional Viking virtues. Next to caring for Hiccup, Stoick considers the safety of Berk his top priority, even at the cost of the dragons. Despite initial reluctance, he gradually allows Hiccup more responsibility and becomes more open to his suggestions and beliefs. As the series progresses, Stoick is often found more in favour of dragons on Berk and does go out of his way to defend and protect them, especially after the initial attack of Alvin the Treacherous and bonding with his own dragon, Thornado.
 * Gobber the Belch (voiced by Chris Edgerly) — The blacksmith of Berk, Stoick's closest friend, and Hiccup's mentor. As a veteran dragon-fighter, he is able to contribute his own knowledge of dragons. His duties expanded to include being a veterinarian for both the dragons (though primarily as a dentist) and the livestock of Berk after the peace with the dragons left him without work. He also acts as a voice of reason for Stoick, a voice of experience for Hiccup, and sometimes a mediator between the two of them. Gobber had lost a hand, foot and tooth in battle with dragons over his lifetime, and he then replaced them with prosthetics built in his smithy. He also replaced Hiccup's left lower leg after Hiccup lost it in the original film.
 * Mulch (voiced by Tim Conway) — One of the Viking farmers responsible for gathering and producing food for the village. Unlike his partner Bucket, Mulch is more intelligent and independent, and is therefore charged with keeping an eye on Bucket due to the latter's lack of both said qualities. He is missing his right hand and his left leg and has had them replaced with a hook and a peg leg.
 * Bucket (voiced by Thomas F. Wilson) — A rather simple-minded and soft-hearted farmer who is named after the bucket he always wears on his head. Bucket suffered a blow to the head in a dragon battle which lead to him, in addition to always wearing a bucket, suffering memory loss, an inability to perform tasks without supervision and, surprisingly, possessing artistic talent. Like Mulch, Bucket lost his right hand and has had it replaced with a hook.
 * Spitelout Jorgenson (voiced by David Tennant) — Snotlout's father, whose personality is very similar to Snotlout's. A strong and confident Viking warrior, he expects the same results out of his son. Spitelout takes pride in his son's achievements, but often is unforgiving of his failures.
 * Gothi — An elderly woman who serves as the village's shaman. As a mute, she communicates by gesturing or drawing lines and hieroglyphic-like pictures in the dirt with her staff that Gobber translates, sometimes with mixed success.

Villains

 * Mildew (voiced by Stephen Root) — Mildew is a cantankerous, spiteful, aged Berk local. Mildew lives reclusively in a house outside of the village by himself and festers a strong hatred of dragons. He is widely disliked by the residents of Berk, but he is, nonetheless, capable of swaying public opinion and rallying riots against the dragons, should the situation allow it, thanks to his clever and patient mentality. His hatred for dragons extends to include Hiccup, as Hiccup is the head dragon trainer, frequent advocate for all the dragons, and the primary cause of failure for most of Mildew's schemes to have the dragons evicted or killed. This leads to Mildew siding with the Outcast Tribe as their Dragon Trainer upon him faking his fall from Toothless.
 * Alvin the Treacherous (voiced by Mark Hamill) — Impatient, merciless, and always desiring action, Alvin the Treacherous is the leader of the Outcast Tribe and the main antagonist of the first season. Exiled from Berk for an unspecified treachery, he plots to invade the village and displace Stoick to claim the island as his own. Plagued by dragon attacks as Berk once was, he seeks to capture Hiccup who he knows as the "Dragon Conqueror" in hope of training and controlling dragons for his own schemes. In the season one finale, he learns how to control dragons from Mildew and earns the trust of a Whispering Death bringing a new era to the Outcast Tribe. Later on, after initially allying with the Berserkers he ends up becoming a pawn in Dagur's plot to capture Toothless, and he is betrayed and left for dead by Dagur. During this time, it was revealed that Alvin used to be friends with Stoick sometime before his exile. After Alvin saves Snotlout and offers to help the Hooligans,with help from the Dragon Riders, Alvin ended up working with Hiccup and Stoick to free Toothless and defeat the Berserkers. Afterwards, Alvin and the Outcasts went back to Outcast Island as Alvin was glad to work with Stoick again just like old times.
 * Savage (voiced by Paul Rugg) — Savage is another member of the Outcast Tribe. He is Alvin's right-hand man and top lieutenant, though he is often threatened by Alvin. After Alvin's 'death' he is press-ganged to join Dagur. It is unknown if he rejoins Alvin after Dagur's defeat.
 * Dagur the Deranged (voiced by David Faustino) – The half-crazed teenaged leader of the Berserkers, and the main antagonist of Season Two. Dagur the Deranged replaced his "retired" father Oswald the Agreeable and pursues a mission to bring the Berserkers back to their former, bloodthirsty glory, believing his father to have been "a coward" due to Oswald's rather more assumed merciful personality. After confirming that Hiccup and Stoick had lied and Berk had been training dragons, Dagur now sets out to ensure Hiccup and Toothless are defeated. Unlike Alvin who recognizes the potential of using dragons, Dagur only sees them as game to be hunted for sport, and he becomes obsessed with hunting and catching Toothless. Dagur later made a shaky alliance with Alvin to defeat the Hooligans, then betrays him and forces the Outcasts to join his already-vast armada. With help from Alvin and the Dragon Riders, Hiccup was able to defeat Dagur and the Berserkers. Dagur is then captured by Alvin, though his exact fate is left unknown.
 * The Screaming Death - A huge albino variant of the Whispering Death. Born once every hundred years this particular dragon species can reach increasing colossal sizes to that of the Whispering Death. Unlike other dragons, it is capable of rapid firing its own flames in rapid succession. In addition, unlike its predecessor, it is not weak to light and it possesses a screech, rather than a whisper, that can disorient other dragons. Despite its size, it maintains its rapid fire ability, but so far has been constantly overpowered by a team effort from all the Academy riders. Though despite its multiple losses, Hiccup is certain that each time the Screaming Death will return with greater vengeance.

Secondary Characters

 * Trader Johann (voiced by Michael Goldstrom) — Trader Johann is a seafaring trader who visits Berk on occasion. As a trader, he selects his items for trade by uniqueness, quality, and/or capability, claiming to use any tactic necessary to possess it (for instance, wrestling a colossal squid for ink or personally contacting authors for books). His fondness for the residents of Berk increased since Hiccup rescued him and returned his stolen ship (though not for Snotlout and the twins), and has returned the favor by smuggling Stoick and the riders onto Outcast island to rescue Hiccup.
 * Heather (voiced by Mae Whitman) — A mysterious teenage girl who was found by the Viking youths on Thor's Beach. Her personality very much contradicts Astrid's feisty personality, but Heather is nearly as strong and as intelligent. Astrid is jealous of Heather because Hiccup and Heather seem to be close. Although she was at first introduced as a minor antagonist due to her treachery to Berk, her true motive, to rescue her parents from Alvin the Treacherous while helping the youths fight against the Outcasts, proved her loyalty as an ally to Berk.

Dragons

 * Toothless — A male Night Fury befriended by Hiccup, Toothless is the only dragon that cannot fly without his rider, due to him having lost his left tail fin in the feature film. He is the fastest, most intelligent and rarest dragon on Berk. Toothless has an extremely strong friendship with Hiccup ever since he helped him to fly again. When compared to the other dragons, Stoick observes that he hasn't "seen a dragon that can hold a candle to a Night Fury."
 * Stormfly — A blue, female Deadly Nadder befriended by Astrid. Like Hiccup and Toothless, Astrid and Stormfly are extremely loyal to one another and display exceptional teamwork. She and Toothless share a friendly rivalry in most of the competitions Hiccup and Astrid devise for the academy. In addition to her fire bursts, Stormfly can launch poisonous spines from her tail.
 * Meatlug — A brown, female Gronckle who bonded with Fishlegs. Because of her husky size and short wingspan, she lacks the aerobatic maneuverability and speed of other dragons. She and Fishlegs have a very close, albeit, overly nurturing relationship. She also can eat a particular combination of iron ore and rocks and regurgitate a highly prized metal known as "dragon steel."
 * Hookfang — A red, male Monstrous Nightmare, ridden by Snotlout. Hookfang has a habit of attacking Snotlout or abandoning him when Snotlout tries to assert dominance. He is often distracted and doesn't always pay attention to Snotlout. Despite Snotlout's pride and their sometimes antagonistic behavior towards each other, they are shown to be extremely close.
 * Barf and Belch — A green, male, two-headed Hideous Zippleback jointly ridden by the twins, normally with Ruffnut sitting on the dragon's right head, named Barf (which breathes explosive gas), and Tuffnut sitting on the dragon's left head, named Belch (which can ignite said gas). The heads are usually agreeable, but can have difficulty flying when their riders start to disagree, although it has been shown that the twins are the only ones able to successfully control the dragon, though with occasional mixed results.
 * Thornado — Named for having the strength of Thor and the power of a tornado, Thornado is a blue, male Thunderdrum and Stoick's bonded dragon; he emits sonic blasts instead of fire. Stoick gained his trust and friendship after helping him defend an injured friend from a pack of hungry wild boars. Like his rider, Thornado is rather stubborn, although he and Stoick are, regardless, just as close with one another as the other riders and their dragons. Stoick reluctantly releases Thornado late in Season Two because Thornado wants to take care of three wild orphaned baby Thunderdrums.

Season 2: Defenders of Berk (2013–2014)
 The second season, subtitled  Defenders of Berk  and consisting of 20 episodes,  premiered on September 19, 2013. '''

Season 3: Dragon Masters (TBA)
According to a 2013 Bugg Toys & Licensing magazine interview with the Head of Americas and Australia at DreamWorks Animation, a third season of the series is planned to air in 2015 in Australia. Bugg Toys & Licensing website also lists the third season under the title of Dragon Masters.