Entertainment

Watch 'How to Train Your Dragon 2's Big Reveal

by Christine DiStasio

Four years is a seriously long time to wait for more adorable dragons — so can you blame us for jumping for joy today? After an incredibly long and painful wait that included a teaser trailer in July 2013 and a "first look" at production stills earlier this week, Dreamworks has finally released the first full-length trailer for How To Train Your Dragon 2 . And yes, it's just as amazing as you hoped it would be. The highly anticipated sequel to 2010's How To Train Your Dragon looks like its going to be as gloriously perfect — if not more so — than its predecessor and it's already revealed an epic twist. Hiccup's mom, voiced by Cate Blanchett, is actually alive!

Following the teaser trailer that featured a truly stunning flight sequence, the full-length version gave us a heaping 2:42-worth of what's to come when the film hits theaters on June 13, 2014. We definitely can't say we're disappointed at all with the big reveal and choice to build a story around Hiccup's mother, Valka. (In case you've forgotten, she was absent from the first movie and her absence was one of Hiccup's father's reasons for hating dragons.)

The film's director, Dean DeBlois, wrote the part of Valka specifically for Blanchett because of the actress's "powerful presence" and assures that even though you can't see her, every word she says conveys that strength in the film. The character, who has essentially created a dragon sanctuary and has made her life's work to learn to communicate with the species, has lived in isolation for years, according to DeBlois, making her almost dragon-like herself. I guess that explains Hiccup's love and desire to understand dragons that made up the story for the first film.

Basically, we're just really, really excited about all of this. It was a perfect decision in storytelling to introduce Valka and have Hiccup find her by accident. According to the trailer, Hiccup will learn a lot from his long-lost mother about how to save their village of Berk (where the Vikings and dragons are coexisting peacefully) from a new enemy who wants to capture all of the dragons. (Which promises yet another stunning battle sequence.)

It's a surprise and a shock to see Valka revealed in the trailer, but knowing ahead of time that she exists just makes us want to speed through the next six months so How To Train Your Dragon 2 can finally be here. It also definitely doesn't hurt that Hiccup and Toothless are THE cutest friendship we've ever seen ever in life — and there's plenty of adorableness between those two in this trailer to melt our frozen, winterized hearts, too.

Image: Dreamworks