AnimationWorld Magazine — January 25, 2019
Designing the Spectacular Realm of the Dragons for DreamWorks Animation’s ‘The Hidden World’
Already spreading its wings abroad, DreamWorks Animation’s How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World flies into U.S. theaters from distributor Universal Pictures on February 22, giving domestic audiences their chance to see the highly anticipated film.
The Hidden World is the culmination of the animated trilogy launched in 2010 with series writer and director Dean DeBlois. The first film, the Academy Award, BAFTA and Golden Globe-nominated How To Train Your Dragon, made $495 million globally for then-distributor Paramount and received 15 Annie Award nominations, winning 10 awards including Best Animated Feature and Best Production Design in an Animated Feature Production for art director Pierre-Olivier Vincent.
Like the film’s director and much of its crew, Vincent has remained with the blockbuster franchise over its entire lifespan, going on to serve as production designer on both How To Train Your Dragon 2 and The Hidden World. The second film, which made $622 million for distribution partner Fox following its release in 2014, went on to win Golden Globe and Annie Awards for Best Animated Feature as well as receiving BAFTA and Oscar nominations.
Vincent, or POV, as he’s known to colleagues, first joined DreamWorks from French animation studio Gaumont, where he worked as a visual development artist on various television projects. At DWA, he started out as a layout artist on The Road to El Dorado (2000) and went on to character design for Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002). Vincent also served as lead sequence design artist on the Academy Award-nominated film Shark Tale (2004), garnering an Annie Award nomination, and as art director on Flushed Away (2006), receiving an Annie Award for Best Production Design in an Animated Feature.