HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 director Dean DeBlois presents mo-cap to Barack Obama at Dreamworks

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 director Dean DeBlois presents mo-cap to Barack Obama at Dreamworks

I’ve been lucky enough to get to know Dean DeBlois, co-director of LILO & STITCH and HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, and a man who is as friendly and personable as he is talented. I just saw him at San Diego Comic-Con a few months back (interview from that coming shortly) where he was helping celebrate the genius of movie poster artist Drew Struzan. Dean has been busy prepping HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2, for which he takes sole director credit. President Barack Obama visited Dreamworks Animation and their motion capture stage on Tuesday, where Dean, along with Jeffrey Katzenberg (a big time Obama fundraiser), presented the magic that is mo-cap and gave The Prez a tour of the company.

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Take a look at video from the visit, which has a bit of sneak peek at HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 Dean posted on social media about the event, noting “I just presented our filmmaking process on Dragon 2 to President Obama. He was very gracious and full of questions. And he knew the first movie well. Kind of a surreal moment.”

There’s also the following video of Obama meeting with THE BIG BANG THEORY’s Jim Parsons and legendary comedian Steve Martin (notice the elbow greeting). Wait until you see what Barack sees during this portion of the tour. While addressing almost 2000 Dreamworks Animation employees, the POTUS was quoted to say “Entertainment is one of the bright spots of our economy,” adding “The gap between what we can do and other countries can do is enormous. That’s worth cheering about.”

All in all this is a fun and rather unique moment, for a sitting U.S. President to show some love and attention to some of the hard working animators out there in Hollywood… and being a huge fan of HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, and a friend of Dean DeBlois, I couldn’t be happier it happened where it did. Check out the video below and tell us your thoughts in the comments. Are you excited to see the 2014 sequel?

And just for fun here’s a few more images from the visit:

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Obama visits DreamWorks, praises entertainment industry

Photo sources: The Wrap and Los Angeles Times

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About the Author

Born and raised in Dallas, Mark has been a movie critic since 1994, with reviews featured in print, radio and National TV. In 2001 he started the Entertainment section of the Herorealm website, where he contributed film reviews and celebrity interviews until 2004. After three years of service there, he started Bigfanboy.com, which has become one of the Dallas film community's leading information websites. Bigfanboy hosts several movie screenings in the Texas area, and works closely with film and TV studios and promotional partners to host exciting events and contests. The site also features a variety of rare celebrity and filmmaker interviews, and Bigfanboy.com regularly covers the film festival circuit as well. In addition to Hollywood reporting, Mark has worked for many years as an advertising and sci-fi/comic book artist. Clients have included Lucasfilm Ltd., Topps Trading Cards, The Dallas Mavericks and The Dallas Stars. From 2002 until 2015 he managed the Dallas Comic Con, Sci-Fi Expo and Fan Days events in the DFW area. He currently catalogs rare comic books and movie memorabilia for Heritage Auctions, and runs the Dallas Comic Show conventions, but remains an avid moviegoer and cinema buff.