DreamWorks Animation is known for being prolific, but the studio has just announced a massive 12-picture slate that runs through 2016.  Here’s a brief look:

• The Croods – March 22nd, 2013
• Turbo – July 19th, 2013
• Mr. Peabody & Sherman – November 1st, 2013
• Me and My Shadow – March 14th, 2014
• How to Train Your Dragon 2 – June 20th, 2014
• Happy Smekday! – November 26th, 2014
• The Penguins of Madagascar – March 27th, 2015
• Trolls (working title) – June 5th, 2015
• B.O.O: Bureau of Otherworldy Operations – November 6th, 2015
• Mumbai Musical (working title) – December 19th, 2015
• Kung Fu Panda 3 – March 16th, 2016
• How to Train Your Dragon 3 – June 18th, 2016

Hit the jump for more details on this ambitious line-up of animated films.

The sequel to How to Train Your Dragon has over three years to plan for its June 20, 2014 release.  To match the heartwarming excellence of the original, DreamWorks Animation is going to enter into production right about… now.  Writer/director Dean DeBlois spoke a the dedication of USC’s new Marilyn and Jeffrey Katzenberg Center for Animation recently, and informed the audience that several drafts of the script have been completed and the filmmakers have just begun the storyboarding process.

Jay Baruchel, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T.J. Miller, Kristen Wiig, and Gerard Butler are all set to reprise their roles from the first movie.  Hit the jump for more on How to Train Your Dragon 2, including plot details and its place in a planned trilogy.

As we reported back in October, Jay Baruchel, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T.J. Miller, and Kristen Wiig will reprise their roles in DreamWorks Animation’s sequel to How to Train Your Dragon.  Empire now reports that Gerard Butler, who played Hiccup’s father, Stoick the Vast, will return as well.  Dean DeBlois, who co-directed the first film, will go solo on the sequel.  Also, in his recent interview with Steve, cinematographer Roger Deakins (True Grit) revealed that he would be consulting on the picture.

Not much is known about the new film other than it will be “epic” and go far beyond the tiny Viking island of Berk.  The sequel to How to Train Your Dragon is set for release in 2013.

Last month executive producer Tim Johnson described DreamWorks’ forthcoming How to Train Your Dragon sequel as a “much bigger movie.”  Today director Dean DeBlois (who co-directed the original alongside Chris Sanders) echoed Johnson’s sentiment by assuring fans of the 2010 hit that the follow-up will be “quite epic.” According to DeBlois, he is currently working on a second-draft of the sequel’s script (which Johnson claims is aiming for a fall 2013 release.)  To check out more of what DeBlois had to say about the sequel and its role in the grand How to Train Your Dragon scheme of things, hit the jump.

As we’ve previously reported, DreamWorks Animation is not only planning a sequel to their terrific film How to Train Your Dragon, but they’re developing an animated series for Cartoon Network as well.  BadTaste.it recently spoke with executive producer Tim Johnson about their plans for the sequel as well as the animated series.  Johnson says that (unsurprisingly), the sequel (which is due out in 2013) will be massive and they’re in the process of figuring out the new sets and characters.  As for the TV series, while DreamWorks Animation is pushing a Kung Fu Panda series onto Nickelodeon, HTTYD is going to Cartoon Network because DWA want to keep the more dramatic and darker edge of Dragon, and the challenge is in keeping that tone.

Hit the jump for Johnson’s in-depth answers on the sequel and TV series.  How to Train Your Dragon co-director Dean DeBlois is helming the sequel with the original voice cast set to return.

Jay Baruchel, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T.J. Miller, and Kristen Wiig will reprise their roles in DreamWorks Animation’s sequel to How to Train Your Dragon.  Also returning is Toothless and other non-speaking-but-adorable dragons from the first film.  Co-writer and co-director Dean DeBlois will fly solo on this one with Chris Sanders (who is busy on DWA’s 2012 caveman comedy The Croods) executive producing.  Since How to Train Your Dragon was conceive as a “prequel-of-sorts” to Cressida Cowell’s book series, DeBlois plans to expand the world presented in the first film.  Producer Bonnie Arnold explains, “There are nine books, and I feel like there are all sorts of elements that we could pull from.”

How to Train Your Dragon has been a box office smash for the studio ($489.6 million worldwide) and it’s one of my favorite films of the year.  DreamWorks Animation has the 3D sequel on track for a 2013 release.  Hit the jump for the press release.

How to Train Your Dragon is by far the best DreamWorks Animation film to date.  I don’t know if it will be their highest grossing (probably not because it doesn’t have “Shrek” in the title) or if it will sell the most toys (the main dragon is pretty darn cute), but it’s easily the best movie I’ve seen from the company.  I find too often that their films rely on getting the most famous celebrities as the voices and having most the jokes be puns or pop-culture references.  How to Train Your Dragon tells the simple boy-and-his-dragon story and then carries you away with likable characters and exhilarating action.

I approach each DreamWorks Animation movie with extreme caution because while there are a few I highly enjoy (“Over the Hedge”, “Bee Movie”), their films have a tendency of trying too hard to be hip and cool rather than just tell a good story and include clever jokes.

But the first trailer for their upcoming movie “How to Train Your Dragon” (in 3D, of course), is quite charming.  And while the trailer may say “From the Creators of ‘Shrek’ and ‘Kung Fu Panda’”, the writer-directors of the film are Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders.  They made the “Lilo & Stitch” and now I understand why “How to Train Your Dragon” looks good.  Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  “How to Train Your Dragon” hits theaters on March 26^th, 2010.