I love it when a really great film sneaks up on me. It doesn’t happen very often any more — as Editor-in-Chief of the BG website, it’s more or less my job to stay on top of the latest in fantasy entertainment — but when it does, it’s a real delight.

My favorite film of 2010, and one of my all-time favorite animated films, period, snuck up on me. My kids came boiling up out of the basement, begging me to come watch it with them on DVD. So I did. They were aquiver with excitement as they watched it again — for what turned out to be the fourth time — trying to stay quiet and not spoil the surprises for me.

The film was How To Train Your Dragon, and it was everything they said it would be: funny, surprising, original, and absolutely riveting. See Andrew Zimmerman Jones BG review here, in which he calls it “Hands down, of the fantasy films I’ve seen this year, my favorite.”

And now the sequel has snuck up on me. Or at least the teaser trailer has — I had no idea the movie was in production. But I’m delighted to hear it, and anxiously awaiting the finished product. Canadian writer/director Dean DeBlois, who also directed the first film, calls this one “the epic second act of a much larger story.” Here’s a look at the trailer posted two days ago on YouTube, where it already has over 1.6 million views.

How To Train Your Dragon 2 was produced by DreamWorks Animation and directed by Dean DeBlois. The voice cast includes Gerard Butler, Kristen Wiig, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, and Craig Ferguson. It is scheduled for release in June 2014.