Review: How To Train Your Dragon - The Hidden World
How To Train Your Dragon snuck up on me, I’d heard the first one was good but never got round to seeing it until I was preparing for the second movie, since then both have become firm favourites and I’ve still to see the Netflix series so I’ve still more of this world to explore. Given that the second film didn’t live up domestically to the first I was unsure we’d even get another, but we have and while it does have some more glaring issues than its predecessors, there’s still enough in here to count this as the best animated trilogy since Toy Story.
Set a year after defeating Drago and Toothless becoming Alpha, Hiccup and his friends have been saving every dragon they can find from Trappers and bringing them to Berk. They’ve been successful so far but Berk is fast becoming overpopulated and the Trappers are seeing it as a target, the worst of which is a man called Grimmel, an infamous Dragon Killer hired to capture Toothless and use his Alpha status to take all of Berk’s dragons.
Faced with the knowledge that their home is no longer safe, Hiccup makes plans to move them all, human and dragon both, to a mythical dragon home known as The Hidden World. Along the way Toothless picks up the scent of a female Night Fury (known as a Light Fury for her white scales) and for the first time Hiccup realises that whatever future lies ahead for him and the people of Berk, there’s a chance that it doesn’t involve Toothless.
Honestly I think it’s the story that’s the weakest part of the film, it’s far from bad with the relationship between Hiccup and Toothless forming a solid backbone for the film to build upon. I just felt like while there was strong potential at the start with Hiccup having the leave his home to save his people, placing them all in a strange new land, but a lot of the second act seemed to be stalling or repeating itself before the film could be led into it’s finale. Hiccup would face-off against Grimmel, under-estimate him then escape in order to plan to face-off against Grimmel, under-estimate him then escape. Again it’s not bad, Grimmel was a great villain and his constant besting of Hiccup made him quite threatening, it just felt like they repeated themselves once too often.
Thankfully the film made up for it with an action-packed climax and an epilogue sequence that closes out this trilogy in quite spectacular fashion. The central focus on Hiccup and Toothless’ friendship made the story worth watching, it’s the driving plot fell apart in the middle for a little bit.
My one real disappointment with this film is that Drago, the villain of the last film, was nowhere to be seen, I know that they had plans to include him and bring about a redemption arc but they had no time to justify his turn so I’ll give them credit for not forcing something they knew wouldn’t have worked. But the knock-on effect is that some of the supporting cast feel side-lined as a result, for one Eret, once Drago’s second in command who could’ve had a lot to do facing off against his former ally ends up reduced to exposition and unknown love-rival to Snotlout for the affections of Valka. Actually Valka herself feels somewhat reduced, we get a couple scenes of her and Hiccup together but a couple more mother/son moments would’ve have gone amiss, thankfully she fares a little better than Eret with most of her dialogue coming from a place of maturity and knowing that Hiccup needs guidance, not just from her but everyone around him to make it as Chief.
Hiccup’s friends are a little more of a mixed bag than I expected, Craig Ferguson’s Gobber is still the funniest part of the series and that hasn’t changed here, he comes with a few more words of wisdom for Hiccup but his comic relief status is still intact. Snotlout and Fishlegs both have their moments, Snotlout as a hard-ass who never quite got to the fight (and had a weird crush on Valka that came out of nowhere)while Fishlegs spent most of his time baby-sitting a little dragon and trying to avoid a fight that kept coming out of nowhere. I would’ve liked a little more from them but both were enjoyable in their own way.
The low-point were the twins Ruffnut and Tuffnut, always designed to be annoying it really came to a head here. Tuffnut (no longer voiced by TJ Miller due to his antics but a solid copycat voice) had a few too many scenes where he tried to bro it out with Hiccup about marriage but clearly too in love with himself to know he’s talking bullshit, funny to start with but dragged out from there. By comparison Ruffnut (still Kristen Wiig) had less to do but her one big scene with Grimmel solidifying how annoying she was, and it could’ve been a great little scene but the consequences of it felt a little too easy for a series that’s never really taking the easy option.
Thankfully the main players were all great, Astrid was still a great partner to Hiccup, backing him up when he needed to lead but calling him out if he wasn’t thinking the right way. They do a great job at showing that Astrid is still stronger than Hiccup but never uses that to her advantage, instead using her place by Hiccup’s side to tell him what he needed to hear. She’s come a long way from the first film and while there are shades of her still in there (her holding back on marriage cause she doesn’t believe they’re there yet) she’s soften quite a bit, though clearly kicks ass better than anyone else.
Hiccup himself has also gone through a lot of change, now Chief of Berk he’s a lot more confident in himself and his quest to save all the dragons, perhaps overly so with Grimmel knocking him down several pegs and forcing Hiccup to rethink everything he thought he knew. As far as Hiccup has come there’s still that unsure teenager in the back of his mind and with everything falling apart around him it only makes sense that Hiccup would question all his decision and wonder if he’s making the right ones, it’s a nice turn for the character to have this self-doubt whilst still being very much the Hiccup we know and love.
His relationship with Toothless has also gone through some changed, the arrival of the Light Fury puts them at odds since Toothless finally has a chance to be with one of his kind (perhaps the last) but because of his broken tail he can’t fly without Hiccup and for the first time we actually get some resentment between them both, further adding to Hiccup’s uncertainty that he’s making the right choices. I still love them both and Toothless building an entire romance story with just facial expressions worked brilliantly but seeing them in this light was a turn I was not expecting but it worked.
Villain of the film was Grimmel, voiced by F Murray Abraham, a famed dragon killer with a particular aim for Night Fury’s, explaining why Toothless is one of the only ones left. Unlike Drago who used brute strength to achieve his goals, Grimmel used a wonderful hunting mindset to outwit his enemies. That might sound cliché, the smart bad guy but Abraham gave Grimmel such a sinister tone that he was genuinely threatening, everything he did was either to outsmart his enemies or prove how easily he could outsmart them. As the final bad guy in this franchise they went out on a very high-note, a killer who enjoyed the thrill of the hunt and stood out for all the right reasons.
Directed for the third and final time by Dean DeBlois, the film is as visually stunning as its predecessors, perhaps more so with the level of detail being outstanding, there’s a couple of scenes where the light will catch the little fuzz of hair on Hiccup’s face and it’s just incredible, the hidden world itself is this colony of flowers and crystals and colour that I’m honestly shocked they didn’t milk the hell out of with more shots and sequences. Some of the new ideas here are very impressive even three movies in, the Light Fury technique of disappearing in a shot of flame never stops looking amazing and Grimmel’s own pet dragons, the Deathgrippers are absolutely terrifying with poisonous stingers, giant tusks and the ability to shoot acid. The whole franchise has never been short on imagination and it still shines on through this third outing.
Action wise I don’t think anything comes close to the all-out brawl in the second film with Drago’s army attacking Valka’s fortress. But there’s still plenty to enjoy here, the opening stealth mission starts off bad-ass but quickly turns funny when nothing goes to plan. A chance to take out Grimmel brings about a frantic escape with his Deathgrippers raining fire and acid from above and no regard for anyone’s safety and the final battle has everyone taking on Grimmel’s fleet including hijacking ships, near-drowning and a malfunctioning flying ship that spins towards the water with no way of knowing which way was up. It’s entertaining and does exactly what the filmmakers want them to do, with an added sense of danger since this is the final film and considering they’ve already killed off one major character last time they might do the same here. But what sets this finale film apart is how well it captures the emotional weight of everything, there’s a real sense of finality to everything and after a while you realise that there’s little chance that Hiccup and Toothless come out of this together, it’s bittersweet but both of them have grown up together and taking separate paths is a cruel but necessary part of growing up and I love that the film went that way.
Calling this the best animated Trilogy since Toy Story might be hyperbole to some but I’m standing by it, How To Train Your Dragon has never gone wrong and The Hidden World closes out the series on a pitch-perfect note. What shortcomings it does have with a clumsy second act and a few of the supporting cast not coming off in the best light is easily made up for with a fantastic ending to Hiccup and Toothless’s relationship, a brilliantly sinister final villain and the mature way they took this series without losing the charm that made all three films so incredible.
8/10