Rich Reviews- How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

Dreamworks is certainly a frustrating animation company to cover in terms of historical quality, especially seeing how their works have ranged from legitimate modern classics to downright dreck. Still, my overall outlook on Dreamworks will always remain an overall sunny one. Part of this has a lot to do with “Prince of Egypt”, but if there’s one thing you can count on to never lose steam as Dreamworks gets on in years, it’s the “How to Train Your Dragon” movies. From their funny, emotionally charged stories populated by likable characters to the wonderful animation consisting of some of the best flight scenes in film (not animation, film) history, the “How to Train Your Dragon” films have, to this point, demonstrated the best way to handle simple, yet deep-rooted and accessible themes. The first of these movies told a rather simple story about a meek viking befriending a dragon and breaking prejudices, but executed it in a charming and beautifully animated way. The second film fared even better, using its run time to focus deeply on the characters’ inner struggles, and to establish that the world of this series was one of lasting consequences and deeper history. This third one, set up as the finale to this trilogy, continues in the series’ tradition of character driven storytelling, and just might be the perfect was to close out the story of Hiccup, the vikings of Berk, and the dragons they came to befriend. Say what you will of Dreamworks’ strange, fluctuating output quality, for this movie proves that they are on point when they are at their best.

Directly following the events of the second movie, Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) continues leading the vikings of Berk as their chief following his father’s passing, and has been successful in freeing captive dragons from roaming hunters with his squad of dragon riders. Sadly, this success has also overcrowded Berk’s island, and pressure is ever mounting, both on the newly-formed utopia for dragons, and on Hiccup, who’s being pressured from all sides to be the chief the island needs and to marry fellow dragon rider and love interest, Astrid (America Ferrera). To make matters worse, the leader of a clan of dragon hunting warlords (F. Murray Abraham) has long since made plans to bait and capture Hiccup’s longtime dragon steed, Toothless, with a potential mate in an attempt to take Berk’s land. With naught but a mythical and hidden paradise for dragons to go on, Hiccup leads his people on an expedition to the “Hidden World”, all while his position as chief, his romance with Astrid, and his until-now unbreakable bond with Toothless weigh increasingly heavy on his mind.

If the short synopsis was any clue, I absolutely want everyone reading this to see this movie, especially if they have followed the previous movies up to this point. While the “How to Train Your Dragon” movies may not have the market cornered in the way of groundbreaking originality, it makes up for this with its mastery of tone and atmosphere. While there are plenty of comedy scenes in this movie that could be called typical of the conventional Hollywood animated film, there are just as many scenes in this and the other films without any dialogue, and this kind of subtlety is especially well-done during the romantic interactions between Toothless and the female “Light Fury”. Much like its predecessors, the third film is more than content to let facial expressions and subtle gestures speak volumes about the characters and what they’re going through. This kind of strength is an imperative for the kind of story these movies are telling, since the climactic nature of this installment means the focus is squarely on Hiccup’s fears for the future. As I stated before, the world of “How to Train Your Dragon” is one of tangible consequences, in which deaths are permanent and our protagonist sports a peg-leg, so it’s only natural for Hiccup’s character arc to take center stage as the stakes get higher. The stakes are especially high with the villain being as threatening as he is, and in addition to be wholly intimidating and expertly voice by F. Murray Abraham, Grimmel also stands to contrast Hiccup’s want for peace and balance with cold, ruthless ambition. Those are far from the only high points of this movie, though. The animation, as is typical of the series, continues to be fantastic here, and I’ll even go so far as to say the flight scenes are the best they’ve ever been in a series that has mastered the art of simulating flight in film. These flight scenes aren’t just the best in the series for standing near the pinnacle of Dreamworks’ art direction and animation (although that’s certainly the case), but also for their role in shaping the relationships between the characters. To that end, it’s no wonder that the core of this finale’s thematic ambitions is Hiccup’s relationship with Toothless, and by extension, humanity’s relationship with the rest of dragon-kind.

Without spoiling anything, the Hiccup’s struggles in choosing between the interests of himself (and the tribe) and the interests of Toothless (and the rest of Berk’s dragons) is one that is given due time and meditation by both Hiccup himself and the characters that have surrounded him up to this point. While conclusions are eventually reached, the journey itself is far from a walk in the park, and that a movie series with this many stakes has found success with broad audiences, let alone children, should be an inspiring thing that should speak volumes about the universal appeal that animation has as a medium of mainstream film. Pretty much the only gripe I have that isn’t a nitpick is that this movie is the last in what has been Dreamworks’ crowning achievement over the last decade. “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” is a funny, emotionally fueled, and beautiful conclusion to an already-excellent series, and I’m glad that this was the kind of end this trilogy received. Families and animation enthusiasts, see this the second you can.