It's finally out! How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.
How To Train Your Dragon has been pretty much THE best franchise in the DreamWorks stable. While Shrek and Madagascar have also been very popular, they don't quite have the maturity level that appeals to the adult audience throughout their franchise span.
How To Train Your Dragon has been consistently rated highly by audience and critics unanimously, leading to a full trilogy of movies and 118 episodes of Dragons, which bridges the gap between the first two films.
The Hidden World is the final piece of the puzzle in the trilogy and has been widely anticipated. Now my first piece of advice is that if you have managed to avoid seeing the trailers, continue doing so. The trailers give away an unfortunately large proportion of the plot, which I was a little disappointed by.
Otherwise, this film fits perfectly in with the franchise. It serves as a great conclusion to the trilogy, bringing the storyline full circle with a sense of finality. It is quite a surprise that DreamWorks is happy to let this come to an end because this could certainly have been the premise that kept on giving, but they closed off the arc in an emotionally substantial way.
Family-friendly, of course, there are jokes to cater to all ages. With a lot of emotional themes around the ideas of parenthood and the responsibilities of friendships and family, and significance placed on not only Chief Hiccup's shoulders but also placing emphasis on his fiancée, Astrid and his mother, Valka, creating a great support network for the characters.
This is, of course, the film where we finally find a buddy for Toothless; a white Night Fury. This creates several delightfully extensive scenes where Toothless attempts to court her, even though as the only Night Fury up until now, he has no idea how to. While this does tread along much of the same lines as the first film, with trying to gain the trust of a dragon again, it does so in a fresh way that is emotionally engaging (something that really tells you a lot about the direction and skills of the animators, being able to convey so much emotion in creatures that are unable to speak).
Outside of Toothless' arc, the main storyline involves villains in the form of competing Chiefs and a Dragon Killer by the name of Grimmel. Overall, the story is rather weak, and the villains rather one-dimensional. Grimmel has no real motives to do what he does beyond pride, and the competing Chiefs are so underutilised I don't even remember if they were given names in the film.
In fact outside of the Toothless and Astrid/Hiccup arcs, none of the other characters has any form of character development. Fishlegs, Tuffnut and Ruffnut, and Snotlout all have no story arcs, they are simply there to assist during fight scenes.
The fight scenes themselves are very fun to watch. You can't help but be impressed with the fight choreography and planning that goes into these large-scale scuffles. Right off the bat, the opening scenes of the film starts off with a large battle on a ship and it's rather remarkable to see how well everything has been written to have these battles without showing blood or death. There are scenarios throughout the film where potentially hundreds of trappers die, but you never explicitly see it. Very well done.
But you do see everything else. Visually, the film is a masterpiece. Even if you simply compare the quality of animation between The Hidden World and the original movie, the technology has advanced so much. The high-quality environments, combined with well-written characters throughout the trilogy, and amazing style in the cinematography, The Hidden World is an absolute blast to watch. It's simply a pity that it didn't come out before Aquaman, because a lot of the environments are visually similar, which does lose a lot of the power to the shots.
How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is a safe film. The plot is actually rather minimal and to a smaller scale (especially compared to How To Train Your Dragon 2), but makes up for it with a level of emotional investment that may bring a few tears to the eyes by the end. A beautifully shot film, with visually stunning environments, despite the lack of a large plot, The Hidden World provides the perfect end to the trilogy.
I would definitely recommend you check it out.
How To Train Your Dragon has been pretty much THE best franchise in the DreamWorks stable. While Shrek and Madagascar have also been very popular, they don't quite have the maturity level that appeals to the adult audience throughout their franchise span.
How To Train Your Dragon has been consistently rated highly by audience and critics unanimously, leading to a full trilogy of movies and 118 episodes of Dragons, which bridges the gap between the first two films.
The Hidden World is the final piece of the puzzle in the trilogy and has been widely anticipated. Now my first piece of advice is that if you have managed to avoid seeing the trailers, continue doing so. The trailers give away an unfortunately large proportion of the plot, which I was a little disappointed by.
Otherwise, this film fits perfectly in with the franchise. It serves as a great conclusion to the trilogy, bringing the storyline full circle with a sense of finality. It is quite a surprise that DreamWorks is happy to let this come to an end because this could certainly have been the premise that kept on giving, but they closed off the arc in an emotionally substantial way.
Family-friendly, of course, there are jokes to cater to all ages. With a lot of emotional themes around the ideas of parenthood and the responsibilities of friendships and family, and significance placed on not only Chief Hiccup's shoulders but also placing emphasis on his fiancée, Astrid and his mother, Valka, creating a great support network for the characters.
This is, of course, the film where we finally find a buddy for Toothless; a white Night Fury. This creates several delightfully extensive scenes where Toothless attempts to court her, even though as the only Night Fury up until now, he has no idea how to. While this does tread along much of the same lines as the first film, with trying to gain the trust of a dragon again, it does so in a fresh way that is emotionally engaging (something that really tells you a lot about the direction and skills of the animators, being able to convey so much emotion in creatures that are unable to speak).
Outside of Toothless' arc, the main storyline involves villains in the form of competing Chiefs and a Dragon Killer by the name of Grimmel. Overall, the story is rather weak, and the villains rather one-dimensional. Grimmel has no real motives to do what he does beyond pride, and the competing Chiefs are so underutilised I don't even remember if they were given names in the film.
In fact outside of the Toothless and Astrid/Hiccup arcs, none of the other characters has any form of character development. Fishlegs, Tuffnut and Ruffnut, and Snotlout all have no story arcs, they are simply there to assist during fight scenes.
The fight scenes themselves are very fun to watch. You can't help but be impressed with the fight choreography and planning that goes into these large-scale scuffles. Right off the bat, the opening scenes of the film starts off with a large battle on a ship and it's rather remarkable to see how well everything has been written to have these battles without showing blood or death. There are scenarios throughout the film where potentially hundreds of trappers die, but you never explicitly see it. Very well done.
But you do see everything else. Visually, the film is a masterpiece. Even if you simply compare the quality of animation between The Hidden World and the original movie, the technology has advanced so much. The high-quality environments, combined with well-written characters throughout the trilogy, and amazing style in the cinematography, The Hidden World is an absolute blast to watch. It's simply a pity that it didn't come out before Aquaman, because a lot of the environments are visually similar, which does lose a lot of the power to the shots.
How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is a safe film. The plot is actually rather minimal and to a smaller scale (especially compared to How To Train Your Dragon 2), but makes up for it with a level of emotional investment that may bring a few tears to the eyes by the end. A beautifully shot film, with visually stunning environments, despite the lack of a large plot, The Hidden World provides the perfect end to the trilogy.
I would definitely recommend you check it out.