Been spending most our lives, living in a dragon paradise…
It’s always weird seeing a film a few weeks before everyone else, the obvious advantage being that you’re one of the lucky few who’ve seen it first, and the disadvantage being that you can’t talk about the film with anyone. I have been dying to share my thoughts on The Hidden World since I saw it, as usual with watching any movie that’s part of a franchise I decided to play catch up. I hadn’t seen the first two since the second one came out back in 2014 and needed a memory refresh, which was a wise choice that I highly suggest you do the same if it has been some time since you last saw the films.
What are my thoughts on the first two Dragon films? I love them, both of
I’m going to start things differently and share revised versions of my dot points I wrote down while watching the film, I believe these sum up the film nicely without spoiling any of the big surprises –
- The opening of the film is fantastic, starts off with a scene that instantly grabs your attention.
- The characters all now have armour suits that represent their respective dragons, which is pretty cool.
- The Viking village of Berk is truly a Dragon’s paradise now.
- Score within the film is grand and epic when it needs to be.
- Visuals that are constructed within the animation are absolutely stunning and breathtakingly beautiful in some scenes.
- The villain is better this time around although a bit clichéd, as in he has a foreign accent so you know he’s evil. He does present a real threat though.
- The stakes in this one are way higher than the previous two films.
- The various sheep
shown throughout the film stillremain very funny. - Scenes with Toothless and the light furry dragon are beautiful.
- Ruffnut, the girl twin has a scene that is definitely one of the high comedic points.
- Hiccup basically has to prove he is worthy of being the Chief of Berk after his father was such a great leader.
- There are some impressive action scenes, with some real emotional weight behind them.
The main focus is on Hiccup and Toothless once again although they don’t spend as much time together as they previously did, which can be seen as a shame but in relation to the story it makes sense and is needed to set up the third act. Don’t get me wrong though there are still some great and funny scenes that the two share but a lot of those scenes are helping to conclude their character arcs. The only real issue I had with the film is that some of the supporting characters are sidelined and don’t get as much screen time to shine as they did in the previous two films, but that is minor in comparison to everything else the film does right.
There is also a weird side subplot with Jonah Hill’s character Snotlout having a crush on Hiccup’s mum Valka, which was played for comedic effect but didn’t exactly land and just came across unnecessary. Also while kids are definitely the target audience for this film there is clearly deeper themes and content aimed towards adults, that will truly appreciate it and honestly if this wasn’t animated it wouldn’t at all be placed in the ‘kids’ category. Side note: Hollywood really needs to find a way to drop the stigma of animated films being for ‘kids’, films like this and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse are clearly made for and to be enjoyed by older audiences.
All in all How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is definitely worth your time and money at the cinema. If you at all liked the previous two then I don’t see any reason why you wouldn’t enjoy this one, it is in my opinion just as good as the previous two in the franchise. I honestly would struggle to rate these films in order of best to worst as they all feel like a natural continuation of the storyline and one big picture when put together.
It’s truly quite an accomplishment for DreamWorks to have crafted one of the best film trilogies in quite some time and especially when it comes to animated fare; it is very common for the third film to be lacking. There is definitely room for the story to continue one day in the future with a new generation but that would weaken all the hard work this film did in bringing the story to a close. This is by all means the end and confirmed final instalment as of this time, unless they pull a Toy Story 4 situation on us sometime in the future. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is a great film with a bittersweet end to the story of Hiccup and Toothless but nonetheless a very satisfying conclusion to the trilogy.