It’s rare for a sequel to be anywhere near as good as the original, though there are a fair amount of films that manage to pull this off. But a trilogy that contains three excellent movies is almost unheard of, with maybe only a handful existing, with many film series fizzling out after the second movie the latest. However, a new exception to the rule has been made with the How to Train Your Dragon series. While the first film in the series remains the best, its second installment proved to be an extremely worthy sequel, and its latest entry, The Hidden World, provides some nice closure that will once again pull at the heartstrings, even if like HTTYD2, it does have some minor issues of its own.
Taking place one year after the second film, the film once again follows Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) and his dragon Toothless, who search for a safe haven for dragons known as the Hidden World, as Hiccup comes to the realization that Berk is becoming over-populated due to the many dragons Hiccup and his fellow dragon-riders have been rescuing. During this time, Toothless finds a female Fury (known as Light Fury) and falls in love, only to then shortly be attacked by a dragon hunter named Grimmel (F. Murray Abraham), who intends to capture Toothless and hand him over to a group of warlords to use as an Alpha to control the other dragons. This leads Hiccup to lead both the villagers of Berk and the dragons to find the Hidden World so they can remain safe from any future harm.
If part of the story line sounds a bit familiar, that’s because it was done to a certain degree in the previous film, which is this otherwise great movie’s one and only weak spot. Part of what made the first How to Train Your Dragon so refreshing was the fact that despite a setting that involves Vikings and dragons, it was more a straightforward family drama, making the sequel the first movie to feature a full-on human antagonist who wished to control the dragons, thereby giving the two films their own unique stories. While the third film has plenty about it that makes it stand out on its own, it once again rehashes the plot line of someone evil looking to control all the dragons.
The story ultimately does connect to other elements of the story, though it feels like the movie could have found another way to reach its conclusion. Especially due to the fact that Grimmel suffers from the same problem that Drago had in the second film: While he’s a menacing enough villain and the audiences feels the weight of his threat, he’s really not the most well-written villain. He’s simply just an evil dragon hunter who’s out to get Toothless, and this time to hand him over to other warlords (whom he don’t even see again after Grimmel’s introductory scene). While F. Murray Abraham does some great voice work here, it’s just a shame that it’s not for a character who had a little more depth to him.
Beyond that, the movie is nothing but positives. The romance between Toothless and the Light Fury is a much welcome addition to the franchise. The introduction of this plot element is a telling sign that the series has matured. It still maintains its heart and rich family drama that it portrayed in its previous two movies, but shifts the drama more from parent-child relationships to romantic relationships. It’s also symbolic in a way, showing that not just the characters, but the film series itself, is ready to move on.
The film also focuses even more so on the relationship between Hiccup and Astrid, two characters who have seen such a huge evolution over the course of this film series. Hiccup was always smart, but started off much goofier and more awkward, while Astrid was angrier and more arrogant. By the time they’re first seen in this movie, gone are almost any traces of their faults from the first film. Their scenes together are some of the most tender moments in the film, and both characters now give off a much warmer feel, thanks to some superb voice-acting from both Jay Baruchel and America Ferrera.
While the series has matured, it’s still just as funny as ever, thanks to a stellar supporting cast that sees Craig Ferguson, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Kristen Wiig all return as Gobber and the dragon-riders, respectively. While some of the film’s humor has shifted to some goofier visual gags, unlike the first two films which contained humorous banter, it still works well. The running gag of Hill’s Snotlout and Mintz-Plasse’s Fishlegs constantly competing for the affection of Wiig’s Ruffnut gets some good laughs, while Ruffnut herself plays a big part in one major plot development but in the funniest way possible that it becomes one of the highlights of the film series as a whole.
And as always, the animation is top-notch, especially in the Hidden World sequences. While the How to Train Your Dragon series employs all the same sort of computer-generated imagery that DreamWorks uses in many of their other films, the amazing attention to detail in these films can’t be denied. The Hidden World moments are a true wonder to view, with the look of a painting having come to life. And in the scenes involving Grimmel, especially in the film’s second half, are positioned to give off this incredible feeling of despair and terror as some of the action unfolds.
Composer John Powell returns to give us yet another fantastic soundtrack. Once again there’s the epic sort of feel, just as it was conveyed as in the first two films’ scores. The scenes of the dragon riders against Grimmel have a grandiose, bombastic vibe to them thanks to Powell’s thrilling soundtrack. Meanwhile, the music also contains moments where it highlights just how bittersweet this movie is, as it moves towards wrapping the trilogy up with its heartfelt moments such as the romantic scenes and the move towards the Hidden World.
The third and final installment in the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy is an emotional, heartfelt way to finish off the series. While the movie rehashes some familiar plot elements from the previous film, there’s still plenty of weight that goes into its story. The series finishes fully developing so many characters who felt like such different people at the start of the first movie, giving them all such incredible depth. The animation is once again stellar, the soundtrack is once again other-worldly, and the voice-acting is top notch once more. Funny, heartbreaking, and full of wonder and awe, this solidifies the How to Train Your Dragon series as one of the best trilogies in recent memory, and probably even of all-time.
Comments