Movie Review: How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World**** / *****?

Directed by: Dean DeBlois.

Written by: Dean DeBlois based upon the book series by Cressida Cowell.

Starring: Jay Baruchel (Hiccup), America Ferrera (Astrid), F. Murray Abraham (Grimmel), Cate Blanchett (Valka), Gerard Butler (Stoick), Kit Harington (Eret), Jonah Hill (Snotlout Jorgenson), Kristen Wiig (Ruffnut Thorston), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Fishlegs), Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (Ragnar the Rock), Craig Ferguson (Gobber), Justin Rupple (Tuffnut Thorston), AJ Kane (Young Hiccup).

 

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World completes what really is one of the best animated trilogies out there. With each new film in the series, director Dean DeBlois has found ways to push the animation farther, to make the films more beautiful, almost more dreamlike, and continue the story in a beautiful, and emotional, way. Most animated sequels are content to simply repeat the formula of what made the last film successful – so we get a law of diminishing returns with each new film in the series. What the How to Train Your Dragon series has done is deepen the characters and their relationships with each new film, and watch how they mature. It’s certainly the best series Dreamworks Animation has ever been a part of – and rivals any other animated series you can name.

 

In this, the last film in the series, young Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) is now the leader of Berk after his father died in the last film. He struggles with the burden of leading his people – especially since he has also seen it as his mission to save all the dragons he can, since most people still want to hunt and kill them. Berk is now overstuffed with people and dragons, and are drawing unwanted attention. Master dragon hunter Grimmel (F. Murray Abraham) in particular has his sights set on Hiccup’s Dragon Toothless – he has killed all the other Night Fury’s, and wants to finish the job. As bait, he has a female of the same species – all white, instead of all black – and this draws Toothless’ attention, and begins to make Hiccup question whether Toothless’ place is really with him in Berk, or with the dragons. Toothless is the alpha after all – and where he goes, all the others will follow.

 

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World doesn’t completely avoid all the pitfalls of sequels. The film insists on bringing back all the characters from the previous films, and giving them enough screen time to warrant paying their celebrity voice cast – but really we didn’t need any of Hiccup’s old friends in this film, other than Astrid (America Ferrera) – who we know he will eventually marry. The film struggles to find the others something to do – so we get weird scenes of Jonah Hill’s Snotlout hitting on Hiccup’s mother (Cate Blanchett), lots of scenes of bickering between the twins (Kristen Wiig and Justin Rupple, replacing TJ Miller for obvious reasons) – and for some reason a running commentary from the male twin about his fake beard and his insistence of the marriage between Hiccup and Astrid. These scenes, thankfully, don’t last very long – and are pretty much jammed in the first half of the film – but they are a little bit of distraction.

 

Otherwise though, The Hidden World is one of the best animated films you are likely to see this year. You can tell that the legendary Roger Deakins acted as a visual consultant on all three of these films, and I don’t think any of them has looked as stunning as the best moments here. Director DeBlois also has a lot of confidence in his visual storytelling – there are times where minutes on end go by with no dialogue at all. The action sequences in the film are as stunning as anything you will see in a live action film this year.

 

And then, there is the ending of the film – and the series – which puts a definite endpoint on it. In many ways, the series has been building to this emotional point – certainly this film does – and when it arrives, you may well be surprised by how emotional you get at it. My wife always says that in animated film, characters from two different worlds cannot co-exist for long, and that’s true here as well. But over the years, the relationship between Toothless and Hiccup has become so deep and meaningful, its conclusion will bring a tear to your eye. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is an early year treat – and will certainly remain one of the best animated films of the year.