Dreamworks’s How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World was released in theaters Feb. 22, following its two predecessors How to Train Your Dragon and How to Train Your Dragon 2 and completing its trilogy.
I absolutely LOVED the first movie when it came out in 2010. I stand by to this day that How to Train Your Dragon is THE best 3D movie in existence. Sorry, not sorry, James Cameron, but Avatar ain’t got nothing on my guy “Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III” and his lovable “Night Fury” dragon, “Toothless.” On top of that, the beautiful animation, storytelling and lovable characters made the movie relatable and fun.
The second movie was not as good. It seemed like the sequel wasn’t planned and so the writers just had to make something up for it. The goofy side characters had to take a bigger role in the story that the characters were not at all written for. “Astrid,” Hiccup’s love interest, became bland and uninteresting due to her character arc being completed in the first movie, and the plot was a little too cliché. This is not to say it was a bad movie, it just felt predictable and unplanned.
The Hidden World is a solid ending to the series. The movie starts off rough with some unpolished animation, okay direction and most of the characters being one note and borderline annoying. It seemed to be teetering toward the second movie in terms of how the characters were written. But, as the movie went on, it kept getting better. The plot dealt with themes about growing up, taking responsibility and realizing that one does not have to go through life on their own.
The performances were solid. Jay Baruchel reprises his role as Hiccup and you can see how much he enjoys the role and just how much passion he put into the character through his lines. The introduction of the villain, voiced by F. Murray Abraham, was intimidating and posed an honest threat to “Berk” and its citizens. He also plays a nice shadow to Hiccup as he must overcome the last of his anxieties to become the strong and rightful chief of Berk. Even the side characters, who were a little annoying at first, became less annoying and more funny.
The animation was SO PRETTY. While I was watching the movie, I actually thought to myself, “Man, I should have seen this is 3D.” Normally I hate seeing movies in 3D because it hurts my eyes, but dude, this movie makes me want to endure the pain to watch it. It is none of that 3D that’s like, “Woah dude my hand is going to reach out and touch your face.” Most of the shots are subtle and would seem like the 3D would help convey the scale of the dragons and other objects in different scenes. Some of the flying scenes were so cool and fun, it made me feel like I was flying alongside the dragons. The characters were just so much fun.
One thing about this series that I’ve always appreciated was seeing the characters grow older with each new installment. Normally in animation, the characters stay the same age due to the writers wanting to tell different stories with them that require them to appear ageless. There is nothing wrong with that, but it’s really cool to see how these characters grow up to become the people they were meant to be by the end of the movie.
If you grew up with the film series like I did, you will be a little weepy at the end of the movie. The ending leaves off with a bit of a tear jerker that you will not want to miss.
The Hidden World gets off the ground a little awkwardly, but, by the end, it sticks the landing, dragon and all. This fast-flying adventure is not one you want to miss, especially if you have seen the first two. A movie like this is about as rare as a Night Fury.
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