‘Hidden World’ is a beautifully poignant and wildly fun conclusion to a wonderful trilogy
Posted on February 22, 2019
By MARK VIOLA
Typically, you have to wait until the week after a film hits theaters to read my review, since there are no advanced screenings available anywhere near here. Fortunately, there was a publicly available early showing of “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” a couple of weeks ago, so you’re getting my review early. Which is doubly good, because if you’re a fan of this series, you should not delay in seeing a raucously fun and beautifully poignant conclusion to this trilogy.
When “How to Train Your Dragon” debuted in 2010, it was a revelation, a complete departure for what was then DreamWorks Animation and easily the best animation to come out of the studio it the post-“Shrek” era. Writers and directors Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders took a very loose adaptation of the books by Cressida Cowell and turned it into a mature adventure that mixed fun comedy and actual consequence. The heartwarming story followed young Viking Hiccup (voiced Jay Baruchel), who was raised to fear and hate dragons, instead befriends the injured Nightfury, Toothless, and eventually learns to ride, saving his village, Berk, from a dangerous threat.
DeBlois returned in 2014 with “How to Train Your Dragon 2,” building on the foundation set by the first film – not to mention the animated television spin-offs. That film did something almost no family franchise ever does. It allows its characters to grow, taking place five years later, with Hiccup, Astrid (America Ferrera) and the rest are now 21 years old. This time the threat came in the form of the dragon trapper Drago, who used brute force and fear to bend dragons to his will in an attempt to rule both human and dragon. Victory, like in the first film, came at a cost.
Now, the story picks up one year later, with Berk bursting at the seams with dragons Hiccup and company have rescued from various trappers, presumably the remnants of Drago’s army. The new leaders seek a way to end the threat of Berk once and for all, and they turn to the famed dragon hunter Grimmel (F. Murray Abraham, “Homeland”), who is the reason Toothless is the last Nightfury. Whereas Drago was a brute and used strength to get his way, Grimmel is cunning, and knows exactly how to strike at both Hiccup and Toothless. Seeing no other option, Hiccup devises a plan for everyone – human and dragon – in Berk to flee to the fabled Hidden World, the birthplace of dragons and where they might finally be safe.
A bit of warning, if you’re a fan of the series, and have followed these characters over the past nine years, prepare for there to be tears before it’s over.
This franchise has always boasted the most beautiful animation outside of Pixar, and “Hidden World” doesn’t disappoint here either, as the animators upped their game once again. There is a sequence involving a waterfall and a cave that might just be the most beautiful animation I’ve seen in any feature film — Pixar included.
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