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| Toothless and Hiccup in How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. Image courtesy Universal Pictures. |
The
most enjoyable moments in How
to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World have
little to no dialog.
They
are carried instead by dazzling visuals, stunning enough to bring the
audience into the fantastical world the film depicts. There is a
sense of lightness to Hidden
World
in these moments, a little sense of joy in the adventure. Whats left
outside of those moments is far, far more hit or miss; the good
sometimes getting overshadowed by lackluster characterization and
lackluster humor.
Hidden
World
continues the bromantic tale of Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) and
his Night Fury dragon, Toothless. Since the last film, Hiccup, his
mother Valka (Cate Blanchett), and girlfriend Astrid (America
Ferrera), have led raids to free imprisoned dragons, taking them back
to the island of Berk Hiccup's dream is to create a utopia for
dragons and humans and eventually end the war between the two sides.
Unfortunately, the town isn't big enough to host the dragons and the
residents, forcing Hiccup, Valka, Astrid, and fellow vikings Gobber
(Craig Ferguson), Snotlout (Jonah Hill), Tuffnut (Justin Rupple),
Ruffnut (Kristen Wiig), Eret (Kit Harington) and Fishlegs
(Christopher Mintz-Plasse) to search for a new home. Toothless'
presence has also drawn the attention of villainous dragon hunter
Grimmel (F. Murray Abraham), who is always one step ahead of Hiccup.
Hiccup also has to cope with the arrival of a Light Rider dragon, who
quickly draws Toothless' eyes and heart.
The
How
to Train Your Dragon
franchise is renowned for its flying sequences, which put the
audience in Hiccup's shoes as he and Toothless soar through the
skies. Hidden
World
doesn't deviate from that formula, providing several wonderful,
majestic sequences in the air that add a great pop to the film. The
visit into the eponymous world is visualized like an undersea voyage,
complete with fluorescent flora and magical creatures. That sequence,
along with the rest of the aerial moments, are by far, the highlight
of the film.
Hidden
World
is buoyed considerably by the presence of Grimmel as an antagonist.
The film does a credible job selling Grimmel as a genuine threat to
Hiccup and his people, using some brilliant tactics to trick Hiccup
time and time again. Grimmel's cunning contrasts well with Hiccup's
heart, and it adds a nice psychological element. That Grimmel exerts
so much effort into ruining Hiccup as part of a game makes him even
more effective as a villain. It's almost cruel how little Grimmel
cares about any of the chaos he sows.
The
rest of Hidden
World
can't match the visuals of the flying sequence or the cunning of
Grimmel. The animation beyond the flying scenes is consistently good
throughout, if not quite as eye catching. The jokes are a fairly
scattered; the high-level jokes are never quite as clever as the
screenwriters imagined, although the jokes aimed at kids landed
pretty well. The film is generally efficient with its use of time, at
least until stretching out the ending awkwardly. Combined, they
create an overall unremarkable film.
Some of the problem stems from the
lead characters. Hiccup's journey to become a leader for his people
is flat, never quite given the amount of time needed to develop. His
coinciding trip into adulthood is less interesting, as he loses a lot
of his shine as a character whenever Toothless goes away. In essence,
the film's message of personal growth undercuts its most dynamic
relationship. Astrid exists to fill that void, but she's not granted
enough time to develop as a character either. Her expectation is to
be the rock for Hiccup; how she gets to that point is not really
considered. The rest of the cast, sans Grimmel, is there for comedic
relief; the level of relief those characters offer is up to the
individual viewer to decide.
Even
with those issues, Hidden
World
still has a little heart and melancholy to it. Underneath some
obnoxious characters and mold humor, this is a film about how
sometimes it is necessary to say goodbye no matter how hard it is to
do so. Hidden
World
uses the goodwill it has drawn from two other movies and an animated
series to reinforce just how hard it is to do the right, but very
difficult, thing. The inevitable moment when the tough decision is
made packs a decent sized punch for a franchise about a boy and his
dragon; with a little more development, it could have been a wallop.
Review: Three and a Half out of
Five Stars
Click here to see the trailer.
Rating: PG
Run time: 104 minutes
Genre: Animated
tl;dr
What
Worked: Animation
(especially the flying scenes), Grimmel
What
Fell Short: Character
development, Humor
What
To Watch As Well:
How
to Train Your Dragon,
The
Last Unicorn
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