How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019) Review

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Saying goodbye to those that made you who you are is one of the biggest challenges in life because you’re not sure what can happen when the good days are behind you.


PLOT


How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World takes place only one year after Hiccup became the new chieftain of Berk due to the death of his father, Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler). Although the village has found common ground with dragons, the place is overpopulating and there has been constant attacks from dragon hunters. In response, Hiccup hopes to find ‘The Hidden World’, a safe haven for dragons once spoken of by his dad long before being separated from his mother Valka. One day, the Night Fury Toothless encounters a female Light Fury for the first time who is being used as bait for infamous hunter Grimmel the Grisly. When he finds her, she quickly retreats after sensing Hiccup & his girlfriend Astrid nearby. When they go looking for her the next day, they find some of Grimmel’s traps near the village. The hunter then makes his presence known by invading Hiccup’s home demanding Toothless as he has slain every other Night Fury to extinction. Having prepared for an ambush, the chief corners him until he escapes with a Deathgripper. With his escape resulting in the chief’s home being destroyed, Hiccup declares leading the citizens to the Hidden World. Mid journey, they discover an island off map as a rest stop, before settling in and labeling it as New Berk. With Toothless’ struggles to fly solo hinders his relationship with the Light Fury that follows, Hiccup quickly rebuilds an automatic tail fin for him. When Valka scouts the area, she finds Grimmel’s army nearby and quickly reports to her son of her discovery. This inspires the idea to try capturing him, only for his group to barely escape except Ruffnut, who isn’t let go until she irritates Grimmel enough to leave. Hiccup would ride Stormfly with Astrid to search for Toothless having gone so long with the Light Fury, which would lead to them finding both dragons with many in the Hidden World. The Night Fury has quickly become an alpha to the resident dragons and he doesn’t leave with Hiccup until they attack. Upon returning to New Berk, Hiccup realizes the Hidden World won’t be safe if more humans find it.before he can figure out what to do, Ruffnut returns unbeknownst of leading Grimmel to them. This sadly leads to the Hunter quickly capturing the Night Fury, threatening to kill the Light if he doesn’t comply in using his alpha status to capture the rest of Bern’s dragons. Wanting to save them all, Hiccup and fellow riders dawn wingsuits to rescue them and fight the opposing army. In the midst of it all, Hiccup gets Stormfly’s assist to free Toothless as well and they chase Grimmel who tries flying away with a drugged Light Fury. At the same time, they do defeat the remaining Deathgrippers. Grimmel raises the stakes by tranquilizing Toothless. As the Night Fury falls mid air, Hiccup is able to free the Light and urge him to save him while he deals with Grimmel. He defeats him by pushing him off the Light and removing his prosthetic leg, causing the antagonist to fall to his death before the chief is saved by the Light. Despite another victory, Hiccup accepts that all dragons won’t be safe if still with humans, resulting in all of Berk to let them go, including Toothless. The film’s epilogue takes place nine years after this, revealing the chief to have married Astrid and had two children with her. They take their kids to visit Toothless who had offspring of his own with the Light. The film ends with Hiccup vowing to keep the Hidden World secret until all humans outside Berk are ready to co exist with dragons. 


THOUGHTS


The biggest challenge in Hollywood is maintaining one filmmaker to craft a whole trilogy. Dean DeBlois has always been the main man to pull this off within a decade and not even with this finale did he disappoint. The animation of course is on point in bringing Berk and the titular hidden world to life, but the mix of old and new dragons is what still blow me away. Seeing the new dragons like the Crimson Goregutter and Deathgrippers were intimidating, and the Hobgobblers were fairly a visual gag like the Terrible Terror, but the animation peaked straight up peaked whenever the pair of the Night & Light Fury before seeing their adorable offspring, Night Lights. Everytime they were together, it was like seeing nature at its finest. Seeing Toothless be so happy on his own was a creative way to remind us not only the value of teamwork, but also letting go of special aspects of ourselves that no longer serve a purpose in the next chapter of our lives. Hiccup & Toothless' relationship forever defined this franchise due to how they brought out the best of each other and mostly buried the worst. Jay Baruchel still portrays the chief protagonist as one who has grown to be quite the intellectual that knows when to do what's best for his people. He knows there were big steps in moving his people elsewhere and going separate ways with the dragons since he is the only one who got to bring unity between both species. But for the sake of making sure no one else would be in danger, he had to decide for the greater good parting ways was the only resolution. He did support Toothless finding a mate, but didn't realize he would happier without him until he gave him the opportunity to be free. America Ferrera still owns it as Astrid because she was more self aware with the world around her than her significant other was. She knew how bad Toothless wanted to be free like any animal would and despite loving Hiccup so much, she was hesitant to marry him because she was afraid of losing stability. The more time she went with him though, she realized that wouldn't be the case and saw marriage was a bond to their eternal love, as it was for Stoick & Valka. With Drago Bludvist being quite an intimidating villain, there had to be another to pick up that pace and Grimmel did just that. F Murray Abraham was a fantastic choice to voice this character because he is so easily calculating with each move he makes. He passionately hunts dragons for the sport of it because he has a similar mindset of believing superiority is the better way to thrive. He thinks killing dragons makes him a hero due to doing so for so long, until Hiccup gets in his way to prove otherwise. On the other hand, while Eret & Valka don't have much screen time like the rest of Hiccup's friends, I do think Kit Harington & Cate Blanchett both respectively come off as loyal and honest as you would expect for people who want the best for you. They were both acting realistic when it came to approaching problems. Eret knew they had to act fast in dealing with Grimmel and the latter was aware she couldn't be with Cloudjumper forever long before she ever reunited with her son. Had they not shared their opinions, it would've been harder for Hiccup to let Toothless go. This movie still had its own laughs that kept me smiling like Gobber (Craig Ferguson) being the only one afraid of Hobgobblers, Snotlout (Jonah Hill) crushing on Valka, Tuffnut (Justin Rupple) giving poor advice & pretending to have a beard, and Fishlegs having a calf Gronckle, Fishmeat, by his side during missions. While I appreciate a lot of what’s going on, there are still a few things that bothered me upon rewatching. For instance, it’s childish for Snotlout to start a food fight with the others when Berk is overpopulated. Those dragons could mess up their food supply in a day and it’d be his fault for not rationing. Next, it’s so out of character for Grimmel to not already know Hiccup rides the last Night Fury. If this guy’s a pro of hunting those dragons, he should’ve made a plan much sooner. That’s honestly dumber than him choosing to drug the Light Fury if he could just do the same to Toothless. I’m not trying to root for the bad guys, I’m just saying he could be smarter. Hell, I’m even surprised Eret never brought up Grimmel during that whole year he’s been part of Berk. What’s also a trip is that Fishlegs dawns a Toothless disguise to trick Grimmel, but I’m tripped out that his body can tolerate the same amount of tranquilizer meant for a dragon. And if Hiccup knew Grimmel would invade his home, how did they not scout for other dragons he rode with? If Drago Bludvist had his own dragons, it should’ve not been ruled out Grimmel would too. I know it was funny for Ruffnut to annoy Grimmel enough to leave via being talkative, but it was totally on her to reveal New Berk was close and should’ve looked back if she didn’t want the new home to be in danger. Other than that, this movie is still great on its own. In conclusion, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World will remain a great conclusion of an impressive animated trilogy for giving all its heart and being epic as well. If you’ve enjoyed the rest of this franchise thus far, see this finale now.