‘How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World’ Review: A Sincere, Soaring End To One Of The Best Animated Franchises
By Hoai-Tran Bui/Feb. 22, 2019 8:00 am EST
The narrative is a little thin for the emotional weight that it carries. Though it’s a natural next step in the escalation in the dragon and human conflicts, it also hits many of the same beats as How to Train Your Dragon 2: the villain is a ruthless dragon hunter who also uses dragons for his own purposes, Berk is threatened, everyone wants a piece of Toothless. But the real meat of this film is in the fraying of Hiccup and Toothless’ relationship as the discovery of a female Light Fury draws the dragon away from his longtime best friend.
The emotional and narrative backbone of the How to Train Your Dragon franchise has always been Hiccup and Toothless’ friendship. Their codependency and Hiccup’s own self-confidence being rooted in that relationship has remained a fascinating thread through the How to Train Your Dragon series, and The Hidden World finally gets to truly explore that. Their story is more than just that of “a boy and his dog” or however many iterations we’ve seen throughout the years; it’s something much deeper and unspoken. So to see them drift apart is almost more tragic than the brief moment of mind-controlled betrayal that we saw in How to Train Your Dragon 2. This is a deterioration that is more natural, and thus more unavoidable: that of best friends getting separated by the bittersweet ravages of time, and of growing up.
It’s when the film swings its focus on that relationship, that The Hidden World starts to soar — otherwise the film begins to feel as overcrowded as the village of Berk and its too many dragons. Outside of Hiccup and Toothless, the vast number of beloved supporting characters just begin to feel unnecessary. Even Valka (Cate Blanchett), who was given such importance in the second film, is relegated to a wise word of advice every now and then, and maybe one and a half cool action sequences. The exception to this is Astrid (America Ferrara) who is stronger when united with Hiccup, as opposed to her separate storyline that she received in the last film. It’s rare to see a sweet, healthy romance developed over the course of 10 years in an animated film, and both Baruchel and Ferrara make it look organic.
But the comedy never takes away from the greatest strengths of the film, which aside from its sheer emotional power, remain in the dazzling, atmospheric visuals. Oscar-winning cinematographer Roger Deakins returns to consult on The Hidden World, which somehow manages to upstage the already gorgeously cinematic first and second films. The flight sequences continue to be absolutely breathtaking, while the new setting of the “Hidden World” contains some of the most ethereal animation that the series has pulled off. The camera has never been so delightfully mobile, the colors never so exquisite, and it’s all accentuated by John Powell’s sweeping score.
The visuals excel too in the great stretches of dialogue-less scenes between Toothless and the Light Fury. It recalls the brilliant physical chemistry in WALL-E, which took its cues from silent films and Buster Keaton-esque slapstick to create a full-bodied romance. Toothless and the Light Fury’s scenes are charming and funny in the same way, taking its sweet time to build their uncertain courtship as they dance and purr at each other. It gives the film a refreshing break from its narrative, and remind us of why we fell in love with dragons in the first place.
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is not a perfect movie, but it’s a perfect ending. There’s an inevitability to The Hidden World, whose narrative is barreling toward one, and only one, destination: emotional devastation. But the result is something a little more nuanced and tender than that. The Hidden World isn’t “big.” It doesn’t offer a shattering emotional moment, it doesn’t tear your heart in pieces. Instead, it tugs at your heartstrings and gently guides you to the finish line of a wondrous, lovely franchise that was more than we deserved./Film Rating: 8 out of 10
