How to Train Your Dragon: the Hidden World (2019)

Directed by Dean DeBlois; produced by Bonnie Arnold and Bradford Lewis

The third and likely last movie in the How to Train Your Dragon series finds the Viking village of Berk once more beset by dragons. This time, the hundreds of flying reptiles are all friendly, rescued by the young chieftain Hiccup (voice of Jay Baruchel) and his friends from would-be dragon-slayers. Their activities are so successful, however, that they become a threat to dragon-trappers, who hire the devilishly clever, and just plain devilish, Grimmel (voice of F. Murray Abraham), a famous and immensely successful hunter.

What often occurs with trilogies that are not planned out fully in advance, is that the original chapter is the best, the second is much less imaginative, while the third is in between. This movie unfortunately doesn’t fit entirely into that pattern. The look is brilliant and, at times, breath-taking. But these very characteristics work against the film. Many scenes are so busy and active that they become overwhelming, the colour, the movement, the images confusing, rather than impressive. In too many instances, the eyes are dazzled.

The story is adequate but also follows a pattern that has just recently emerged in animated works. It used to be that stories’ themes were quite simple. They would be straightforward tales of good against evil (eg. Snow White (1937)) or a personal message, such as redemption or appearance versus substance (eg. Beauty and the Beast (1991)). Now, however, it seems that the morality must reflect the current issues in socio-political affairs. In How to Train Your Dragon: the Hidden World, co-existence of different races is at the heart of the movie, Hiccup arguing for it, of course, and Grimmel demanding a separation of the races for the benefit of both. The trouble with such earnestness is that it can become heavy-handed quite easily, and turn to sermonising, which is never good for any film, never mind an animated cartoon.

There is also the sub-plot of Hiccup and Toothless, his dragon, reaching a point at which their paths must diverge, and the young human thinking that he amounts to little without his companion. This theme is only weakly developed, especially since the climax features both man and beast working together once more.

The most successful aspect is the depiction of detail in the animation. As may be seen from some of the accompanying pictures, an immense amount of thought and work went into the smallest items. Some of this care for detail may be found in the script. For instance, in one brief image, we see the giant ‘villainous’ dragon from the second movie, having found a home and fellowship (which I found gratifying, since I thought his fate in part two to be undeserved.) And I was very impressed with the female dragon. The gender was convincingly depicted without the usual traits of the feminine cartoon character (bow on the head, long eyelashes, heeled shoes.) It was done almost entirely by gesture and facial expression. But, as stated above, most of the exquisite detail, in the amounts provided, is like receiving a tidal wave when an exhilaratingly swift river is all that is needed.

While How to Train Your Dragon: the Hidden World is a spectacle in a visual sense, its ordinary story, unimaginatively wicked villain, preachy premise and mesmerising visual effects make it too top-heavy, while not providing it with a strong enough base.

(And am I the only one who thinks How to Drain Your Flagon: a Guide to Re-enacting the Medieval Banquet would make a great title for an instructional video?)