How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

All three of the How To Train Your Dragon films, including the latest, subtitled The Hidden World, were nominated for Oscars, but none won. That's a shame, because they consistently had tremendous animation. This third one, the last of the trilogy, also had a very emotionally satisfying conclusion. Unfortunately, there were also spots in the film that were a bit sluggish.

I had seen the previous two films, but little of it stuck with me. The main character, Hiccup, has succeeded his father as chief of the Viking town of Berk, which is now something of a haven for dragons. Hiccup and his friends regularly raid dragon hunter's ships to free the beasts. But the place is getting overrun with them (this can all be seen as a metaphor for refugees if you squint your eyes). The meanest dragon hunter of them all, Grimmel (voiced by F. Murra Abraham, seemingly doing a Bela Lugosi impersonation), is hired to bring the dragons back, with the promise that he can kill a Night Fury, who happens to be Hiccup's pet dragon, Toothless.

Hiccup suggests that the townspeople leave Berk and search for the legendary Hidden World, where dragons and people can live together harmoniously. In the meantime, Grimmel uses another Night Fury, a female who is completely white, to distract Toothless. Thus, this may be the first film to feature a horny dragon.

This film could have lost about ten minutes, as there is too much of the dragons' mating dances, and the comedy involving Hiccup's friends (voiced by Kristen Wiig, Jonah Hill, Craig Ferguson, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse) is laugh-free. My mind occasionally wandered, but what is consistent about the film is the spectacular animation, usually of backgrounds.

This third film of the trilogy would seem to close the door, but you never know with movie studios--a fourth film may be done someday, but without the writer and director of all three films, Dean DeBlois, it wouldn't be nearly as good.