DreamWorks Animation
Let me preface this review by saying this, I loved, and I mean loved, the first two films in the How to Train Your Dragon franchise. But I also have never watched a single minute of the over one hundred episodes of the series or any of the short film spin-offs.
Now I say that because as I watched this third chapter How to Train Your Dragon; The Hidden World I felt a little left out for a good chunk of the time. The film feels like it’s pulling double duty as a finale to both the film franchise as well as the Netflix series. While they did a pretty good job bringing us up to speed on where our Viking heroes are now, you couldn’t help but feel like some of the references and the relationships would make more sense to those who have watched all the shows.
But judging the film on its own I would have to say it’s … pretty good.
The most frustrating thing throughout the film is how uneven it feels the whole way through. Starting with the animation, at times this film has moments as beautiful or even more so than either of the other films. The opening action sequence and in fact most of the major action set pieces look amazing. But there are other moments where the animation quality takes a huge dip as if they didn’t have the time to really finish things completely. Also, and I say this knowing most people don’t look close enough at an animated film to be bothered by this, the lip synch was terrible for a good portion of the film.
I became really distracted at one point when a couple of scenes in a row had noticeably terrible lip synch and I just started staring at the characters mouths trying to figure out if I was just crazy. Jury’s still out FYI.
Then there was the plot. Everything this film did was, on its surface, what I wanted. It wrapped up a story I’ve been following for eight years, it had heart, and it kept things smaller instead of trying to top the epicness of Part Two. But … it always felt lesser than the previous two films. The heartfelt moments never hit the peaks of the last two and the villain, who Hiccup at one point described as a threat they’ve never faced before, sure did feel an awful lot like a smarter version of the last film’s villain.
They just never really earned that epic scariness that we are told to feel. The villain is actually pretty fun to watch though, he just never gets any real backstory aside from a brief sloppy bit of exposition he gives. F. Murray Abraham plays the villain and the veteran actor does an amazing amount with a very small amount of screen time. I bet with a bit more polish and a better origin his character could have been Disney villain levels of memorable.
I’d actually say the best comparison for this film is that it feels like an amazingly well done direct-to-video sequel. For my fellow Thirty-somethings out there it was very much akin to the two direct to VHS Aladdin sequels, The Return of Jafar and Aladdin and The King of Thieves. Two films I adored as a child but are most definitely a step down in quality compared to the original. Heck, even the decision to go with a subtitle instead of numbering this time feels very direct-to-DVD.
There was also the weirdness of hearing a brand new voice in the established cast. As TJ Miller did not return for this film (we won’t go into all that drama here) the actor replacing him, Justin Rupple, is doing a very poor imitation. Again it took me out of it to hear such a poorly done TJ imitation but I guarantee ninety-nine percent of you won’t bat an eye.
For most people though the question will be whether their children are going to like it! Answer: maybe. This is where the weakest part of the film really comes into play: the comedy. Comedy sells kids films, that’s just a fact, and a reason the second film was only a modest success. The first two films focused much more on plot and emotions with a funny moment here and there. This felt like an overcorrection to that and likely why it felt so ‘TV-like’. The jokes are almost constant, and seeing how flat they fall most of the time they also get annoying. In my screening there was a fairly good mix of kids of all ages along with the parents and kids at heart. I have to say of any of the kids films I’ve seen in preview screenings it had to be the quietest audience ever. There were some cheers and gasps at the dramatic moments, the stuff this series has always excelled at, but the comedy just did not work, except for the usual funny Toothless/Hiccup stuff.
Also a note for those of you who are strict on no spoilers, avoid the toy aisles! I had a small surprise ruined by a toy line releasing peeks at upcoming merchandise for the film.
So a cute heartwarming though mildly annoying children’s movie caps off what was and is a great series. While the weakest of the pack it still brought a tear to the eye at times and managed to give a satisfying conclusion that begs for no sequels, reboots or continuations of any sort in the future. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is a must for fans and a maybe for those less dedicated to the series.
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World has a run time of 1 hour 44 minutes and is rated PG for adventure action and some mild rude humor.
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