{"id":6984,"date":"2019-02-22T09:06:39","date_gmt":"2019-02-22T14:06:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=6984"},"modified":"2019-02-22T09:06:41","modified_gmt":"2019-02-22T14:06:41","slug":"review-how-to-train-your-dragon-the-hidden-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=6984","title":{"rendered":"Review: HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Training continues, as the baggy final \u201cDragon\u201d installment manages to marginally capture some of the magic of the franchise.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Dragon fatigue is hard to shake in this presumably last \u201cHow to\u201d film. What once was endearing will still resonate with little ones, while older viewers might groan as the bulk of \u201cThe Hidden World\u201d leans heavily into uninventive slapstick and forced cute. This third and final theatrical outing lacks the tension and danger that made the first two movies pull authentically at your heart strings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around, Hiccup (voice of Jay Baruchel) is securely in place as the undisputed leader of island of Berk. His people have fully embraced life with dragons, but this new lifestyle has led to overcrowding. Oddly, dragons and people are tightly pressed into a limited seaside village area that strains to contain them all. No effort is made to spread out and occupy the green space of their land, which appears to offer plenty of additional room. But rather than expanding onto the other parts of Berk, Hiccup proposes that they pick up and leave in search of a hidden, mythical land. Of course, this move becomes emergent when Hiccup and his dragon-freeing clan draw the ire of a fearsome group of dragon trappers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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F. Murray Abraham voices the dragon killer Grimmel.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Frankly, to say that these dragon trappers are \u201cfearsome\u201d is a great overstatement. They are a collection of bumbling fools from what we are immediately able to discern. Hiccup and his girlfriend Astrid\u2019s first encounter with them proves to be something akin to a comedy routine, as the trappers \u201cweeble wobble\u201d about providing little meaningful opposition. And this is why these \u201crough\u201d men of the dragon trade retain the ruthless services of a dragon killer named Grimmel (voice of F. Murray Abraham). It\u2019s Grimmel that promises to capture or kill Hiccup\u2019s protector Toothless and deliver Berk\u2019s entire flock of scaly beasts into the arms of the trappers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) and Astrid (America Ferrera) navigate their environment.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So, vacating the island for a far off land is definitely necessary, right? No! This insane decision makes absolutely no logical sense, and to his credit, Grimmel aptly points this out. So much of \u201cHidden World\u201d is without rhyme or reason. It\u2019s all a little too fantastic and even childish, as an entire nation follows the boyish Hiccup on a quest that lasts\u2026 well, only a couple days. Without much effort, it seems, an entire population finds a new place to live. This is a real head-scratcher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No matter, \u201cHidden World\u201d isn\u2019t trying to make sense. Instead, it\u2019s about the characters that we love and our desire to see them in another adventure. And from the trailers, and the poster, viewers will already know that Toothless finds a suitable mate in a light dragon. This playful relationship is the most authentic thing in the film. But it\u2019s marred by a sappy sequence in which Hiccup, of all people, tries to give his friend dating advice. Little ones in my viewing audience did giggle, but big laughs were sparse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The animation is the highlight of lackluster narrative.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The animation is mighty fine. Cartoonish creations are placed in and against realistic environments. The clouds sure are lovely, as the dragons soar to great heights. And the dragons come in so many varieties that just watching them all interact is enough for a feature film alone. Everything has detail, texture, and weight, which is a shame, because the narrative, in comparison, proves to be contrived and even shallow in places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The script, written by director Dean DeBlois and \u201cDragon\u201d author Cressida Cowell, is frustrating. Random flashbacks are shoehorned in whenever convenient. And sadly, those flashbacks offer great potential to explain character motivations. We needed to learn more about Hiccup and his father and about Grimmel\u2019s bloodlust. Shoved to the side is Astrid (voice of America Ferrera) and Valka (voiced by Cate Blanchett), Hiccup\u2019s dragon warrior mother. These characters stand largely idly by as Hiccup nearly leads them all to ruin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dragon love is in the air, as Toothless meets his better half.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The shape of the film is awkward. What could have built from a worrisome position to an inspirational one merely leads to a perfunctory climatic battle sequence. It\u2019s all a little too formulaic. And the emotional flashbacks never really connect with the rest of the story, making the entire film feel rushed and phony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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No longer a boy and his dragon in “The Hidden World.”<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Even though the bulk of \u201cHidden World\u201d wallows in tiresome slapstick battle sequences, thankfully, there\u2019s just enough of the old meaningful sentiment to warm our hearts. This is especially on display in the film\u2019s closing moments, which remind us why we fell in love with this dragon fantasy in the first place. This franchise is about training, after all, and not just training dragons, because people have a lot to learn as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The animation is top tier, but the story is less than inspiring in this final dragon outing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[1294,1295,1297,1296,1292,1298,1290,1293,1291],"class_list":["post-6984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-america-ferrera","tag-cate-blanchett","tag-cressida-cowell","tag-dean-deblois","tag-dreamworks","tag-f-murray-abraham","tag-how-to-train-your-dragon","tag-jay-baruchel","tag-the-hidden-world","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6984"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6992,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6984\/revisions\/6992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}