Voiced by: Jay Baruchel (Hiccup), America
Ferrera (Astrid), Cate Blanchett (Valka),
Kit Harington (Eret)
Directed By: Dean DeBlois
Rated:
PG-7
Running Time: 104
minutes
DreamWork Animation
Right from the start, we’ll admit that How to Train Your Dragon is one of our favorite animation movies of all time. The Hidden World even though it’s animated, somehow feels so real, not just the visual effect and animations which put it over the top, but the story of the movie that is incredibly appealing and makes you believe in the supernatural. It is an emotional movie telling us that in every relationship you are, you must know when to let go and move on with your life.
The action takes place one year after Hiccup found his mom in the second film. Now they created a strong bond with their dragons, and everybody has one. There are no huge cages in their village to contain them, they are basically living together. That is becoming a problem because their home, Berk, is now overpopulated and their village chief, Hiccup, must find a solution.
Even though Hiccup is facing that problem, followed by his desires, he continues to rescue dragons from evil Vikings that are trying to lock them up and use them as slaves. He rescues every single dragon alongside his partner the Night Fury dragon – Toothless and brings them to Berk.
A dangerous new threat is coming to Berk, from the cold-blooded dragon tracker and killer Grimmel (voiced by F. Murray Abraham). Grimmel is the evil looking villain and his character fits very well in the movie. He is driven by his desire to kill every single Night Fury, alongside every other dragon.
He knows about Hiccup and the village full of dragons Berk, thus his plan is to go to the village and capture Toothless as the Alpha Dragon and make him command all the dragons to follow Grimmel’s orders. The angry dragon slayer uses the white female Night Fury dragon (Light Fury) as bait for Toothless.
Hiccup is facing his toughest decision yet as village chief. They must abandon the village that has been their home for generations and left by Hiccup’s father to guard. Hiccup doesn’t know what to do and there is no time to hold his horses. He remembers though, that his dad was talking about some place hidden from the world, beneath a great waterfall, but he is not sure exactly if it is true.
Grimmel using the Light Fury as bait came to Berk, with a plan of a surprise attack on the village and taking Toothless. Hiccup was expecting the attack as he found poisonous darts in the village. They shut him down and he is forced to leave. Now everybody in the village knows the power of Grimmel and they are forced to make a fast decision on their future. After Hiccup inspired the people of the village and made them believe that Berk is not about place, but about his inhabitants, they got on the way in the search of the hidden world.
Meanwhile, the alpha dragon Toothless after he meets the white female Light Fury falls in love and can’t get his mind of her. This part is quite amusing, as the dragon is doing all kinds of silly things just to impress his beloved. Hiccup is getting jealous and confused by Toothlesses behavior, since he doesn’t realize that even Toothless wants to have a family and a relationship.
The visual and sound effects on this movie are out of this world, you can see and hear that they’ve put so much effort in trying to make it more realistic and they succeeded. Even though it is animation, it feels like real life and it makes you get into that imaginary world.
The movie was released in early January in Australia and in February in United States and has grosses already 501.9 million USD in box offices. Right now, the movie holds a record of 7.8/10 in IMDB and an almost perfect score of 90% in Rotten Tomatoes, something that surely certifies the overall quality of the film.
To sum up,How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is astounding. Somehow, they captured that feeling as you were living beside them all these years through this trilogy. The characters in the franchise look older like its audience in real life, which started watching this trilogy 8 years ago.
You can learn a lot from this movie, it is deeply emotional and funny at the same time, has amazing visuals and a simple story about love and friendship. It is not a movie only for children, but for all ages. If you still haven’t watched it, you should grab some popcorn and do it!