Featured Blu-ray and DVD Review: How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
May 27, 2019
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World - Buy from Amazon: DVD, Blu-ray Combo Pack, 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World was the biggest hit of 2019, at least for a little while until Captain Marvel showed up. Additionally, the film is still the biggest digitally animated hit of 2019. Does it deserve this title? Or did it benefit from weaker than expected competition?
The film begins with re-introductions of Hiccup, Astrid, and the other kids from the franchise, who are all now grown ups. They are on a stealth mission to rescue some dragons, but that quickly turns into a big fight. They do rescue all of the dragons, all but one, a dragon that can turn invisible, so it was easy to miss. They are so successful at rescuing dragons from dragon hunters than they are dealing with a new problem. Berk is overcrowded and the trappers are getting bolder, but while Gobber recognizes this fact, Hiccup isn’t concerned. He thinks there’s plenty of space and they can just fight off the trappers. At this point, Gobber is frustrated enough with Hiccup that he tells Astrid to marry him, so she can be in charge.
Meanwhile, we see the new villain, Grimmel. He’s a dragon hunter, so he’s not interested in helping some warlords build an army of dragons. That is, he’s not interested until he learns about Toothless, as he thought he had hunted the Night Fury dragons to extinction. The only dragon that wasn’t rescued was a female Night Fury, which Grimmel can use as bait.
While Hiccup was initially dismissive of what Gobber said, he remembers his dad telling him about a land far away where the dragons come from. If he can find this land, then he will be able to move all of the dragons, and the Vikings, and create a new home with plenty of room. Astrid isn’t convinced of this plan, as Berk has been their home for seven generations. Hiccup points out it is either that, or they get married like Gobber said.
It is at this point that Toothless hears a dragon in the distance and immediately takes off to investigate. And I mean immediately, as he doesn’t even wait for Hiccup and doesn’t bother taking him along. What Toothless discovers is the female Night Fury and it is love at first sight, at least until Hiccup and Astrid show up. At first, this is the most exciting thing to happen to Hiccup, and especially for Toothless, since the two met. That changes when Hiccup discovers it was a trap. Eret recognizes the handiwork and warns Hiccup to not underestimate Grimmel. Hiccup underestimates Grimmel and as a result, realizes the time to leave Berk is now. They must find the Hidden World his father talked about, so they and the dragons can be safe.
It’s a dangerous quest and dealing with Grimmel will just make it more dangerous.
I’ve lamented in the past that the only two tier-one animation studios left are Pixar and Disney Animation. (Illumination Entertainment has had a lot of monster hits, but their films tend to cost around $75 million, making tier-two.) DreamWorks Animation used to be tier-one, but they haven’t been consistently at that level for a long time. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is a return to form for the studio.
It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is such a good movie. After all, the original is amazing and the people working on these films have had a decade to perfect them. While the action scenes are undeniably exciting and seeing new dragon designs is always a blast, it is the characters that are the real draw here. Everyone from the writers to the cast have had a lot of time to make these characters come alive and there’s a real emotional heartbeat at the center of the film. The story focuses on growing up and changing relationships, especially how Hiccup and Toothless go from inseparable best friends to drifting apart due to romantic partners. I’m not sure it is a story that is going to make as much of an impact with kids as it will with people who were kids nine years ago when the first movie came out.
The extras begin with an audio commentary track featuring the writer / director, Dean DeBlois; one of the producers, Bradford Lewis; and the head of character design, Simon Otto.
There are two short films, starting with Bilby, which is about a mouse-like creature trying to keep a fluffy bird safe from predators. Bird Karma is about a bird trying to catch and eat a very special fish. There is an alternate opening, as well as five deleted scenes. How to Voice Your Viking is a short behind-the-scenes look at the voice cast. Creating an Epic Dragon Tail is a four-minute making of featurette. How I Learned from Dragons looks at the cast and how they bring their characters alive. Brave Wilderness Presents: Nature + Dragons = Awesome has two shorts from the Brave Wilderness YouTube channel, the first on how the animators made the dragons look like they could really fly and the second on how the dragons were combinations of two different animals. The Dragon Sheep Chronicles looks at the relationships between dragons and sheep. Growing Up With Dragons is a featurette on the coming of age story within the franchise. The Evolving Character Designs of the Dragons is how the characters were aged throughout the franchise. Drawing Dragons is about the designs of the dragons. Epic Villains is a two-minute look at Grimmel. Astrid’s Whole Dragon Trilogy in 60 Seconds is a very short recap of Astrid’s arc in the franchise. Welcome to New Berk is a two-minute look at New Berk.
That’s a lot of extras, but most of them are just a few minutes long, so it is quantity over quality.
These movies have been consistently awesome and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World maintains that high quality level. If this is the last film in the franchise, then it went out on a high mark. There are lots of extras on the DVD / Blu-ray / 4K Ultra HD releases, but it is mostly an issue of quantity over quality. That said, it is still easily worth picking up and a contender for Pick of the Week.
Video on Demand
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The Movie
The Extras
The Verdict
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