*Contains Spoilers
“How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,” is a feel good movie that helps teach children and adults that it’s OK to accept change.
The movie focuses on relationships, and the mystical problem of dragons contributing to overpopulation. With these themes in mind, the movie also throws in a villain that left me wondering why, as it seemed unnecessary to add a villain to the mix.
The movie begins with our young heroes on one last adventure to protect the dragons they know and love. As the movie begins, we see the heroes stealthily climbing aboard another Viking ship that has captured more dragons. After being found by some of the crew, we get a dramatic fight scene between the heroes and the crew while our heroes are also trying to set the dragons free.
After escaping from the ship, our heroes journey back to Berk with their newly freed dragons. We soon find that Berk has become a dragon sanctuary quickly running out of room, and making the village a target for dragon hunters. This leads to a transition where the band of dragon hunters recruit the best hunter in the world, who is known as Grimmel the Grisly. In exchange for Grimmel’s services, the dragon hunters grant him the rights to Toothless, the Night Fury.
The villain, Grimmel, wanted all dragons exterminated. However, when compared to Drago Bludvist, the villain in “How to Train Your Dragon 2,”Grimmel does not have the same level of character development, or screen time that Drago did. With Drago, we were given a backstory of why he hates dragons, and why he wants to have a dragon army. Grimmel was not given the same courtesy and so it seemed as though he was thrown into the film just to cause some kind of external conflict in the movie to try to explain why the overpopulation is bad.
The main concept of the movie, however, seems to be growing up into adulthood and accepting change. Hiccup and Astrid find themselves discussing marriage and if it is too soon, or if they even want to get married to each other. Hiccup makes it obvious that he would love to marry Astrid, while Astrid feels they are still too young.
Toothless also finds himself wanting companionship after meeting Light Fury, a white female version of Toothless. We see Hiccup trying to help him with courting her, and making Toothless fly on his own, something Toothless never wanted. This leads to a series of other changes, which ultimately result in the dragons being sent away to The Hidden World until humans become ready to live among them for the dragon’s own safety.
By sending the dragons away, the audience is shown that growing up is something everyone needs to do. However, the ending seems a bit flat as the previous endings left us with an extravagant look at Berk with the dragons, but this time we don’t get a moment with the dragons, or a further look at The Hidden World where the dragons now reside. Instead, we get a look into the future of Hiccup, Astrid, and the new Berk.
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