‘How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World’: A Finale that Soars High

     For as hit or miss Dreamworks Animation has been considered as a company, if one movie series gave the animation studio a good name, it’s the How to Train Your Dragon Series. The first How to Train Your Dragon was a charming film, that was the essentially boy and his pet style story but done in a way that made the concept fresh with some good characters and great animation. The sequel is downright one of the best transitions from a small first movie to a grand second film that not only improve elements of the original but made the film stunning to watch which more character development, stunning animation and one of the most epic movie scores to ever be composed. Now with a decade of being around as the big animated franchise of the 2010s, the third movie subtitled The Hidden World is set to end the series off with a high note. Fortunately much like the end of Toy Story 3, How to Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World ends the series with a bittersweet and satisfying ending to anyone who has taken joy in seeing Hiccup and Toothless go on their incredible adventures.

Not Toy Story 3 Tearjerker but Still Bittersweet

     The Hidden World takes place in Berk, now a utopia for Vikings and dragons to live in peace and harmony. Things go array however, when an evil Dragon hunter comes to threaten to village, so the people and dragons of Berk have to find a mysterious Hidden World the dragons for them to call a new home. As expected, the film sounds like it would go the way most people would expect a finale like this, and for the most part it does. The film’s basic plot doesn’t have too many surprises of what fans may expect a finale like this would be, however it doesn’t make it an unsatisfying one. At it’s core, the film is a love story between Toothless and the LightFury he meets and it’s a very charming romance done with very little dialogue and a lot of expressive moments. Yet the film also remembers to maintain the heart and tone that was helmed with the first two films and has a good balance between what made each installment prior to this one good. It has the beloved heart and character growth of the first one along with the epic scale and beauty of the second one. There is somewhat of a major downside with the ending as it could have gone all the way with making it a full blown tearjerker ending in the same vain as Toy Story 3, however the ending they do have is still very heartwarming and just so touching to see after witnessing what these characters go through. It makes for while not the most satisfying conclusion, it’s one that definitely makes for a great ending to the series.

Hidden World Brings Depth to Hiccup and Toothless

     The Hidden World still has the same characters from the previous few movies and they’re still just as good as ever. Hiccup still manages to be a very engaging character with the film showcasing more of a growth between how he manages to become a leader. It is especially relevant when it flashes back to moments with his father Stoic which adds to a lot of the emotion of this movie of Hiccup trying to be the leader his dad was. The series is very consistent on making their characters grow a lot and Hiccup definitely has the most growth in this movie. As for the rest of the cast, many of them serve their purpose very well. The only real issues with the side characters are although they having their own funny moments, some of the comedic relief like RuffNut and TuffNut do get a little over bearing when it comes their presence and some characters could have more screen time like Valka. The biggest improvement with How to Train Your Dragon 3 when it comes to characters however is how the film handles it’s main antagonist. While Drago Bludvist was a very entertaining villain, the character was bogged down by being a bit underdeveloped and not much to him outside of being a big baddie that Hiccup and friends have to defeat. The main antagonist in this film, Grimmel is a major improvement, not only is he more threatening and has more of a motivation for his goal, but is a villain the perfectly compliments the protagonists. He’s everything that Hiccup is when it comes to understanding Dragons but uses his means for his own selfish purposes making him one of the best villains in an animated movie in recent memory. Though it isn’t a How to Train Your Dragon movie without the real star of the movie, Toothless and the other Dragons and every moment with them is outstanding. They have all the animalistic instincts you would be fascinated by while watching animals on screen, along with all the great unique designs and fantastical elements of them being mythical creatures. Add in a lot of expressive personality from Toothless alone and How to Train Your Dragon 3 is a great character piece with a lot of expressions from an animation standpoint. How to Train Your Dragon 3 beautifully crafts its characters well with a good script and great animation.

Dreamworks Brings Their A-Game Animators to This

     While on the topic of animation, a big compliment should be given to the animators for creating another beautifully stunning movie from a visual perspective. The first movie looked great, the second even better and this one looks jaw dropping gorgeous. As mentioned earlier the designs and animation for the characters, namely the dragons are unique, and expressive being one of the most consistent thing that appears throughout the franchise. The backgrounds are also breathtaking, looking as photorealistic as possible but maintaining some incredible colors especially when visiting the Hidden World in the movie. It’s a stunning movie to look at and needs to be seen on the biggest screen possible. Not only is it a great looking movie but sound wise the film is incredible, with another incredible score composed by John Powell. It doesn’t quite have as epic of a feel as the second movie score, but there are so many amazing callbacks music wise and grand musical moments that it is a soundtrack that heightens the quality of this film. Dreamworks Animation brought their A-Game team to create a movie that is outstanding from a technical level and makes fans wish they would do these type of movies more often.

The End of a Trilogy Fans have Been Waiting For

     How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World will be a treat for longtime fans of the Dreamworks series. It is not quite as epic and fulfilling as a finale as it could have been, but it’s every bit as satisfying as one would hope at the least. It ends Hiccup’s and Toothless’ journey on a high note and certainly is one of the best ending movies to an animated trilogy out there!

'The LEGO Movie 2': A Good Albeit Not as Awesome Follow-Up to the First

     No one would have ever expected that something as simple as Legos would end up having a film based around them that would have been considered one of the greatest animated films ever made. The first LEGO Movie does an amazing job of representing the property with its innovative animation, quick and detailed sense of humor and a theme that’s not only powerful with the theming of Legos, but also poignant in terms of themes with the idea of imagination and creativity. A follow-up to something like this would be hard to do, however The second part of The LEGO Movie while does have into the trappings of an inferior follow up, still has the humor, charm, and even sophistication that the original movie has despite not being as good.

A Movie that Gets Better as it Builds

     LEGO Movie 2 takes place shortly after the first with a bunch of weird alien creatures invading the world of LEGO and leading Emmet and the others into an apocalyptic wasteland. The team is trying to adjust to their new life, when one of the strange beings working with the aliens captures Lucy(Aka Wildstyle) and some of the other friends to this strange new world that may not be what it seems, so it’s up to Emmet to save the day once again. The plot of the LEGO Movie is straight forward once again and does contain some underlying themes in the mix as the film goes on. What makes it not as good as the first however really comes down to the first act, being just simply entertaining but nothing fully new and amazing. The first LEGO Movie had a wow factor with all the great detailed put into the jokes and characters and still was impressive when re-watching it. This film however doesn’t quite have the wow factor at first, with nothing that’s necessarily bad, but you can more so predict how it plays out. The jokes are still funny but nothing on the level of constantly laughing like the original as there are some jokes that feel a bit outdated or out of place. The film does get progressively better in its second act as not only do the jokes land much stronger this time around with much more clever and self-aware writing, but the main theme of the film is legitimately interesting. The LEGO Movie had one of the most powerful themes about creativity and the rejection of not sticking with social norms, so of course the second movie has to have a different message and while not as though provoking, it still works in the second for different reasons. The film does play out in a way that is more predictable when it comes to what it is trying to say with a twist that is fairly easy to guess, though how it comes to its conclusion and that twist is what makes it fascinating. The film ends up being a commentary on toxic masculinity and not done in a way that’s cringe worthy or pandering, but in a way that’s fairly easy to understand and poignant. It’s not a big gender war movie, but rather a discussion on maybe being fixated on growing up too much could lead to being a more toxic person. It’s a very fascinating message to teach to kids and the way it’s executed is done in a rather clever way. It makes the LEGO Movie 2’s message not as strong as its first theme, but one that creates for interesting discussion for sure.

Less Characters Focused on but still just as Colorful

    The LEGO Movie introduced audiences to a colorful cast of characters both old and new when it came to creating such an inventive world. The cast in this still is great but some may feel disappointed in the lack of characters returning to this sequel. Many of the side characters that left such an impact on the first movie are either regulated to being a simple side character with not a whole lot to do or nonexistent in this movie. The story mainly focuses on Emmet and Lucy/Wildstyle in terms of returning characters, along with the lego version of Batman having a lot of moments as well. While it is a little disheartening that characters like Lord Business, UniKitty and Spaceman Benny don’t have a whole lot of moments; the script is smart enough to give some good focus onto Lucy and Emmet. Both leads are well fleshed out with Lucy giving more of a backstory to her character and Emmet having a bit of a character arch that goes in depth to the film’s main themes of being fixated on growing up, giving him some complexities that are much needed for a simple character like him. Batman in this film doesn’t have as many great moments as his solo outing with LEGO Batman Movie, but still is so much needed and well done comedic relief still voiced hilariously by Will Arnett. As for some of the new additions, there are really only three with Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi, General Sweet Mayhem, and Rex Dangervest. Sweet Mayhem is a good side villain some subtle comedic moments and Rex Dangervest is a fascinating character that helps dive into the film’s theme of toxic masculinity much further. Watevra Wa-Nabi might be the best new addition here as the character is so uniquely animated even for a LEGO character, that she is just fascinating to watch and has a lot of funny lines and moments. The only real issue with her character is that there doesn’t feel like a presence to her as a character when it comes to her being the film’s antagonist, but considering the where the film really goes with its villain, what they actually do makes up for the lack of threatening presence she has as a villain.

Arguably Better Constructed than the First Visually

     From a visual perspective, The LEGO Movie is one of the best looking animated movies out there with so much visual flare and variety in terms of art direction; it was a spectacle to witness. The sequel is still consistent with maintaining its visually stunning moments with the characters still being animated like they’re stop motion along with the detailed textures making them look like real LEGOS. Arguably the film may even look better than the first with a lot of different art style changes at various points for some fun moments that make the film not boring to look at. And as mentioned earlier, the Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi is a visually impressive character to watch with her movement making her anything she wants to be and even a part of the background. It even adds for some impressive musical numbers which, this film does have and they’re visually impressive from the animation and quite funny with the actors and writing being very sporadic and Meta in terms of the clever sense of humor LEGO Movie is known for.

Not as Awesome as the First But Still Great

     The LEGO Movie 2 is a worthy follow-up to an already hard to follow up film. It doesn’t quite have the wit and genius the first movie had to offer but with the help of some fantastic animation and really smart writing that still dives into a lot of fascinating themes, LEGO Movie 2 still manages to be a blast to watch. It may not be the first movie nor it is as funny as The LEGO Batman movie, but is still an enjoyable time with some complexity added into the mix.