For those who have just turned on the TV, we recall the summary of the previous series. The first is How to Train Your Dragon. Vikings have been living on Berk Island since time immemorial, fighting dragons. The son of the leader of the Hiccup tribe (Jay Baruchel) shot down the night fury from a crossbow, but it turned out that Hiccup later became friends with this dragon, whom he named Toothless, after which, through Hiccup, the Vikings also became friends with dragons and began to exploit them with might and main.
The second “How to Train Your Dragon” told about the opposition of the Vikings and dragons to the sinister Drago Bludvist, who planned to attack Berk, captivate all the dragons and use them to gain power over the world.
In the third film, Hiccup and his comrades continue to free the dragons, which are captured by the dragon hunters, and settle them on their island, which is already so overcrowded that everyone will soon fall into the water. At the same time, all the Vikings are trying to persuade Hiccup to have a fun wedding with Astrid (America Ferrera), but both Hiccup and Astrid believe that they are not ready yet. It’s time for Toothless to love too, but where can he get a girlfriend, really, when there are practically no more of these night furies?
The new chief guard, of course, also appeared – well, how could it be without him?!! This is a beautiful man named Grimmel (Murray Abraham): he has enslaved several scorpion dragons with their own poison and dreams of killing Toothless because he hates night furies. At the same time, Grimmel has a female night fury – a day fury – in captivity. He does not hate her because she is white. But Toothless is black. He hates him. The main thing here is not to confuse.
After one visit by Grimmel to Berk, during which Hiccup’s house somewhat ceased to exist, Hiccup realized that it was necessary to bring down, because Grimmel is very dangerous, and he will lag behind only if Toothless is given to him. But how can Hiccup give away his brother, his cute dragon, to which he is so attached?!
Therefore, Hiccup makes a harsh decision: the Vikings and dragons must get together and dump Berk where their eyes look, somewhere in the direction where, as legend has it, the Land of Dragons is at the end of the world. There, Hiccup thinks naively, Grimmel won’t find us.
But Grimmel, unlike Hiccup, is not an idiot, so the decisive battle is yet to come.
***
The third and, apparently, the final part of the franchise. The first movie was cute, but that’s about it. The second one I liked a lot more. With the third, the situation is ambiguous. They didn’t bother with the script at all. Is Drago planning to capture all the dragons in the second movie? In the third film, Grimmel and the other hunters plan to capture all the dragons. In the second film, Hiccup ends up in the enchanting Dragon City? In the third film, Hiccup ends up in the enchanting Dragon City, only in a different one.
Also, the screenwriters – the director himself and Cressida Cowell – decided not to strain at all with the intricacies of the plot and with the dialogues. Worst of all here looks like Hiccup. Ah, he can’t part ways with Toothless, you damn pervert. Ah, he should let Toothless go, because he’s finally found a mate. Ah, Hiccup doesn’t believe in himself. Ah, Astrid believes in him. Ah, she and Astrid are not ready to marry – oh, oh, wow, what a tragedy, your dragon!
Hiccup makes all decisions absolutely spontaneously, fucks up at every turn, but he was lucky: all the members of his team are motivational speakers who constantly tell the guy that he must believe in himself and all that and that there will definitely be another one behind this fuck-up, but you you can do it, bro, we believe in you, Hiccup, the son of Stoick, who is from Berk.
Leave your native island and go where your eyes look? Great idea, Hiccup, we’re with you. Grimmel easily found where the whole tribe had fallen – it does not matter, we will attack Grimmel. We think he’s as dumb as Hiccup and he won’t set up an ambush. No, he did, you bastard. But we will still win, brothers, we are Vikings! Grimmel has stolen all the dragons and we have nothing else to fly? Bullshit question, let’s fly on our own raincoats, like Superman, that’s business!
And Grimmel? Glavgad turned out to be chic: cool, incredibly charismatic. Hiccup against him is like morel against oak. But with zero motivation. Why does he want to kill the night fury so much? And completely indifferent to daylight? Why does he hate dragons so much even though he has dragons to serve him?
Well, at the end, Grimmel, although expected, was simply completely stupidly leaked: he had a huge armada of ships, he had a hundred dragons in captivity – and this handful of clowns, who arrived on cloaks without any dragons, defeated the entire armada?!
No, I understand, of course, that it was all made for children, so it should be simpler, but there were no such complaints about the sequel, everything is very stupid here from the point of view of the script.
However! As in previous films, it’s all absolutely wonderfully drawn, and even more impressive than the sequel. Absolutely insane and very funny dragons, dragons and dragons, very cool Vikings and members of Hiccup’s team, superbly modeled by Toothless and his snow-white girlfriend.
In addition, some of the characters that were lightly touched in the sequel have come to the fore, and many of them are very, very funny. The coolest couple is brother and sister Tuff (Justin Rapple) and Ruff (Kristen Wiig). Tuff ties her long hair under her chin, pretending to wear a beard, and is constantly trying to guide Hiccup on the right path. And Ruff is incredibly talkative, and there is the funniest scene in the film – when she is captured by Grimmel and harasses him with chatter to the point that he kicks her to freedom. However, the scene when Toothless tries to woo the light fury, and Hiccup tells him, is also very funny.
There are also other cool characters: Fishlegs (Christopher Mintz-Plass), who does not part with the cub of Sausage, the blacksmith Gobber (Craig Ferguson), Snotlout (Jonah Hill), who considers himself Number Two and hopes to become Number One.
The world of Berk, the world of the new island, and the enchanting underground city of dragons are simply amazingly drawn, with great attention to detail and some interesting artistic choices (for example, see how Astrid Stormfly’s dragon begins to glow when lowered into the underground city).
As a result, when you watch a triquel, and I first watched it on the big screen, from time to time you just experience a solid visual delight, it’s so well done. And, to be honest, you don’t pay much attention to the plot, with which the writers are deeply indebted.
Bright, very spectacular, a lot of good jokes, wonderfully drawn dragons and Vikings, a charismatic main villain – it all looks just great!
And that after watching you understand what this Hiccup is, in essence, a lousy leader with stupid ideas – well, he doesn’t lead us, but the Vikings. Which will not let themselves be offended, as I think.
In general, with the younger Exler looked with great pleasure. And he really liked it, and so did I. (Terrible.) But we will greatly reduce the rating for the script, Dean DeBlois, you don’t think that such a number will work with us!
How to Train Your Dragon 3 / How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World review
Director: Dean DeBlois Cast: Gerard Butler, America Ferrera, Cate Blanchett, Jay Baruchel, Craig Ferguson, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kit Harington, Murray Abraham, Justin Rupple
Budget: $129M, Global gross: $509M
Animation, USA, 2019, 104 min.