Thoughts about HTTYD: The Hidden World

On the first of February, I went to the cinema with my brother and a close friend of mine to watch How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. It's the third and last film for the almost decade-long series.

If you didn't know or aren't my Twitter follower, I am a huge fan of HTTYD. I became so impatient when they wouldn't enter the theatre on time. I kept mentioning that I waited five years for this, and I didn't want to miss any second of it.

We did miss a few seconds of the movie because I went to the bathroom.

After the movie ended and the credits started to roll, I didn't really know how to feel about the movie. I told myself some time to gather my thoughts about the movie. I wrote my first draft while I was celebrating Chinese New Year in my hometown, but I had to stop myself to think about it again.

I'm wondering if I should watch the movie again and think it through but I don't know when the movie will be available for streaming so I'm not going to wait.

Without beating around the bush, my first thought was: it was a disappointment. After thinking about it for a long time, the feeling's still the same.

As a HTTYD fan that has waited for five years for this ending, I thought it was very average, unlike the past two films. If I have to describe the third movie in a sentence, I would say that feels like a film that tries to combine different elements to make something great, although those elements may be great on their own.

Nothing really stood out to me in the movie. Not the story, not the romance and sadly, not even the music. The more I think about it, the more I get disappointed over it. And I'm a loyal HTTYD fan!

I'm not a proper reviewer, I don't think I can properly describe my thoughts about the movie in words, nor do I think my slightly more negative review about the movie matters when the movie is doing great, but here's what I have to say about How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.

I'm writing my thoughts based on my memory, so if I get anything about the movie wrong, you can totally call me out about it. But these are some things about the movie that I'm not satisfied with in no particular order:

Spoiler alert!

A villain with a poor motivation

Grimmel is a dragon hunter that brought the Night Fury species to extinction, almost. He's an expert in his job but I never got that feeling, nor am I impressed by his skills. I love a good villain from time to time, but Grimmel wasn't charismatic to me.

Because I felt his motivation was so lacking.

If you think about it, he was basically hired to exterminate Toothless. If he was a feared dragon hunter that took down all the Night Furies, wouldn't you think he would have caught wind that there's an unstoppable dragon haven out there housing all kinds of dragons, and has a chief with a Night Fury?

And the only reason he found out because other warlords became worried about Hiccup, then they said 'Oh hey, you left a Night Fury here. By the way, can you kill him for us?

An Astrid fan art I did.

Weirdly paced story

I felt like the whole film was stitched with different stories and scenes. I read an article (the only article that didn't blindly praised the movie) that said that the whole movie felt like a filler, and I agree.

For a moment, Hiccup faces the burden of the chief. Then, he was the wingman for Toothless and the Light Fury. Then, they launched a sneak attack on Grimmel. Then, the village escaped to another island. Then, they found the Hidden World. Then, Ruffnut ruins everything.

Although these parts are all connected to one main story, perhaps it's the pace of the stories made it looked like they weren't linked at all. They're too quick in my opinion, although the situations in the movie didn't give the characters a lot of time to make decisions.

In other words, it felt like one moment it's this, then that happened. Wait, what happened again?

Not enough of Stoick the Vast

After the second movie, Hiccup faces the responsibility of being a village chief. He tries to step in his father's shoes while having the love for dragons like his mom. It definitely made his work harder.

I appreciate the moments when he gets advice from his flashbacks with Stoick, but I felt like there wasn't enough. It's only two flashbacks if you don't know.

It's not a big of a deal, but I think the movie could have fitted one more scene with Stoick in the ending. Just to have closure after Stoick's death. After all, he raised Hiccup alone, and he's an amazing village chief.

Not so likable side characters

While I am happy that the rest of the young vikings (Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut) got more screen time in this film, I felt the filmmakers didn't do justice to these characters.

I watched the TV series (Race to the Edge) where you can get to see the developments of the other characters, so I was disappointed when how the third film showed how dumb they were being.

Snotlout is naturally an arrogant fool, but I thought him hitting on Valka was weird. Didn't he thought about how weird it is to hit on the wife of the past village chief, and the mother of the current village chief? He's still bad with Hookfang, but I guess that's just his thing now.

I'm rather okay with Fishlegs, but I'm disappointed that Meatlug got shadowed by a baby Gronckle.

I love Tuffnut there's nothing wrong about him.

Oh, but boy, is his sister annoying. You would think being one of the best dragon riders on Berk that she would have some sense and brains to escape an enemy but no, she even lead them back. I guess Grimmel has to thank her for that.

And Valka was just there, existing. Where's all the dragon thief knowledge eh, mum?

I know that the film probably won't consider the development of the TV series as legit, but come on!

What Hidden World?

Hiccup finds the solution to save all his dragon friends, and that is the Hidden World. If Stoick never talked about it I guess that sucks, eh?

And after all the hype about the Hidden World, we only get to witness its beauty in one single scene.

Great aesthetic, great music, great camera compositions during this part of the movie. But don't blink because you'll never see them again! Why is it the title of the movie again?

Another Astrid fan art I did. You can tell that I like drawing her.

A weak Hiccstrid romance

One of the reasons why I love HTTYD so much because I'm a hopeless fangirl and I love the romance between Hiccup and Astrid. The TV series definitely fueled my passion for Hiccstrid.

In the second film, we learned that Hiccup and Astrid became betrothed to each other and they were lovey-dovey with each other. But in the third film, Hiccup becomes really hesitant to marry the love of his life.

Others are convincing him to marry Astrid, not because they love each other or because it was time (it wasn't time, their village was in danger), but because they thought that it will help him with his village chief duties. As if getting married will magically make him or her a better leader.

They eventually got married, and it was okay, I guess. The wedding scene was so adorable and Astrid looked so beautiful but I was kinda hoping Hiccup would sing For the Dancing and the Dreaming like his parents did. Maybe a sweeter scene than them just getting married?

And after the wedding ceremony, Hiccup proceeds to look into the distance, thinking about his Night Fury best friend. Do you love Toothless more than Astrid, Hiccup?

No epic worthy music

John Powell and Jonsi did an amazing job with the first two films of HTTYD. Without their music, none of the scenes would have been amazing as they are. Forbidden Friendship, Test Drive, Where No One Goes and Flying with Mother are some of the amazing music they produced for the films, and I still listen to them till this day.

However, there wasn't a track in the third film that stood out. I haven't gone through the full track list in YouTube, but similar to the whole film, the tracks felt like they're all over the place, with no single epic track for the film.

The only track that I thought stood out was when they discovered the Hidden World.

I think it's because the tracks that we all know and love had the chance to show their full potential in the first film. For example, we hear the full Romantic Flight theme when Hiccup and Astrid took a night ride. But now we can only hear it faintly whenever Astrid appears, or when there's a romantic scene.

Some tracks of the third film are basically medleys of the music from the past films. They're great on their own, but it feels like a mess when they're all combined together.

Which is why I'll always think that the first film has the best music because they're all original.

There's nothing to worry about because everything's fine

Another one of the things I love about HTTYD is because, in the stories, there's always a risk, a compromise, or a sacrifice. Even though they're meant to be a children's movie, the people in Dreamworks aren't afraid to shy from showing the real world where bad things can happen to you even if you try your best.

In the first film, Hiccup loses his leg. In the second film, he learns that not everyone was nice and loses his dad. In the third film, he loses his best friend, but not really?

The worst part is we knew it was a happy ending, right from the trailer. Before the movie was even released in cinemas, we already know that there's an adult Hiccup somewhere, happy with his Night Fury friend, safe and sound.

So, why did we have to worry about Grimmel? Is there any urgency to find the Hidden World? Why do I have to pay money to tickets to a movie to see the ending when it's already revealed in the trailer?

An okay closure

Am I being too harsh as a HTTYD? Shouldn't I be happy for a happy ending? Why am I getting so worked up about it? Well, it's probably because I love it so much and I thought Dreamworks could have done a better job.

Maybe they did their best and thought this was the best outcome, but I'm not entirely satisfied with it. And we're most likely never see a HTTYD movie or show ever again.

The great HTTYD franchise doesn't end with a bang, but with just an average film.

Although I was very salty that HTTYD2 lost an Academy Award to Big Hero Six, I mean it when I say I hope that HTTYD3 doesn't win an Oscar. It doesn't deserve it.

That said, although the last film was just okay, I still love HTTYD, the characters, the dragons and the world. Their existence brought joy to my life, and it's not often I obsess over something as much as this.

If you haven't seen any of the films, please I beg you, to watch at least the first two films. If you like them and are okay with children TV shows, watch their TV series. Only if you really can't get enough, watch the third movie.

Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to Frozen 2 after an amazing not-so-obvious trailer.