‘How to Train Your Dragon 3,’ Despite Flaws, Is Escapism With An Emotional Wallop [Review]

There’s always been a patient and underlying feeling of melancholy in the Dean DeBlois-directed “How to Train Your Dragon” series as its employed dragons and Vikings as a Trojan horse to explore the pains and thrills of growing up. Where “How to Train Your Dragon” examined expectations of youth and kinship amongst misfits and its sequel grappled with legacy, the third installment—lacking in the kinetic urgency of the former two despite being one long narrative chase— is still a whimsical meditation on self-acceptance and the need to move forward to truly grow up. The future can only be found through the always-courageous next step.

Still a family film first and foremost, the dragons are as gleefully vibrant, supporting characters to keep the children in the audience laughing, but it’s still that forlorn sense acceptance of losing what tethers you to a sense of home that elicits the greatest emotional response.

Set a year after the events of “How to Train Your Dragon 2,” the third installment of the series starts up catching up with Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) and friends including Astrid (America Ferrera) and his dragon tamer mother Valka (Cate Blanchett) as they’ve tasked themselves with rescuing captured dragons and bringing them back to their village. This makes enemies along the way and as they’re forced to relocate, Hiccup decides to try and find the “hidden world,” a long-forgotten fable about a place where dragons came from that would keep them safe from Grimmel (F. Murray Abraham) the killer of Night Furys.

The animation is, as it’s always been, stunning – especially when it comes to shots that expand the scope of the world. When it comes to depicting the landscapes at large, ‘Dragon 3’ showcases artists at the top of their game. In particular, there are two breathtaking sequences that are lovingly rendered reminders of cinema’s magical ability to transport an audience emotionally to a dazzling new world. The first sequence is a dialogue-free journey with Hiccup and the Light Fury as they bond through the use of their powers, exploring the elements from thunderous clouds to lightly speckled seas. Later in the film, Hiccup, and Astrid exploring the wonders of this hidden world is gorgeous—this marriage of concept, musical cues, and animation is where the film soars.

But visual grandeur unintentionally highlights some of the film’s weaknesses. From the beginning, the series has been better-suited for visual storytelling, not reliant on dialogue and much more so than the chatty, average animated fare. The sequels have always felt like labors of love rather than cash grabs, filled with moments that aren’t necessarily childlike while still refusing to speak down to their target audience.

In the first film, a sense of gravitas was found from the dire, mortally-wounding consequences of battle, in the second, the pains of needless loss (Hiccup’s father dies). In the third that sense of realism set in a world where dragons coexist with Vikings is the idea of finding a place at home with your people and saying goodbye for the betterment of those you care for— the idea of self-sacrificial love. Yet, all of this good emotional substance is often spelled-out, the narrative twists don’t always work and clearly, the filmmakers sweated the need to wrap up all the series’ loose ends. It leaves the discerning audience wondering what might’ve been had the filmmakers had more freedom to stay true to the emotional honesty threaded throughout the franchise instead of perfectly bookending things in a family-friendly way.

The result is a plot without consequence and the stakes set up are never that high: someone wants to hurt the dragons and their home, and it’s up to the heroes to save the day. What allows the film to avoid feeling too redundant is one of the movie’s best themes—the big realization of the role they’ve played in making the world inhospitable to these creatures.

On the whole, aforementioned issues aside, “How to Train Your Dragon 3” is still a touching goodbye to a series that has really grown and matured through the years, aided by stunning visuals and a sweeping, dreamlike-sense-of-adventuring score by composer John Powell. Most trilogies aren’t as consistent as this one and while this series is generally overlooked, it’s easy to see some audiences holding it more dearly in a few years. While ‘Dragon 3’ suffers from the absence of a strong plot, poignant stakes, and narrative thrust, it’s still a story that most audiences will find something to connect with. It’s a fitting end for the Hiccup and Toothless’ story and “How to Train Your Dragon 3” is mostly fantastical escapism that packs an emotional wallop. [B]