Before we get to the third film, let me explain just what it is, for the initiated. How to Train Your Dragon is a franchise of films and TV Shows created and owned by DreamWorks Animation, who are most well-known for their meme-tastic mascot, Shrek. DreamWorks as company was considered to be only capable of making enjoyable, but flawed comedy films. Imagine everyone's surprise when in 2010, they did a CGI film adaptation of the eponymous children's books (of which there are 12!) written by the British author Cressida Cowell. Granted, it was a very loose adaptation, but still. Both the books and the films star Hiccup, a teenage Viking (HUZZAH!!!) who repeatedly attempts to earn the respect of his peers through hare-brained schemes and various shenanigans, usually with the aide of his pet dragon, Toothless. And that's basically the only things the books and the movies have in common.The first film was generally lighthearted, but it was more serious in tone compared to DreamWorks other films.
But wait, there's more! the first movie met critical and commercial acclaim and thus spawned a direct sequel, titled How to Train Your Dragon 2. And to show off how much of a genius Hiccup is (compared to other Vikings), he built a lightsaber-er, flamethrower sword! So does that mean that the Vikings in this universe are secretly Jedi Knights? Anyway, the second movie is kind of like the Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back of How to Train Your Dragon (so many Star Wars references back-to-back!). This film actually has an actively malevolent villain in the form of Drago Bludfist. It also has SPOILER ALERT! The onscreen death of a major character. Whether the first movie or the second one was better depends on your personal tastes. For me personally, there were plenty of great things about both films, but I kind of like the second one better, simply because the redesigns of the returning characters look amazing.
Which brings us to the third film, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. Which is (apparently?) the grand finale of the whole franchise. Part of me really doubts DreamWorks is going to stop making stuff for this franchise, though. I could totally see them making things like prequel movies, spin-off cartoons (in fact they already have), because How to Train Your Dragon is easily one of DreamWorks' most successful IP's. Anyway, let's address the elephant in the room. There is a white dragon with blue eyes. If only Toothless had red eyes, then we could make all sorts of Yu-Gi-Oh! jokes. In all seriousness though, the basic premise of this film, judging from the trailer (there is a trailer, you can go watch it on YouTube or something), Toothless meets a beautiful lady dragon that he falls in love with. But until the beautiful lady dragon gets an official name, I shall refer to her as Blue-Eyes White Dragon, for the sake of making Yu-Gi-Oh! jokes. Also...
Hiccup has a beard now. Or at least, at some point in the movie, he grows a beard. Which means Hiccup is now Captain America. Or Big Boss. Or King Graham. Or literally any hero in the last two decades that is both cool and has a beard. But anyway, given what we've seen in the trailer (where Hiccup only had the beard in one scene), my guess is this movie is using a much older Hiccup as some kind of framing device. Or, assuming the trailer has the audacity to show something from the epilogue, Hiccup only gets the beard towards the end of the movie. Why am I speculating about Hiccup's beard, you ask? Because there are three things to take away from the trailer. One, Hiccup's glorious beard. Two, the fact that Toothless now has a beautiful lady dragon friend, and of course, Three, this is (supposedly) the grand finale of the franchise.
But now let's talk about Blue-Eyes over here. According to some of the lovely folks that make the Hot to Train Your Dragon films, she's not a pure-blooded Night Fury (the kind of dragon Toothless is), but more akin to a subspecies, which means that if we're applying Monster Hunter logic, she would be the stronger of the two, since subspecies always have better stats and abilities than the main variant. Yay Feminism! Anyway, there's enough Night Fury in her for Toothless to act like a lovesick puppy trying too hard to be suave and charming, so there's that. Also, Blue-Eyes is super sparkly. Like, not even magically sparkly, but like, I don't know, Disney Princess sparkly. Kind of fitting, since Disney loves shoving romance into almost every Disney Princess movie they come out with and Toothless now has a beautiful lady dragon friend. In case you couldn't tell, "beautiful lady dragon friend" is something that's oddly satisfying to say. Or type. Yep. "Beautiful lady dragon friend". Listen to that rich vocabulary. Anyway, some folks don't like the overtly feminine design of Blue-Eyes, with some folks arguing that it borders on sexism, but let's be real, DreamWorks basically has no choice but to make the design quote-end-quote "girly" because lot's and lot's of people mistook Toothless for a girl back when the first movie came out. Heck, I mistook Toothless for a girl. So how do you make it obvious that Toothless's love interest is female without redesigning him to be more tough and manly, which would ruin his charm as a character? Simple! Sparkles, inverted color scheme, more sparkles, smoother scales, even more sparkles, and teleports. Did I forget to mention she can teleport? Well, I think it's a teleport. Maybe she can open portals or something, I'm still trying to process what that trick of her's actually is. But she does something, she disappears and then she reappears. Let's assume it's a teleport.
Oh, and there's also a new bad guy whose hunting the Night Furies, for... Some Reason. And apparently Hiccup and Friends are going "completely off the map". So maybe they'll find the Hidden World that way. Or maybe "Hidden World" is just a fancy subtitle to make the finale sound more grandiose. Or maybe it has a double meaning. I think I'll drive myself insane deciphering the possible meaning of "The Hidden World".
And that's basically it. Of course we have to wait until March 2019 to actually watch the movie, but until then, we can take a step back and speculate. Actually, before I forget...
Gobber's back! Yay! Everyone needs a bit of Gobber in their lives. Seriously, Gobber is like the Hagrid to Hiccup's Harry Potter. If, you know, Hagrid had a prosthetic hand. And was a Black Smith instead of a Game Keeper. And had a mustache instead of a beard. In all seriousness though, you kind of need Gobber for How to Train Your Dragon to work. That, and dragons, obviously.
And one more thing to note...
Am I the only one who died laughing at Toothless's mating dance? It's ridiculous. It's silly. And it's made a thousand times better because it's TOOTHLESS doing it. But anyway, thank you for reading this little news update type thing, and are you excited for this movie? Because I am. Even though the release date is ages away (March 1st, 2019). But the best things are worth a wait, aren't they?
P.S. Sorry for not posting anything for over a month. I've been busy with clearing out a rather extensive video game back log.
