Welcome back to another installment of Rhode Island Movie Corner’s series of retrospectives on the numerous animated films produced by DreamWorks Animation. As my way of not having to do a massive singular post covering the 45+ films that the studio has produced since 1998, I’ve been dividing its filmography up into multiple parts, starting with their biggest franchises. And today, we’ve finally come to the DreamWorks franchise that I’ve been anticipating covering the most. Sure, Shrek may have been the franchise that made DreamWorks the household name that it is today, but if you want to talk about the franchise that almost single-handedly reshaped the idea of what a DreamWorks Animation film could be, look no further than the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy. Loosely based on the best-selling book series by author Cressida Cowell, this is a franchise that has yielded some of the most critically acclaimed animated films from the past decade and a half and has widely been cited as the prime example of how DreamWorks has very much come a long way since the days when their filmography was seen by many as being nothing more than a bunch of pop-culture dependent kiddie flicks. And on a personal level, today I finally get to rectify the fact… that I’ve never seen any of these films before. Yeah, yeah, I know, I know; to make a long story short, the first How to Train Your Dragon had the unfortunate distinction of being the first DreamWorks film that I didn’t see in theaters since anything that came out before Shrek, and seeing how it’s only 1% away from having the mythical perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s safe to say that I clearly missed out on something special. But now I’m finally ready to see why this series has become such a beloved staple of the current pop cultural zeitgeist; thus, without further ado, it’s time to take a journey to the magical land of Berk as we look at the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy.
(Disclaimer: *Insert
your standard ‘I’m only covering the films’ ground rule here. Please refer to
previous DreamWorks Retrospectives for further instructions*)
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR
DRAGON (2010)
In 2003, author Cressida Cowell published How to Train
Your Dragon, a children’s novel that expanded upon the world from Hiccup
the Viking Who Was Seasick, a picture book that she wrote in 2000. Set in a
world full of Vikings and the mythical dragons that many of them own, it followed
the previous book’s titular protagonist Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third as
he looked to prove himself to both his father, Stoick the Vast, and their
village of Berk along with his dragon companion Toothless. Upon its release,
the book would go on to spawn Cowell’s first official franchise of novels as an
author, with eleven subsequent novels published up until 2015 that have collectively
sold over 7 million copies worldwide. Just one year after the original
novel’s release, the series caught the attention of DreamWorks Animation, with
animation veteran Bonnie Arnold spearheading the potential film adaptation as
its main producer. While the original script for the film was a largely
faithful adaptation of its source material, this would change under the
direction of the duo of Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, who had made their mark
in the industry back in 2002 with the most successful release of Disney
Animation’s post-Renaissance era, Lilo and Stitch. Instead of the
original premise of Vikings living in harmony with dragons, which Sanders and
DeBlois found to be overly whimsical and geared too heavily towards younger
audiences, the film reimagines the plot into one where the Vikings have been
hunting dragons for years. Thus, instead of just simply looking to prove
himself to his doubtful father and peers, Hiccup also finds himself having to undo
years of animosity between humans and dragons after befriending the rarest
dragon of all, a Night Fury, which he names Toothless.
Upon its release, How to Train Your Dragon quickly
became one of DreamWorks’ biggest hits of all time. It earned over $494 million
worldwide, with a $217 million domestic haul that made it the highest-grossing
DreamWorks film in the U.S. outside of the Shrek series, a record that
it still holds today. But perhaps most importantly, the film was a runaway
success with critics, securing a near-perfect 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes,
the best score that any DreamWorks film has ever secured on that site. And yet,
as I noted in the intro, this was the first DreamWorks film that I had missed out
on seeing in theaters in about a decade… and boy, did I miss out! How to
Train Your Dragon is very much an animated masterpiece with some of the
best animation to ever come out of a DreamWorks film up to that point. Part of
this is thanks to the filmmakers utilizing the assistance of legendary
cinematographer Roger Deakins as a visual consultant to, as they put it, give
the film a uniquely live-action feel, which is certainly on display throughout,
especially in the spectacular flying sequences that many have argued are on par
with and possibly even better than the flying sequences from what was quickly
becoming the biggest film of all-time, Avatar. In previous DreamWorks Retrospectives,
I noted that I didn’t see a lot of the studio’s films at this time in 3-D even
though many have said that they were amongst the best in the industry to
utilize the format at a time when the market was getting oversaturated with
films that were both hastily and poorly converted into 3-D. Case in point, How
to Train Your Dragon may just be the most prominently lauded of them all
when it comes to its use of the 3-D format.
But aside from all its visual splendor, the film is also
buoyed by its thoroughly charming underdog story led by an endearing main
protagonist in Hiccup, excellently voiced by Jay Baruchel, and his lovable dragon
pal Toothless. That said, it is interesting to note that one of the biggest
deviations from the book was the portrayal of Toothless since, in the book, Toothless
was a more narcissistic and abrasive character rather than the adorably loyal kitty
cat-like companion that he is in the films. They’re then joined by a top-notch
supporting cast that includes Gerard Butler as Hiccup’s over-demanding father
Stoick, America Ferrara as Hiccup’s training rival turned love interest Astrid,
and Craig Ferguson as Stoick’s best friend (and dragon-hunting teacher) Gobber,
along with the likes of Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Kristen Wiig
as Hiccup and Astrid’s fellow dragon-hunting trainees. And so, with all this in
mind, it’s easy to see why the first How to Train Your Dragon went on to
become one of the most acclaimed films that DreamWorks Animation had ever made
up to that point. Rather than the unabashedly irreverent comedic endeavors that
they were long known for at the time, this film appropriately goes for a more
dramatic narrative approach that, nevertheless, still delivers a bunch of great
comedic moments amidst its solid emotional and character beats. In short, even
if this was the same year that Pixar’s Toy Story 3 became only the third
animated film in history to garner a Best Picture nomination along with its
expected Best Animated Feature win, How to Train Your Dragon genuinely
gives it a run for its money as one of the best films of 2010.
Rating: 5/5!
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR
DRAGON 2 (2014)
Given the immense success of the original How to Train
Your Dragon, it’s no surprise that a sequel was immediately announced just
one month after its release. It would ultimately come out in 2014 and retained
most of its predecessor’s core cast and crew members; the only major loss in
that regard was co-director Chris Sanders due to his commitment to DreamWorks’
2013 release The Croods. Thankfully, though, he stuck around as an
executive producer while his co-director Dean DeBlois officially took over as
the franchise’s main director. Set five years after the events of the first
film, How to Train Your Dragon 2 sees Hiccup, Toothless, and their
friends confronted by their most dangerous adversary yet; Drago Bludvist
(voiced by Djimon Hounsou), a vicious dragon-hunting warlord who seeks to
assemble a dragon army and take over the world. And if that wasn’t enough,
Hiccup also ends up reuniting with his long-lost mother Valka (voiced by Cate
Blanchett), who has been protecting dragons from Drago for years. Upon its
release, How to Train Your Dragon 2 did even better than its predecessor
at the box office, earning over $621 million worldwide, currently standing as
the 7th highest-grossing DreamWorks film of all-time and the
franchise’s highest-grossing installment. And while it lost that
year’s Oscar for Best Animated Feature to Disney’s Big Hero 6, it gamely
followed in its predecessor’s footsteps by maintaining a strong critical
reception.
Sure enough, How to Train Your Dragon 2 is exactly
the kind of excellent sequel that you’d want to see in the sense that it
naturally improves upon its already fantastic predecessor in plenty of ways.
Once again utilizing the assistance of Roger Deakins (who, at this point, had
also served as a visual consultant on other DreamWorks films such as Puss in
Boots and Rise of the Guardians), this film boasts even greater
visuals and action sequences than its predecessor, arguably thanks in large
part to a brighter color palette that’s used to its fullest effect. And sure,
maybe the film’s main antagonist Drago isn’t as strong of a villain as he could’ve
been in part due to a limited screentime, but the addition of Hiccup’s mother
Valka (and her subsequent reunion with both her son and her husband Stoick)
provides a strong emotional hook that carries throughout the entire film. Add
in some other strong emotional beats such as the devastating death of one of
the main characters and the continued efforts to strengthen the bond between Hiccup
and Toothless and it’s easy to see why director Dean DeBlois cited The
Empire Strikes Back as a primary source of inspiration for this sequel. Just
like that film, How to Train Your Dragon 2 effectively raises the narrative
stakes in a thematically darker film (which, admittedly, was a source of
contention amongst some audiences) that nevertheless doesn’t lose sight of its family-friendly
appeal, its endearing main protagonists, and its penchant for spectacular visuals.
Rating: 5/5!
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR
DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD (2019)
Before we conclude today’s retrospective, I’d like to point
out an interesting bit of trivia about this series that I ended up coming across
while working on this post, and that is the fact that the How to Train Your
Dragon trilogy has the unique distinction of having every installment released
under a different distributor. The original How to Train Your Dragon,
released in 2010, came out near the tail-end of DreamWorks’ almost decade-long
distribution deal with Paramount that had started back in 2006. After that,
DreamWorks signed a distribution deal with 20th Century Fox, with
2014’s How to Train Your Dragon 2 being the studio’s most commercially successful
release of that era. Finally, the trilogy’s grand finale, 2019’s How to
Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, had the honor of being the first
DreamWorks film to be released through their current distributor, Universal. As
the title suggests, the film sees Hiccup and company embark on a journey to try
and find the mythical ‘Hidden World’, the perfect sanctuary for dragons, when
they realize that Berk is no longer safe for their dragon companions due to the
increasing number of dragon hunters that have come after them such as their
latest foe Grimmel (voiced by F. Murray Abraham), who has singlehandedly killed
nearly every Night Fury in the world except for Toothless. And yet, at the same
time, Toothless finally comes across one of his own when he meets and falls in
love with a female counterpart AKA a ‘Light Fury’.
Like its two predecessors, How to Train Your Dragon: The
Hidden World was a bona fide success with both critics and audiences. While
it may not have matched How to Train Your Dragon 2’s franchise-best run
at the box office, it did achieve the franchise’s second-best worldwide total
as it grossed over $525 million worldwide. And even when faced with the inevitably
intense expectations of being a threequel given the typically mixed reception
that most franchise threequels tend to get (which is something that DreamWorks is quite familiar with), the film was yet another runaway hit with critics. However,
even with that said, it seems like this one ended up being a bit more
polarizing amongst fans of the franchise specifically because of its ending.
Now, for the sake of those who haven’t yet seen these films, I won’t spoil the
full details of this ending, but to make a long story short, some felt that it went
against a lot of the key themes that the franchise had established over its run
and the whole premise of Hiccup and company’s efforts to prove that humans and
dragons can peacefully co-exist with each other. And yet, while I do genuinely
see where they’re coming from in some cases, the way that this film concludes its
saga of humans and dragons is done in a way where, despite the devastating decision
that’s made and what it means for both parties, it still presents a positive
outlook on the potential of the two of them living in harmony without any sort
of threat to the latter.
In other words, from a narrative standpoint, I do believe
that The Hidden World is a top-notch conclusion to this phenomenal trilogy…
especially since I’d argue that this is one of the rare instances of a trilogy
where each subsequent installment is better than the last. First, to get the
obvious superlatives out of the way, because of all the technical improvements
that have come with each new film (case in point, it has been well-documented
that DreamWorks had to update a lot of their animation software to achieve all their
visual aspirations for this film), The Hidden World boasts the franchise’s
most stunning visuals and epically thrilling action sequences. And whereas the
previous film’s antagonist Drago was an admittedly lackluster villain, The
Hidden World features the series’ best antagonist in Grimmel, excellently
voiced by F. Murray Abraham and an all-around sinister foe who’s properly
established as a legitimate threat to our heroes right from the beginning.
Finally, given its status as a, well, ‘finale’, it goes without saying that
this film delivers the franchise’s best emotional beats, such as whenever it focuses
on the blissfully sweet budding romance between Toothless and the Light Fury
or, as I noted earlier, its powerful gut-punch of an ending that, like it or
not, does feel emotionally justified. In short, what more can I say about this
franchise that I haven’t already said here today? While all three films are phenomenal
in their own way, The Hidden World ultimately stands out amongst them
all as it sends off this beloved franchise on the best note possible, firmly
asserting its status as a trilogy that has always matched its grand visual
splendor with its wholly heartfelt storytelling.
Rating: 5/5!
And that concludes the
latest installment of Rhode Island Movie Corner’s series of DreamWorks Retrospectives.
Simply put, it was a lot of fun to finally see what this franchise was all
about after years of never getting around to seeing these films despite being
fully aware of how beloved they were. And while The Hidden World may have
marked the end of the franchise in terms of animated films, that doesn’t mean
that this is the end of Hiccup and Toothless’ adventures as a live-action
adaptation of the first film is currently in the works for a June 2025 release.
Sure, this announcement undoubtedly frustrated those who, just like all the
recent live-action remakes of Disney’s animated classics, question the need to make
a live-action version of an animated masterpiece, but at the very least, this
new film will benefit from the return of series director Dean DeBlois in the
director’s chair. As for its casting, Mason Thames, breakout star of Scott
Derrickson’s 2022 hit The Black Phone, headlines the film as Hiccup
while Nico Parker, fresh off her acclaimed turn as Joel’s daughter Sarah in the
HBO adaptation of The Last of Us, will star as Astrid. Edgar Wright
regular Nick Frost takes on the role of Gobber while Gerard Butler returns to reprise
his role from the animated films as Hiccup’s father Stoick. And if that wasn’t
enough, 2025 will be a big year for the franchise in general as it’s set to
serve as one of the five lands in Universal Orlando Resort’s upcoming fourth
theme park, Epic Universe.
As for our next endeavor
in the DreamWorks Retrospective series, this is where things get interesting. As
I’ve said before, my goal with this series was to start out by tackling
DreamWorks’ biggest franchises; more specifically, any franchise that has elicited,
at the very least, a trilogy of films. With that in mind, when I first started
this series back in 2022, How to Train Your Dragon was the most recent
DreamWorks franchise to achieve this feat; thus, my plan at the time was to
then do a quick detour and tackle the studio’s brief foray into traditionally
animated features before moving on to the rest of their filmography. However,
by the time that this post has been published, another DreamWorks franchise has
recently achieved the trilogy mark. And so, for our next DreamWorks Retrospective,
we’ll be tackling what has arguably become DreamWorks’ flagship franchise as of
late, the Trolls franchise.
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