How to Train Your Dragon trilogy

Timur’s got this box set as a delayed birthday present; these (extended) Christmas holidays we watched all three films.

How to Train Your Dragon

a film by Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders

The first film in the series, and, unsurprisingly, the best. Given that it is co-directed by DeBlois and Sanders, the dynamic duo behind Lilo & Stitch, it is hardly surprising that one of the protagonists, viz. the dragon Toothless, seems to be just a gracile, winged, cat-like version of the famous Experiment 626. And why not? The only drawback is the absence of a worthy villain.

How to Train Your Dragon 2

a film by Dean DeBlois

Wow. Hiccup finds his mother, loses his father, finally faces a human baddie and becomes a new Viking chief. Meanwhile, our feline Stich becomes a new dragon alpha (a glaring misnomer; dragons are not known to be social animals — probably the film creators couldn’t find a better word for a dragon analogue of “king of the beasts”). In spite of all this, the “2” film underwhelms. Most sophomore efforts do.

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

a film by Dean DeBlois

If the “2” film had a predictable tyrant of Drago Bludvist, The Hidden World features much subtler Grimmel (voiced by the great F. Murray Abraham, who brought to life many a villain par excellence), a dragon killer for the sake of pure evilness. The island of Berk in the beginning of the film, “the world’s first dragon Viking utopia”, looks more like Chinatown at the Chinese New Year and the music at times also gets rather oriental — a welcome change from whatever was passing for Viking music in the first two films. The stunning visual effects (not quite) offset the patently formulaic ending of the saga.