Westside Steve Posted March 4, 2019 Report Share Posted March 4, 2019 How to Train Your Dragon 2 the Hidden World DreamWorks / Universal PG. 104 min As we all know the month of February, the Academy Awards month, isn’t the best time to introduce the highest quality films premise Studio standpoint. Sure they still have to sell some tickets so it’s not a bad idea to roll out a sequel to the relatively popular HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON series. It’s been almost 10 years since the original and lucky for the cast because this is an animated feature nobody looks any older than they did in 2010. If you remember the hook of the original hiccup (Jay Baruchel) is the son of a Viking ruler who grew up on a Norse Island where fighting dragons was a way of life. Hiccup learns that dragons are actually cool and we should live in peace and harmony with them. Fast forward to the point where hiccup is now a very young and inexperienced chief of his people torn with self-doubt and at odds with those who still believe dragons are dangerous especially an evil bastard named Grimmel (F Murray Abraham) a fearsome dragon hunter. Hiccups village is a sanctuary for dragons something of a polar opposite of Grimmel's, who keeps a horde of captive and drugged dragons to help him with his dirty work. It seems that Hiccups little buddy, who was once thought to be the only remaining Black Fury dragon, is not alone in this world. Grimmel has captured a female, known as a Light Fury who would be the natural mate of Hiccups dragon. She is intended as bait. Also, as the title tends to indicate, there’s a secret place at the edge of the earth that is where hundreds of dragons live in peace and harmony, and the two Fury dragons need to get there to rule, safe from the human race until the time comes we realize we can all live together. Got it? Of course before the dragons can go home there are a couple of other subplots that need to be resolved. Hiccup needs to find the confidence and strength he needs to lead his tribe with the help of his girlfriend Astrid. Also the two young dragons need to fall in love. Everything is fun and somewhat exciting even if it’s not up to the very high standards of Disney and Pixar, DreamWorks still does a very respectable job. A couple random observations, as often the Vikings are given Scottish or English accents and much of the music sounds Celtic but what the heck? Animation wise the Fury dragons seem to have the skeletal structure of cats in the facial area. That dawned on me when my cat Natasha was sitting on my lap staring into my face waiting for a bite of chicken. Besides Abraham, Gerard Butler Cate Blanchett Jonah Hill Kit Harington Kristen Wiig and Craig Ferguson add to a pretty solid voice cast. The couple of downsides are the mating sequences between the two Fury dragons. They seemed to go on forever and slow down the momentum, but those faults aren't enough to derail what’s otherwise an entertaining film. B- WSS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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