How to Train Your Dragon: A Proper Movie Trilogy (VIDEO SCRIPT)

How to Train Your Dragon, How to Train Your Dragon 2, and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. These movies since the release of the first have warmed the hearts of child and adult alike, and have since joined the most recognizable CGI animated movies to come from Dreamworks Studios.

But with the film series concluding its story of Hiccup and Toothless in How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, the franchise became the second in Dreamwork Animation’s CGI history to reach the status of a movie trilogy. But is it a PROPER movie trilogy? And if not, then how do we make it one? Let’s find out.

INTRODUCTION

How To Train Your Dragon was released on March 26 2010, directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, and written by Sanders, DeBlois and Will Davies.

/Based on the book series by Cressida Cowell, it tells the story of Hiccup, the son of a viking chieftain dragon hunter who’s village of Berk is constantly under siege. Then he befriends a dragon belonging to a rare and dangerous species called Nightfury, after not being able to bring himself to kill it and named him Toothless. And once he realizes that not only can dragons can be tamed but also coexist with humans, its up to Hiccup to convince the people of Berk to change./

The movie initially was closer to an adaptation of the first book before Sanders and DeBlois were brought on board. When they were, the changes that we regularly associate with the film franchise were made.

Instead of Toothless being a common breed of garden dragon, they turned him into a Nightfury.

Whereas a direct adaptation of the book would play to a younger audience with its sweet and whimsical nature, their changes brought about more of a teen and young adult crowd.

/Well, I personally can’t really say that those changes were bad ones, and neither did the audience. Because on a budget of 165 million, How to Train Your Dragon made 450 million in the box office and immediately was placed on the shelf of highly treasured CGI IPs to come from Dreamworks animation./

How to Train Your Dragon 2 was released 4 years later, this time written and directed by only one half of the director duo of the previous film, Dean DeBlois.

/Following up on Berk 6 years later, Hiccup -- now 20 years old -- and Toothless not only discover that his mom is still alive and is a dragon rider herself, but is also combating Drago, a Berkian exile turned Warlord voiced by Djimon Hounsou, who plans on taking control of the dragons with the help of a malicious alpha with goals of world domination./

DeBlois went on to say that what inspired the story for the sequel were two of his childhood favorite films; Star Wars Episode 5 The Empire Strikes Back, and Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro; both films you can easily spot the references in with How to Train Your Dragon 2, ESPECIALLY Empire.

And while I personally cared for the combination of DeBlois and Sanders plot of the first one more than DeBlois’ first solo attempt, to say that it didn’t do well would be a complete lie.

/Because on a budget 20 million less than the first, How to Train Your Dragon 2 made 621 and a half million in the box office; over 170 million more than the first/

But considering that Star Wars was one of the creators inspirations for 2, DeBlois also stated that he drafted 2 to be the second installment of a trilogy.

And that while there may be stories in the future, a conclusion to Hiccup and Toothless’s time together -- and even dragons in general -- might come to an end in the next film.

And so came How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, once again written and directed by DeBlois, released 5 years after How to Train Your Dragon 2 on February 22, 2019.

With a budget of almost 130 million -- 16 million less than part 2 -- it made nearly 522 million in the box office, and established itself as Dreamworks Animations third animated trilogy, following Madagascar and Kung-Fu Panda.

But while it is a trilogy, giving it a PROPER trilogy status is where things get a tad bit tricky.

THE CURRENT STANCE

/If I had to choose which one of the sequels I enjoyed the most, it would be How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World./

As much as I was on board with aging up Hiccup and the rest of the residents of Berk -- along with how I kinda called that they were gonna reveal his mom was still alive after my friends and I walked out the first one when we saw it in theaters -- I didn’t really care for the way the conflict was handled.

/No shade to Djimon Hounsou as Drago, either; he gave a great performance as the first human villain of the franchise. And was almost unrecognizable to me until I heard him constantly go (AAAGH!)/

But considering that they changed the way the dragons operate from having a queen to serve in the first one to the “tried & true” turned “tired & false” Alpha mentality just to show off dragon dominance and kill off Stoick wasn’t really a great way to introduce me to how human villains operated in this universe

/Then came Grimmel the Grisly -- who I’m surprised wasn’t voiced by Ciaran Hinds considering his mannerisms -- and offered me a bit more potential of what human villains in this universe could achieve./

He was a “paint by numbers” villain, for sure. But in those numbers I saw POTENTIAL; especially when I saw that they were playing with the idea of having him be...Hiccup’s “Shadow of his True Self” for all my Persona 4 nerds out there.

Is that potential explored in the movie? Kinda. While it doesn’t go into as much detail as I would’ve liked it to go, it does enough to provide enough of a conflict for the story to be believable

/The story being Hiccup -- now 1 year into being the chief of Berk -- is off to find a new home for the villagers and the dragons once they realize they’re running out of room to properly coexist. He seeks to make New Berk in the Hidden World -- the legendary land where dragons come from -- so that they can be isolated and live in peace, and do so before other warlords learn to use dragons for evil like Drago did a year prior./

As a sendoff to the franchise, it definitely works in my opinion.

/I know a lot of people had problems with how the Light Fury was designed in order show off that this was -- in fact -- a female, despite no other female dragon of any other species in the trilogy having to be designed differently in order to do so/

And I’m not gonna lie; it was a bit weird seeing them do that for me, too

Especially since there were no references in the movie that told us the Light Fury was a sub-species of Nightfury like it’s implied in the Dark Horse tie-in comic that nobody read, because you shouldn’t have to read a tie-in comic to understand the movie you’re about to watch.

/I dunno. The romance was cute, but it just felt like an unnecessary angle to justify selling more toys while making sure the Moms Against “Insert Stupid Shit Here” weren’t gonna complain about Toothless dating another dude dragon because its scaled and colored just like him./ (Just trace the Night Fury card and make it white)

With that being said, with the plot points The Hidden World hits, it's very easy to watch it after watching 1 and 2 and immediately think, “yeah, this is a proper movie trilogy. It’s pretty simple, but they still take a thread from the first one and give us new info about it in the third one in a way that brings it full circle!”

Well Readers, I hate to burst your bubble, but you would be surprised to hear that you’re wrong.

Because just like the Bill & Ted trilogy that I covered before it, what we have in the case of How to Train Your Dragon is a combination of a plot point both taken out of context and this time ASSUMED to be from the first installment.

When in actuality, what we THINK The Hidden World is expanding on with its narrative, isn’t an actual thread from the first movie. Allow me to explain.

THE THREAD

/In order to find out what the ACTUAL thread is for the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy, we have to first explore what The Hidden World uses as a thread instead. But paying attention to the introductory scene of the film’s villain Grimmel the Grisly -- who I’m surprised wasn’t voiced by Ciaran Hinds considering his mannerisms -- actually gives it away in both his mannerisms and his retort to the warlords Hiccup and Co. previously raided from./ (Not possible...it seems one slipped through your fingers)

So not only do we learn in this scene that Grimmel specializes in killing dragons, but that he’s also responsible for the Nightfury species being endangered and Toothless being the last of his kind.

/But for those who either don’t pick up on subtlety that well or prefer straight answers with their questions, there is in fact one more scene later on in the movie with him being rather direct about the information/ (I am the Nightfury killer)

Now you may be wondering to yourself: So that’s it, right? That’s the new information being expanded upon in The Hidden World from the thread in How to Train Your Dragon. It’s the fact that a single solitary dragon hunter is responsible for why Toothless is the last of its kind. This reveal follows the formula and makes it a Proper Movie Trilogy

And you would be correct...if this thread was actually present in How to Train Your Dragon 1. But it’s not.

Never in the first How to Train Your Dragon did they ever state that Nightfuries were an endangered species, or that Toothless was the last of his kind

/As a matter of fact, there are only two scenes in which we get any REAL information about Nightfuries in the first How to Train Your Dragon./

/When Hiccup sees the unfinished section on the Nightfury in the Dragon Manual that only talks about how dangerous it is/

/And when he’s asking Gobber about any info he has on them during a hands-on dragon hunting exercise. So, you know, the BEST time./

But even within these scenes, there’s nothing foreshadowing to the rarity of Nightfuries or even the REASON behind the rarity of Nightfuries in The Hidden World

/We actually don’t get that information until How to Train Your Dragon 2, after Hiccup is introduced to his mother and she meets Toothless proper./(He might very well be the last of his kind)

So now what we initially thought was the thread, isn’t the thread at all. Because in order for trilogies -- no matter the format -- to be considered a proper one, the thread HAS to come from the first installment in order for the whole to be brought full circle, and all three installments be seen as one cohesive story.

/And considering the way The Hidden World ended and brought proper closure to the story of humans and dragons as we know them in that universe, making all three installments one cohesive story was definitely the end goal./

Now if you wanna start speculating as to why this was an oversight, then I do feel obligated to once again mention that while Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois wrote and directed the first movie with third writer Will Davies, DeBlois single-handedly wrote and directed the second and third installment of the trilogy.

The second being in part of Sanders working on The Croods at the time, and then Dreamworks being satisfied with DeBlois’ work and reception on part 2 to give him the final installment as well.

However, one thing is certain; the acceptance and overall enjoyment of the first two How to Train Your Dragons according to the populace allowed The Hidden World to get away with the idea that it was actually addressing a thread from the first installment of the movie because of how well it fit in the narrative, when it actually came from the second.

Thus, allowing How to Train Your Dragon to...PRETEND to be a proper movie trilogy, instead of actually being one.

But there is a way to have Grimmel’s actions regarding driving the Nightfuries to the brink of extinction not only still play a huge part in the overall importance of the trilogy, but also involve him in what the ACTUAL thread should be being brought over from the first installment

And the thread in question...is when Hiccup and Toothless met for the very first time. Let me break it down for you.

THE RECONSTRUCTION

/In How to Train Your Dragon, Hiccup befriends Toothless -- a Nightfury dragon that the people of Berk have very little knowledge of outside of its lethality -- after refusing to kill him after capturing him with a catapult invention of his./

/In How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, we learn that the reason why the Nightfuries are endangered is because of a Dragon Hunter named Grimmel, who DID kill a Nightfury as his first dragon and has been hunting them ever since/

So let's establish an actually CONNECTION between Grimmel and Hiccup that better reflects the dynamic they represent in the movie, and allow The Hidden World a way to properly tie in to the events of How to Train Your Dragon 1 instead of a thread that ACTUALLY came from How to Train Your Dragon 2.

The great thing about The Hidden World is that it already set up a perfect point in How to Train Your Dragon to act as the thread to expand on, now that we’ve established that the information about Nightfuries being an endangered dragon species being something that was added in the SECOND movie as opposed to the first.

/And that’s done in Grimmel’s mini-monologue when Hiccup, his mom, and his friends went on a reconnaissance mission at his base./(Unlike you, when I came upon a Nightfury, I KILLED it where it slept...so I decided to kill every last one)

Hearing this information about how Grimmel was brought up gives us a brilliant new look at what the dynamic between him and Hiccup could be if it was given the time to properly develop.

He represents this alternate version of Hiccup if he actually DID stick the knife in Toothless’s throat; what he could’ve become if he lacked the kind of nature that we see in him established throughout the entire trilogy.

That’s why the TRUE thread isn’t the information about the Nightfuries being endangered. Not even about WHY the Nightfuries are endangered.

/It’s Hiccup freeing Toothless from the trap instead of simply killing him./

And the best way of establishing not only that as the actual Thread within the trilogy, but have Grimmel be Hiccup’s most dangerous adversary to date, is to have Grimmel WITNESS Hiccup’s attempt to kill Toothless.

I would have Grimmel be at Berk hunting Toothless the night Hiccup took him down. Since the movie established that Stoick knew of Grimmel and the two had some type of respect for each other as Dragon Hunters in the past, this wouldn’t be that hard to fathom.

/Plus, having prior knowledge of Stoick and Hiccup because of said past interactions would also help Grimmel’s initial negative opinions of Hiccup by the time they square off as well, helping fan the flames of their opposing ideals and personalities./ (He changed his mind...look where that got him)

Then comes the day after Hiccup shoots down Toothless, and both he and Grimmel are present; Hiccup by the Nightfury and Grimmel watching in the shadows not wanting to be noticed. And with a mix of anger, surprise and respect, Grimmel watches Hiccup’s involvement with Toothless up until he raises the knife to strike before leaving.

Anger, because the kill wasn’t his to claim. Surprise because he wasn’t expecting such an act from the stories he heard of the boy from his father, and respect because he witnessed Hiccup doing what HE believes is necessary to bring about “true peace.” So he dismisses the other noises made by Toothless following Hiccup’s ACTUAL decision as the cries of Hiccup’s sloppy first kill and leaves Berk satisfied

Only to learn seven years later after the fall of Drago that not only has Berk embraced coexistence with dragons, but that the Nightfury he thought Hiccup killed is alive as his mount and has become the chief of Berk after the village’s encounter with Drago.

/So when the warlords hire Grimmel to capture Toothless so that THEY can control the dragons ever since establishing Alpha status at the end of How to Train Your Dragon 2, he instead takes advantage of the offer as a way of righting a wrong he let slide 7 years prior by not only finishing off his self-fulfilling prophecy of bringing about the extinction of the Nightfury species, but showing Hiccup how his actions since letting Toothless live have brought nothing but misery to Berk. Especially ever since he took over./

It’s a very simple change, I know. And honestly, if Grimmel never mentioned “unlike you, I actually KILLED my Nightfury,” I never would’ve thought about that one scene being the thread that could actually tie this entire trilogy together.

Because while Drago was an intimidating villain with motives of his own, Grimmel had all the proper workings of being a dark reflection of Hiccup; the antithesis of his entire philosophy. And for the most part over the course of The Hidden World, he kinda was.

Although, I’m not gonna lie; it would’ve been nice to see how his journey played out as opposed to just HEARING about it.

Seeing the scene of the original How to Train Your Dragon but a young Grimmel instead of Hiccup and then everything that would’ve followed if Hiccup went down that path would’ve been the icing on the cake regarding taking it home that this villain is an important one to the trilogy as opposed to just another human that hates dragons.

/But all it would’ve TRULY taken to make this trilogy a proper one is instead of that one line being used just to be an insult to Hiccup’s character, that there was an actual physical connection regarding Grimmel witnessing the parallels between them before their lifepaths decided to diverge that was the reason for him saying it in the first place.

Like I said; it’s a very simple change, but it makes a HUGE difference./

CONCLUSION

When it comes to How to Train Your Dragon, Dreamworks choosing Sanders and DeBlois to shift the direction of the franchise to the one we got was indeed a good call.

But we got so worked up in how good the first one was that when DeBlois planted the seed that he used as the thread to expand on in the third movie, we all just immediately assumed said thread was actually in its proper place

And while it may not have been the type of “I am your father” reveal he wanted, considering the original Star Wars trilogy was one of DeBlois’ inspirations for finishing up the franchise on his own...

There still is a way to link Toothless’ plight, Grimmel’s motive, and Hiccup’s journey to the first movie, and make the “How to Train Your Dragon” franchise into a Proper Movie Trilogy.

Right now at the time of this recording, you can only stream How to Train Your Dragon 2 on Netflix. How to Train Your Dragon, and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World are only available to digitally rent

But if you want to purchase the movies and help financially support the channel, I’ll have affiliate links available in the description down below

So with that being said Readers, your homework assignment for the day:

Write in the comment section below what you thought of the “How to Train Your Dragon” trilogy if you’ve seen it.

Or, if you feel like sharing with the rest of the class, which trilogy from Dreamworks animation I should cover next

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But until then, this is Readus 101. Class dismissed.