Further Criticisms of The Hidden World

The following is a list of various minor and major criticisms from throughout the internet. Please bear in mind that these are gathered from multiple sources, including the comments of the first chapter, and therefore don't necessarily all reflect my/our own views.

Aesthetic and technical choices:

(1) It has an overprocessed, airbrushed look. Surfaces are far too shiny. The characters look like they were dipped in grease considering the ridiculous amount of reflections. The character models are textureless and look like animated dolls.

(2) Poorer cinematography. Fewer breathtaking shots compared to HTTYD2.

(3) The Light Fury design is overtly feminized, in a bad way. The most egregious examples are glitter, a tailfin shaped like a heart, and her sounds. This is not in vogue with the times. Compare to modern female characters like Wyldstyle in the LEGO movies or Shank in Ralph Breaks the Internet, who clearly evoke femininity without being girly girls.

(4) The music is excellent as a standalone soundtrack, but there's too little usage of HTTYD motifs to indicate that it's a HTTYD film.

(5) No TJ Miller!

Characters:

(1) Toothless has regressed. All his development regarding how his bond with Hiccup overcomes any natural instinct has been thrown out the window. Actual Toothless: pissed off at Light Fury attacking Hiccup. The Light Fury needs to gradually earn his trust and respect. Imposter Toothless: concerns about Hiccup's well-being vanishes the moment he sees the Light Fury. Hardly any development on how he struggles with moving on from Hiccup. No visits after he leaves. He is an unequal partner in their friendship. He is not a good leader, negotiating with a terrorist to send hundreds of dragons away to their enslavement or death.

(2) Hiccup has become his parents. He doesn't find an alternative way and thinks that people cannot change. The quirky, unconventional Hiccup has been erased. Hiccup has never been a bad leader. He managed to successfully lead an attack on the nest, reworked the village to be able to live with dragons, led his friends in both battles with Drago, rebuilt the village after HTTYD2, and many, many more examples if the TV series and comics are taken as canon. Why is he still beating himself over about this?

(3) Grimmel's numerous failures underplay the threat he is to Berk. Drago, in comparison, is an unstoppable force until the very end.

(4) Astrid: borderline on creating a toxic relationship. A friendship should not interfere with her relationship with Hiccup, and it never had before. She should accept Hiccup for what he is, not manipulate him into being what she wants him to be.

(5) Snotlout/Valka. No. Just no.

(6) The gang: they were nowhere near as incompetent in previous films. Consider their teamwork in the Red Death or Bewilderbeast battles. It's clear they've been rescuing dragons since then. There's no excuse for them being so inept this time around.

(7) The dragons: no reason for them to be so aggressive in the Hidden World. Captured dragons that have been rescued are not like that. It undermines their portrayal as pure, innocent beings that humans don't deserve, and robs Toothless of a chance to prove to the viewers he still remembers Hiccup without Hiccup having to show up in front of him.

(8) The epilogue implies that Hiccup and Astrid are making bad parenting choices, by giving their children an amazing experience (meeting dragons, flying) even though this is just giving them a taste of something they can never have.

Writing:

(1) Snotlout and the twins were beyond irritating and wasted precious screen time throwing off the pacing.

(2) Ambush scene in Hiccup's house. Hiccup risked Fishleg's life and did not take the right measures to capture Grimmel. Grimmel, for a supposedly intelligent villain walked right into a trap.

(3) Ruffnut's stupidity, and the rest of them for not noticing her absence, should not be used to drive the plot. Grimmel would be more intimidating if he could figure out where Berk went on his own.

(4) The fleet consists of speedboats apparently as they arrived the moment Ruffnut showed up. At the same time, Hiccup, Toothless, and the Light Fury all show up at the same spot, when they were in completely different locations all throughout the movie. How convenient for Grimmel, being so intelligent and cunning he can shape time and space itself to suit his own needs instead of relying on a clever plan!

(5) No one took any precautions about being followed. Valka warned them that they were.

(6) Deathgripper venom does whatever the plot demands at arbitrary dosages.

(7) Grimmel's claims that he has hunted all the Night Furies are unbelievable. His knowledge of them is questionable, as he is unaware of Toothless and thinks they can't stand the cold. Somehow every single last one left the Hidden World. Since they apparently mate for life, his bait won't work on Furies that have already mated.

(8) Toothless's power escalation is ridiculous.

(9) There's no way his tailfin will last long in the saltwater environment of Hidden World. These facts have already been established: tailfins, real or artificial, break. Night fury scales are not infallible, because they shed and scar.

(10) Is New Berk impenetrable or not? If it is, there is no reason to send the dragons away, because no one will be able to get to them. If it isn't, then New Berk is in danger, because they know what happened to the dragons and therefore are a target. In fact, the island is shown to be all but completely inaccessible by ship, and any place that is accessible could be defended.

(11) Why are Hiccup and Toothless deciding for everyone? No one has any input or puts up any resistance.

Themes:

(1) Humans don't deserve dragons is a ridiculous notion. By that view, we don't deserve dogs, birds, any animal, the land that we live in that was undoubtedly fought for and stolen from others, whatever. A movie about how all dogs disappeared from the world won't fly with the public. The question should not be about what we deserve, rather, we live in this reality and share it with others - how can we make the best of it?

(2) Does Berk deserve dragons? The dragons won't make an exception for Berk, and welcome the humans like the humans did for the dragons.

(3) The Hidden World is not a better place for dragons than the free and open skies and massive expanse of the seas. It is house arrest in a mansion. Not freedom.

(4) The environmental themes are confusing. Conservation doesn't involve uprooting animals from their current habitat, which results in numerous ecological issues.

(5) The situation in the HTTYD is considerably different from the films the director was inspired from. In Born Free, for example, a lion cub was taken out of its natural environment, away from its kind, into an unfamiliar human environment. In HTTYD, the dragons live on islands as they've always had, free to come and go as they wish and live with their own kind. A new "wild" had to be created for them in the form of the Hidden World and it fails to be convincing as a more suitable environment for them than what they already have.

(6) Resolving the conflict by separating dragons and humans is disturbing in its implications. It implies that segregation is a valid strategy, and presents an option that is impossible and inapplicable in real life.

(7) Problems don't go away by hiding them. Valka already tried that in the 2nd film. Problems are solved by addressing them head on. That's how life works.

(8) The dependency/independency themes are muddled. Hiccup needs to be independent, except when he shouldn't and needs to rely on his friends more.

(9) Suggesting they're too dependent on their dragons is as strange as saying Vikings are too dependent on their ships or hunters are too dependent on their dogs.

(10) The idea that friendships are expected to be fleeting compared to romantic relationships is a sad reflection on the current state of society. The first two films are a celebration of the platonic friendship, a breath of fresh air amidst the prevalence of Disney romances plaguing animated films. No one has issues with the idea that romantic love should be lifelong and surpass any barrier thrown at it, which is clearly expressed in HTTYD3, but switch that around to friendship and it suddenly becomes a crutch, an obstacle to personal development. That's not a healthy way to understand what a friend is for. We are all worse off by preserving this attitude and it's sad this film doesn't subvert this trope.

(11) It's unnecessary. Gift of the Night Fury already encompasses the same themes of sacrifice and letting go, and does it better by showing actual mourning and having both Hiccup and Toothless sacrifice for the other.