How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)

[Jake Lipson]

Title: How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)

Tagline: The friendship of a lifetime

Genre: Animation, Family, Adventure

Director: Dean DeBlois

Cast: Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, F. Murray Abraham, Cate Blanchett, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kristen Wiig, Kit Harington, Justin Rupple, Robin Atkin Downes, Kieron Elliott, Julia Emelin, Gideon Emery, Ashley Jensen, AJ Kane, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, James Sie, David Tennant

Release: 2019-01-23

Plot: As Hiccup fulfills his dream of creating a peaceful dragon utopia, Toothless’ discovery of an untamed, elusive mate draws the Night Fury away. When danger mounts at home and Hiccup’s reign as village chief is tested, both dragon and rider must make impossible decisions to save their kind.

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is the much-anticipated culmination of one of the most beloved animated film franchises in history. As Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) fulfills his dream of creating a peaceful dragon utopia, Toothless’ discovery of an untamed, elusive mate draws the Night Fury away. When danger mounts at home and Hiccup’s reign as chief is tested, both dragon and rider must make impossible decisions to save their kind.

I find it interesting that they've chosen to go with a subtitle this time, since the first sequel was simply "How to Train Your Dragon 2" without a subtitle, so it didn't really occur to me that there would be one this time. But, cool.

Release date is set for March 1, 2019. It's been delayed a couple times before, but I'm glad this movie appears to be on course to keep this release date, since I loved the first two and am really looking forward to seeing these characters again and seeing how the filmmakers wrap up the story.

 

[Sam Posten]

I find it interesting that they've chosen to go with a subtitle this time,

Jake, OK if I fix the thread title?

 

[Malcolm R]

Looking forward to this one. The first two were beautifully animated, fun films. I've since bought both in 3D but have not yet watched them in that format. I'll have to do so before the new film comes out.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I think they have some terrific 3D - the flying sequences are especially well done.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Jake, OK if I fix the thread title?

Please do. My keyboard sometimes requires additional force on keys, and I didn't realize there was a typo in it until you mentioned it, as I had intended to type it correctly.

 

[Jake Lipson]

The Hollywood Reporter has a report from CinemaCon, where DreamWorks just showed the first footage from the movie:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/b...-train-your-dragon-3-1105726?facebook_2018425

 

[Jake Lipson]

Also, per the social media drop of the poster, the trailer will be released in one week, which is plenty early for a film not releasing until March, but I'm not complaining. I wonder what movie they'll attach it to this summer?

Since DreamWorks is owned by Universal now, maybe Jurassic World? Or there's always The Incredibles.

 

[Malcolm R]

Beautiful poster. If the film is like this, it should really pop in 3D.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I just noticed they're mentioning IMAX on the bottom of the poster.

The irony is this will probably only have IMAX for a week -- it's March 1 and Captain Marvel is March 8, and you know Disney is booking that into IMAX given their long relationship with IMAX on Marvel titles.

 

[Malcolm R]

I just noticed they're mentioning IMAX on the bottom of the poster.

The irony is this will probably only have IMAX for a week -- it's March 1 and Captain Marvel is March 8, and you know Disney is booking that into IMAX given their long relationship with IMAX on Marvel titles.

The poster also just says "Next Spring," so maybe their actual release date is still TBD.

 

[Jake Lipson]

It's on the release schedule for March 1 and has been for the last couple of years.

They could always move it. But I doubt it.

 

[Malcolm R]

I think they'd be better off moving it up a week to Feb 22, especially as you said if they want longer on IMAX screens. Though Universal already has a release on that date, it's not really crowded and both are geared toward adults:

Feb 22, 2019
Rhythm Section - Action Thriller Paramount Wide
The Turning - Thriller Universal Wide

On the other hand, their poster does say "Next Spring" and spring does not technically begin until around March 20-something, so maybe they're contemplating pushing it back to the end of the month or into April? There's not currently anything scheduled for release on March 22, 2019, though there is another Paramount animated film, Wonder Park, the week prior and Disney's live-action Dumbo the week after.

The first film was released on 3/26.

 

[Jake Lipson]

"Spring" and "summer" are relative terms in terms of box office. The "summer" calendar, in terms of movie releases, is generally considered by studios to stretch from the first weekend of May through Labor Day (and this year "summer" got extended by a week because Infinity War moved up.) So while you're technically right about spring being March 20something, I don't think Hollywood really thinks that way.

I think they'll leave it where it is. Dumbo is likely to be more competition than they want. The Lego Movie 2 comes out in mid-February, but will have ceased dominance by March 1, giving them a nice little window there before Dumbo opens. The Paramount Animation film shouldn't be a huge concern, since those rarely do much business unless they're SpongeBob.

Also, it's worth noting that the first film was released by Paramount, so this will be Universal's first time marketing and releasing this franchise. Actually, each film in the trilogy will have gone out under a different distributor. The films have taken so long to come together that DreamWorks' distribution agreements expired before a single studio could release more than one. Paramount had the first one, 20th Century Fox had the second (including their logo in front of the DreamWorks one) and Universal will have the third since they own DWA now. But the distribution history of this series certainly reflects that DWA has been bouncing its distribution around Hollywood for some time. (They were at Universal before Paramount, too.)

 

[Jake Lipson]

USA Today has a good article with new pictures and plot details:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life...3-new-photos-reveal-toothless-love/665961002/

Some of what Dean DeBois says in the article would suggest that we may be in for a sad ending. That would certainly be a bold move for the filmmakers to make. I'm really curious and looking forward to seeing what they have in store.

 

[Jake Lipson]

 

[Jake Lipson]

 

[Jake Lipson]

I'm really not sure why they felt the need for the trailer needed to insert a pop song. I hope that's not in the movie, except maybe over the end credits. But otherwise I really like what the trailer is showing us, and I like the second poster even better than the first one. This does seem like they're heading in the direction of a sad ending. If they earn it, I'm on board with that, although it might not be what most people expect. But they have a history of making surprising and effective choices in this series, so that would be consistent with their previous efforts.

I really hope they can stick the landing on this trilogy. The first two are leaps and bounds above the rest of DreamWorks' catalog for me, and they've never actually made it to a good third movie before. Even Shrek, which was their golden boy for a long time, had two really good movies, dropped off a cliff with the third, and then made "It's a Wonderful Shrek" to conclude the series with a fourth movie where the whole point of the movie was to erase the events of the movie so that nothing much happened in it at all. I'll be really disappointed if Dragon can't stick the landing. But so far, what we've seen is promising.

Here's hoping.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Entertainment Weekly has a new article featuring comments by the filmmakers and new pictures: https://ew.com/movies/2018/09/14/how-train-your-dragon-3/

Also for the record

Jake, OK if I fix the thread title?

It turns out there really was a major problem with the E key (which is the letter I didn't type in the thread title originally that Sam had to fix.) A few months after starting this thread, both the plastic cover for the key, and the key itself underneath, literally fell off my keyboard and had to be replaced professionally by a local computer repair shop. No joke.

 

[Jake Lipson]

The official Facebook page says the release date has been moved up a week to February 22, 2019 (from March 1.) This is the first I'm seeing of this news, but since it came from an official source, I guess it's true.

Edit: Box Office Mojo is now confirming the release date shift. But in moving, Dragon is now coming out only two weeks after The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, instead of three weeks, and both will be going after the family audience. We'll see how that goes.

 

[Jake Lipson]

New trailer:



I'm still not digging the use of pop music in these trailers and hope that that's kept to the end credits only in the film proper, if they have to use it at all. But the rest of this looks great.