The first two How to Train Your Dragon films have long been regarded as greats of 3D animation.
(Problem with magnet links are fixed by upgrading your torrent client!) How.to.Train.Your.Dragon.The.Hidden.World.2019.1080p.BluRay.x264.AC3-RPG When Hiccup discovers Toothless isn't the only Night Fury, he must seek 'The Hidden World', a secret Dragon Utopia before a hired tyrant named Grimmel finds it first. 방영중 4K 드래곤 길들이기 2 How To Train Your Dragon - 2 2014.Multi.2160p.UHD.Blur 페이지 정보 작성자 토렌트이슈 댓글 0건 조회 1,808회 작성일 19-01-13 00:13.
Not only were these Dreamworks animated movies competitors to Pixar at the Oscars, they also introduced the best kid-friendly dragon since Pete's fire-breathing friend. How to Train Your Dragon introduced us to the puppy-like adorableness of Toothless, the innocent young dragon who melts hearts without breathing a single flame.
More than in past films, Toothless is at the core of The Hidden World, director Dean DeBlois' final entry to the trilogy that kicked off in 2010. Toothless is still best buds with Hiccup the Viking, the boy hero of the earlier films now grown to adulthood, but now they must come to terms with a dangerous world where a long-term solution for peace is at stake.
DeBlois and his team succeed in almost every way possible. Continuing a series-long focus on family and love, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World narrows on what those values mean for Toothless. He experiences romance. He grows up. And with heavy, satisfied hearts, we let him, and Hiccup, go.
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World soared into US theaters Friday.
One year on from the defeat of king dragon-trapper Drago, Chief Hiccup (an ever crackly voiced Jay Baruchel) has transformed his Viking village into the world's first dragon utopia. The sight of his home Berk brings Hogwarts-levels of awe, its green cliff-side layered with wooden nests that spit out colourful dragons by the second.
Hiccup, his friends and his mother Valka (Cate Blanchett) have formed a hodgepodge band of dragon rescuers. They attempt a stealth mission on one of the trapper barges in the surrounding sea, where they unexpectedly encounter a Light Fury, a rare glittery dragon close to Toothless' kind.
This gives way to the best scene of the film. Toothless attempts a courting ritual, spurred on by Hiccup hidden in the shrubbery. If it was possible to love a 3D-animated creature any further, Toothless proves it. As he tries to win over the Light Fury, he hops, dances, frowns and overexerts himself to hilarious, endearing effect.
More serious themes test man and dragon's relationship. While Toothless grapples with the call of the wild, Chief Hiccup must make the big adult decisions commensurate with his royal status. Marriage to girlfriend Astrid (America Ferrera) is in the cards and Berk faces an overpopulation problem, forcing Hiccup to consider searching for and moving to the Hidden World, the mythical home of the dragons.
Making matters worse is Grimmel the Grizzly, the cleverest dragon trapper of the lot, whose tricks are a welcome change from big boss battles. Grimmel, voiced with eloquent aplomb by F. Murray Abraham, brings Hiccup's self-confidence to its lowest.
Enter Astrid. While her constant support of Hiccup is necessary for his growth, she sees little character development of her own. Flawlessly tough, she's underserved throughout the series.
The How to Train Your Dragon films have never shied away from darker themes of pacifism, complex family relationships and discrimination. These notes will soar over little ones' heads, and the exhilarating dragon battles threaten frightening levels of violence.
Yet the films counter those shadows at every turn. Rambunctious Vikings and their goofy dragons keep the hijinks and one-liners coming. Cast members Kristen Wiig, T.J. Miller, Craig Ferguson and Jonah Hill all have their moments to shine.
There's no greater gift than love, we're constantly told in Viking land, and it's never more powerful than here. Hiccup and Toothless have parallel journeys: They fall in love and learn the sacrifices required to lead their people. They grow in years and maturity over the smartly paced trilogy. With notes of Toy Story 3's poignant ending, their milestones well and truly hit home.
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is a near perfect trilogy ender, safely landing an occasionally kid-unfriendly dragon ride. A story about a boy and his best friend, its timeless values are delivered with spadefuls of wit and epic adventure. After three brilliant rides, we bid farewell to one of the best film trilogies of all time.
The FilmAfter a slightly labored opening scene, the final film in Dreamworks’ How To Train Your Dragon trilogy turns out to also be the best.
The charm, wit, likeable characters, gorgeously rich animation and surprisingly emotional portrayals of affection and loss between friends and family that made the previous two films so appealing are revisited and refined in The Hidden World without the results feeling forced or manipulative.
The story is simple but satisfying, too, despite a slightly anaemic baddie. And while I missed the moments of surprising darkness that creep into the second film, there’s none of that staleness or sense of formula fatigue that’s crept into the Despicable Me/Minions movies.
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The Film
After a slightly labored opening scene, the final film in Dreamworks’ How To Train Your Dragon trilogy turns out to also be the best.
The charm, wit, likeable characters, gorgeously rich animation and surprisingly emotional portrayals of affection and loss between friends and family that made the previous two films so appealing are revisited and refined in The Hidden World without the results feeling forced or manipulative.
The story is simple but satisfying, too, despite a slightly anaemic baddie. And while I missed the moments of surprising darkness that creep into the second film, there’s none of that staleness or sense of formula fatigue that’s crept into the Despicable Me/Minions movies.
Shots like this look almost photo real. Which is a bit disconcerting, to be honest.
Photo: How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Dreamworks/UniversalGiven that I can easily imagine this becoming one of those films young children insist on playing on loop, it’s a huge relief to find plenty for adults to enjoy too. Especially if the adults also happen to be AV fans able to lap up The Hidden World’s unexpectedly lovely 4K Blu-ray picture quality.
Release details
Studio: Dreamworks/Universal
What you get: Region A/B/C Blu-ray, all-region UHD Blu-ray, region locked Movies Anywhere code (in the US)
Extra Features: Commentary featuring the director, producer and head character animator; five deleted scenes; alternate opening; numerous featurettes on the animation, voice acting and story-writing processes
Best Soundtrack Option: Dolby Atmos
Video Options: HDR10
Key kit used for this review: Oppo UDP-205 4K Blu-ray player, Samsung QN65Q90R TV, Sony 65A9F OLED TV, Panasonic UB820 4K Blu-ray player
Picture quality
As usual with animation, The Hidden World doesn’t appear to contain any true 4K DNA. Certainly it was only granted a 2K digital intermediate for its cinema release, which presumably forms the basis of this 4K Blu-ray. It did appear in 70mm in IMAX theaters courtesy of a ‘DMR Blow Up’, but I’m pretty certain that blow up hasn’t been used here.
That doesn’t stop the 4K Blu-ray picture, though, from delivering a really lovely improvement over the also good HD, standard dynamic range image.
Fire looks much more, well, fiery on the 4K Blu-ray.
Photo: How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Dreamworks/UniversalThe addition of high dynamic range and wide color support is particularly effective. This makes an impact right from the off, as Hiccup’s flaming sword glows spectacularly against the grey mist on the dragon trappers’ boat. It’s also spectacular during the fights with Grimmel’s flame throwing and green vomit spewing dragons. But in truth the 4K BD version’s expansion of the film’s color and light elements has at least some impact on essentially every frame.
Also much more eye-catching on the 4K Blu-ray are the film’s daylight exterior shots. Some of these, such as the shot of all the dragons flying off in search of the hidden dragon world, look nothing short of sensational thanks to the luminous extra brightness of the blue skies and sun-touched clouds. The phenomenally intense and beautifully precise reflections of sunlight on the dragons’ scales and the rippling waves of the ocean are a sight for sore eyes in these sorts of shot, too.
Some of these daytime sequences feel like you’re looking through a window rather than watching an animated films. Which is actually a bit disconcerting when what you’re seeing through the window is hundreds of dragons being ridden by vikings.
While The Hidden World transfer pushes its bright sequences pretty hard, though, it’s not only interested in the extra brightness HDR can deliver. It also provides welcome extra richness in dark scenes, with deeper blacks and more subtle shadow detailing.
Despite being made in 2K, the upscale on the 4K Blu-ray delivers some at times startling amounts of detail.
Photo: How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Dreamworks/UniversalThe extremely local nature of some of its HDR effects is striking as well - things like the small sparkles on the Light Fury’s scales, the way reflected light brings out the fine texture in the characters’ armor, or the way individual strands of Astrid’s blonde hair catch the sun in the sequence where Toothless gets a new fireproof tail.
This sense of almost pixel level attention to HDR detail makes the film’s countless dragons feel much more real, thanks to the way it brings out more texture and finer color definition in their skin and scales.
While The Hidden World is not consistently the sharpest, most detailed 4K Blu-ray we’ve seen, it is often hard to believe that it’s an upscale from a 2K source. Most shots look at least a bit cleaner and more refined than they do on the HD Blu-ray, and at times (especially during close up shots of the dragons or characters, or scenes involving grassy forests or sandy beaches) the level of detailing is uncanny for an animated film.
It probably does no harm in this respect that Universal has used a BD100 disc for The Hidden World’s 4K BD release, giving the transfer room to routinely hit transfer rates above 75Mbps, as well as regularly peaking at well above 90Mbps for the most visually dense shots.
Awww. Dragon love is a beautiful thing.
Photo: How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Dreamworks/UniversalIt’s a pity, I guess, that the disc carries no Dolby Vision or HDR10+ dynamic HDR support. Note, too, that the transfer makes such surprisingly bold use of the 4K Blu-ray format’s charms that it will likely prove a challenge for some of the less capable HDR-capable TVs out there. But in a way this second point is a strength of the transfer work rather than a weakness.
Sound quality
The HD and 4K Blu-rays both carry a Dolby Atmos mix. This isn’t quite as memorably outstanding as the 4K Blu-ray’s picture quality; it doesn’t push the extremes or subtle detailing as much as the finest mixes do.
That’s not to say, though, that there’s any sense of the sort of Atmos range compression we’ve heard with some Disney 4K Blu-ray releases, though. The mix is also immersive, clean, and shifts through plenty of gears during the film’s run time. It also makes good use of all the Atmos channels, including the height ones, for both specific effects and transitions, and generating an appropriate sense of space. Certainly this is as close as you’re likely ever going to get to feeling like you’re flying on the back of a dragon.
Extra features
Universal/Dreamworks has put together a surprisingly extensive package of extras for its How To Train Your Dragon finale. Despite this, they’re all, pleasingly, found on the 4K Blu-ray as well as the provided HD disc.
The wider color and HDR of the 4K Blu-ray really brings the beautifully animated dragons to life.
Photo: How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Dreamworks/UniversalThe most substantial supplement is a feature-length commentary track by writer/director Dean DeBlois, producer Brad Lewis, and head of character animation, Simon Otto. This is a bit dry for kids and a bit basic for film buffs, though, so I’m not convinced it’s really worth 100 minutes of your time.
The rest of the extras kick off with a pair of strong animated short films - each very different in its tone and style, but both memorable and engaging.
Following that is an alternative opening scene and a series of five deleted scenes, all available with optional introductions by writer/director Dean DeBlois. These are interesting for both the extra story nuances they show, and for what they reveal about the animation process thanks to the way they’re presented at different stages of animation, from rough but fully colored frames to hand drawn black and white sketches.
How To Voice Your Viking, meanwhile, is a fun but short collection of clips of the film’s voice actors doing their stuff, while the slightly more substantial Creating An Epic Dragon Tale featurette is a solid look at the film’s approach to story and design.
The How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World 4K Blu-ray box art.
Photo: How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Dreamworks/UniversalUp next is How I Learned From Dragons, in which the voice actors discuss their creation of the film’s memorable characters, and how playing them for 10 years has affected their lives and impacted their voice-over work on the latest film.
Following that, a couple of videos show how the filmmakers used observations of real flying and land animals to create the animations for the various dragons. Notwithstanding rather awkward hosting by Coyote Peterson from the YouTube Brave Wilderness channel, these are two of the most interesting extras. Especially for kids.
Things take a more amusing turn with the Dragon Sheep Chronicles: a pair of short animations featuring Hiccup discussing ways to try and stop dragons eating sheep and the sheep themselves trying to figure out how to avoid becoming dragon snacks.
A Deck Of Dragons entertainingly presents the four new dragons introduced by The Hidden World in the format of Fishlegs’ dragon-based Top Trumps card game.
Growing Up With Dragons talks about the reasons the trilogy appeals to children so much, and things are wrapped up by a 60-second montage of Astrid’s ‘journey’ through the three movies and a series of featurettes on the animation process, covering the evolution of the character and dragon design; the Hidden World’s new villain; and the design of New Berk.
Verdict
The Hidden World brings the How To Train Your Dragon trilogy to a satisfying conclusion thoroughly deserving of the lovingly crafted images it benefits from on its 4K Blu-ray release.
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