How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World Review - 5 Ups & 3 Downs

2. Grimmel Is A Mediocre Villain

How To Train Your Dragon The Hidden World Grimmel
Universal

The Hidden World's antagonist is Grimmel, a doggedly determined dragon hunter voiced by illustrious Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham, but despite Abraham's game performance, his baddie ends up coming off a bit flat.

Grimmel certainly has some interesting ideas, with his refusal to accept human-dragon co-existence dovetailing nicely into current real-world politics, but like so many villains in animated films, he ultimately feels like a huge afterthought.

He looks and sounds mean, but Grimmel spends huge stretches of the movie off-screen and doesn't ever become much more than a paint-by-numbers villain for Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) to vanquish.

Grimmel isn't bad by any means, but he could've been a truly mighty foe for Hiccup and Toothless with a more nuanced treatment. Instead, he's pretty one-note.

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