neselo

Dragons: The Nine Realms (2021)

Rescue Riders sequel over HTTYD.

As a sequel to the How To Train Your Dragon series, it's a let down, but as a theme successor to Rescue Riders it's quite enjoyable (and makes particular sense when you consider it's the same creators). If you think of Rescue Riders as suitable for age 5-7, I would put this as 7-10 being the target audience with higher stakes and bigger risks. At a series aimed for younger kids it was never going to live up to the HTTYD core franchise. It can't have the level of grit or stakes to support a G rating.

It takes more than 6 episodes to get the core team together which is probably longer than most peoples patience is interested in. As far as social themes, it is progressive without blasting a fanfare about it (D'Angleo's mum is in a wheelchair, Alex has two mums) but still seems to fall into character tropes. Diversity seems to be tackled as an approach to have a cultural connection to Dragon myths and legends around the world.

It's a good choice if you feel that your kids are still too young for the confrontation and strong themes of loss in the HTTYD trilogy, but too old for the simplicity of rescue riders.