How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

By James Davidson

“How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” is the final installment in the popular animated fantasy trilogy, “How to Train Your Dragon”. This movie follows the young, unlikely Viking leader, Hiccup, and his dragon, a Night Fury named Toothless; as they discover that Toothless is not the only Night Fury left as they previously thought. When they discover a female “Light Fury”, Hiccup tries to help Toothless court the new female dragon to become his mate. Meanwhile Hiccup must also keep his Viking clan, Berk, safe from the evil Dragon Hunters, who have hired a famous dragon killer named Grimmel to capture all of Berk’s dragons. In order to do this, he takes Toothless to search for a mythical, hidden dragon world.

I have seen all of the films in this trilogy and enjoyed the first two. I was looking forward to see how this one would turn out. My wife, on the other hand is a huge fan and has been counting down the days to when she could add a stuffed Light Fury to her stuffed Toothless. I was hoping that this film would be a great ending to a good series and the filmmakers wouldn’t try to leave it open ended to try to make more, unnecessary sequels.

The visuals in this film were amazingly beautiful. There were several scenes where Hiccup and Toothless discover the secret dragon land that looked incredible.The whole movie is very aesthetically pleasing. The art style has stayed the same through this entire trilogy, but this installment definitely outshines the rest.

As much as I enjoyed the art style, I think I enjoyed the plot and writing just as much. The characters in this trilogy are great and I love how they have all aged and I have gotten to watch them grow up from small children in the first film to adults and leaders in this film. I think that makes me have more of an emotional connection with the characters than if they hadn’t aged at all through the series.

I found the plot to be intriguing, it was very engaging and entertaining. Though it was predictable, it is such a great story that I didn’t mind that at all. The one issue I have is that as a stand alone movie, I don’t think this movie works well. If I had not seen the first two movies in this series, I would be somewhat lost as to what was going on.

This is a great ending to a fantastic trilogy. The ending wrapped the entire story up and gave the audience closure. There wasn’t any cliffhangers or loose storylines that might lead to an unnecessary sequel and I appreciated that.

“How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” is rated PG for adventure action and some mild crude humor. It’s great for all ages and all of the “How to Train Your Dragon” films are great family movies. The only problem is I wouldn’t recommend watching this one without seeing the others in the series because you might get a bit lost as to what is happening in the story and who certain characters are.

“How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” is an amazing end to a great trilogy. If you have seen the previous two parts, this installment is a must see. If you haven’t, I suggest that you see them before seeing this one. This film has amazing visuals and is very well-written; it is a great farewell to many beloved characters (my aforementioned wife had quite a few tears in her eyes at the end). It earns 4 out of 5 stars.