‘How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World’ | Film Review

There’s something about animated franchises coming to an end that’s usually sad. Knowing that most children have grown up with a number of movies that not only to see the adventures our favorite characters follow but the journey that follows through. We have waited five years for How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World to come out, and it will surely keep kids interested and hopefully adults who have a fondness for this series.

What’s the Story: Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) and his trusty dragon Toothless are still residing on the island of Berk where humans and dragons coexist. When a dragon hunter Gimmel (F. Murray Abraham) comes to hunt down the last of the Night Fury, Hiccup must find a way to search for “The Hidden World”, a place where dragons can live in peace. while along the way, Toothless has discovered a Light Fury and form a bond with each other.

Personally, I love the How to Train Your Dragon series. Why? Because it’s the one DreamWorks Animation franchise that gets better and it’s the most mature out of everything else. While the original explored this relationship between a boy and a dragon, its 2014 predecessor was even better when it went unexpectedly dark. Of course, I was pretty anticipating this, but with most franchises, they must come to an end. Seeing the close of Cressida Cowell’s adaptation might seem hard, but it just comes to show that How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is simply amazing.

First, you have to start off talking about how beautiful the animation is presented here because it never disappoints in the slightest. That’s the one thing that I’m always looking forward to each movie as it’s just too gorgeous the watch onscreen. The scope that’s shown during the action scenes or the flying sequences is really impressive knowing that writer-director Dean Deblois and the hard-working animation team are willing to give its audience the best experience. Realizing that Oscar-winning cinematographer Roger Deakins was a consultant on the film just makes sense.

Knowing the friendship between Hiccup and Toothless will still remain in tach more so in here. Their bond is special every time they have time together between films. The best thing about Hiccup is that he has the best character development I’ve seen in any animated movie. He progressively becomes a much smarter and wiser man when he becomes the chief of Berk after his father. But he still knows that he must protect all of the dragons at all cost.

But the best scenes involves Toothless and the Light Fury when it seems like it’s gonna spark up some kind of relationship between the two. One scene, in particular, is when Toothless is trying to impress her with a mating dance on the beach, and it was just funny. It’s really beautiful when the scenes involving them light up the mood in an instant second. Accompanied by John Powell’s mesmerizing score, it’s all visual storytelling to capture everything. The entire movie could be just that, and I’ll sit through it.

The Hidden World is also the funniest of the three. The others did provide some humorous moments, in here, there’s a ton of humor and I was laughing constantly when the time’s needed. There’s more screen time with the side characters, like Snotlout (Jonah Hill), Fishlegs (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), Ruffnut and Tuffnut (Kristen Wiig and Justin Rupple, replacing T.J. Miller). Like there’s a running gag about Snotlout hitting on Hiccup’s Mom, Valka (Cate Blanchett).

As for problems, I did find Gimmel one weak villain that never came off as threatening. His dragons were scary, but I never gave much thought to him whenever he appears. Just one note. Really reminds me that none of these movies needs an antagonist to fight against, to be honest. Besides that, the story doesn’t offer anything too new to the series that we’ve already seen before.

Everything comes at its core when the series wraps up in a way that feels emotionally complete. The heart comes into play a lot in each movie, and this is no exception. It was sad learning this would be the last movie, but it ended in a way that’s needed. And yes, it will make you tear up in the last 10 minutes.

Compared to the last two, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is the weakest out of the three, but it’s still a really great animated movie for all to enjoy. Safe to say this is the best-animated trilogy we ever had since Toy Story. Stunning animation, humor, great voice performances, and just a satisfying conclusion to a brilliant franchise that I’ll always remember.

Grade: A-