How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

Note: This review contains spoilers for How to Train Your Dragon 2 and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.

With the success of How to Train Your Dragon 2, it would be another five years before DreamWorks Animation would release the third, and currently final, installment, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. Due to real world circumstances, this film would also have a separate distributor from the previous two, this time Universal Pictures as opposed to Paramount Pictures or 20th Century Fox. Since the sequels to the original How to Train Your Dragon were written with a trilogy in mind, it made sense to finish watching the films and see how they concluded the story. Though the ending does deliver emotionally, the flight path has a bit of turbulence.

One year after Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) became chieftan, he and his fellow dragon-riders continue rescuing dragons and bringing them back to Berk, which now has an overpopulation problem. In response, Hiccup considers searching for the Hidden World, the mythical ancestral home of the dragons his late father Stoick (Gerard Butler) had spoken of. Meanwhile, a Light Fury is presented to Grimmel the Grisly (F. Murray Abraham), a dragon hunter who wishes to use her as bait to capture Toothless (Randy Thorn) for his own use an alpha.

The Hidden World more or less continues right where How to Train Your Dragon 2 left off and the passage of time is clearly evident regarding Berk and the ingenuity of the dragon-riders, which includes fireproof clothing made from dragon scales. Though not much of his role as chieftan is shown, it’s still evident that Hiccup feels stress over the demands of his position and is genuinely trying to help his village when he recognizes the issues with overpopulation and the coming threat of Grimmel the Grisly. His relationships with Astrid and Toothless are also explored well and help lead to an emotionally satisfying conclusion to the film trilogy, if not the franchise in general.

Hiccup's skills as a chieftan are put to the test;
Pictured: Toothless (Left; Randy Thorn), Hiccup (Right; Jay Baruchel)

Though the story has an admirable ambition, it hits some roadblocks during its journey to the ending. Grimmel the Grisly is a more interesting villain than Drago Bludvist, helped by F. Murray Abraham’s great performance as someone cold and calculating, and is presented as more or less the person Hiccup could have become if he had made a different choice during the original film. However, at least one of his biggest breakthroughs in finding Berk’s population comes from the mistakes of other characters. For example, when he holds Ruffnut (Kristen Wiig) prisoner, she eventually just tells him where New Berk generally is while annoying him with her rambling. He also uses a serum that controls dragons, but the effects of it are nebulous and exactly what the plot needs it to do at that moment rather than having any consistent rules.

Grimmel the Grisly (F. Murray Abraham) is an interesting villain.

As with the previous films, the side characters that compose the rest of the dragon-riders have barely any characterization. They have more screentime and are directly woven into the plot more, but still feel like they’re mostly there to round out the numbers. The Light Fury’s subplot is also pretty rocky, as the scenes featuring her romantic interest in Toothless and vice-verse, while entertaining, drag the film when they show up. Actually, I could feel time passing while watching the movie more than I did the previous entries due to a generally slower pace. Not helping is the repetition of general story beats from How to Train Your Dragon 2 and one story beat during the climax that all three films share.

On the other hand, the visuals are stunning and easily the film’s strongest point. Even denser dragon populations are spectacularly rendered and the world is presented very realistically, especially the fire, cloud and water effects. Whatever glimpse of the Hidden World the viewers have really stands out in this regard, including how the unique lighting affects the dragons flying through it (though its design does call to mind the “Hollow Earth” concept used prominently in Legendary’s MonsterVerse).

Dense dragon populations are impressively rendered.

If you’ve seen the other films in the trilogy, there’s no reason not to watch this film. It certainly won’t appeal to every How to Train Your Dragon fan, but it’s worth seeing it at least once to form your own opinion.