I truly feel that How to Train Your Dragon has been Dreamworks’ best franchise. The first two movies were amazing, and they showed a level of depth and growth that hasn’t been seen in many children’s movie franchises. I’ve been excited for the third movie for a long time, as it’s been announced as an end to what will be a trilogy for these movies. So, does the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy end on a satisfying note? Yes…mostly.

Taking place about a year after the second movie, Hiccup has now been the leader of his community for a little while, and he’s used this time to save even more dragons. The only problem is that his homeland is now becoming overcrowded with the dragons, leading to some of the residents becoming a little disgruntled. This overpopulation problem is also compounded with a new enemy coming to try and kill Toothless, and so Hiccup and his people must flee their land and find somewhere new. Hiccup recalls his father telling him a tale about a hidden land at the edge of the ocean that’s a home for the dragons that no one can reach. So, Hiccup decides to try and find the hidden world.

Let’s talk about the bad first, since I still do have much more good than bad to say about this movie. Okay, so basically the main problem here is simply that the first two How to Train Your Dragon movies brought such a high level of quality, and The Hidden World just isn’t quite on the same level. While the third act becomes amazing again, I’ll be honest that the story for a lot of the movie just isn’t as interesting as the first two movies. Again, it’s not bad, it just didn’t grip me in quite the same way I would have liked. After such a memorable villain in the second movie, I was also slightly disappointed in the villain here. Much like a lot of the story, he works, but he just isn’t as great as I was hoping for. The story itself just isn’t all there this time around.

With that being said, the main reason to still see the movie is its characters. If you’ve become invested in these characters over the course of the series, you’re going to want to see how their journeys end, and I have to say that it’s all very satisfying. I found this to be the case with both individual journeys and the relationships between characters. For example, after finishing the movie, I thought back on Hiccup’s arc over the course of the three movies, and it really was an incredible journey. In this movie, he struggles in his confidence as a leader, and he tends to think that without Toothless he’s not that impressive in his role. He has to overcome this personal struggle and become the man that his father wanted him to be.

The relationships between characters are also very tight too. The highlights are definitely between Hiccup and Toothless, as well as Hiccup and Astrid. With the latter, Hiccup and Astrid start to get deeper into their relationship, and so they have to kind of figure out where their relationship is going from here. They must realize what one brings out in the other, and how those strengths are really beneficial to both of them. Then, as far as Toothless is concerned, you’ve probably seen in promotional material that a female Night Fury (dubbed a “Light Fury”) has been discovered, and so Toothless begins to fall in love himself. Hiccup sees this and realizes that it might be time to let Toothless go. There’s a bit of a metaphor here in the form of a parent having trouble saying goodbye to their child, and these emotions are felt just as strongly in this relationship.

While some of the plot in the first two acts of the movie may not have blown me away as much as I would have liked, the third act definitely escalates things and becomes pretty incredible. I don’t want to spoil anything since this is the long-awaited conclusion to a trilogy, but I just want to mention that the ending is extremely well-done, and is likely going to satisfy fans who have been invested in these characters for a while. While the movie didn’t quite affect me on the same level as something like Toy Story 3, my girlfriend has been extremely invested in these movies, and so I turned and saw her crying her eyes out. Even mentioning the events of the ending after the movie was over made her cry again, and so the ending can definitely have a deep impact for fans of the series. I was extremely satisfied with how the movie closed the stories on these beloved characters.

Other than that, this movie is going to be exactly what you think it is. It carries over the tone of the previous movie very well, and continues the story in a mostly satisfying way. The animation is as beautiful as ever, and so there isn’t really anything else I need to talk up as much. In fact, chances are that if you’re interested in this movie to begin with, I don’t really need to do a whole lot to sell you on it. Most people that are going to watch this will be fans of the first two movies, and so if you are you’re probably planning on seeing it anyway. To all of those people, I will say that How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is unfortunately my least favorite movie of the trilogy because of a slightly uninteresting plot, but well-done character arcs and a very satisfying ending more than make up for it. If you’ve been a fan of this series, I definitely think this is a great movie, and that you owe it to yourself to see how it concludes.

4/5