How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)
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How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World Movie Review
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is a 2019 animated fantasy film directed by Dean DeBlois and produced by DreamWorks Animation. It’s a beautiful conclusion to the trilogy.
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“There were dragons when I was a boy“
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‘How to Train Your Dragon’ is an absolute masterpiece of American animation and one of the best animated films ever created. ‘How to Train Your Dragon 2’ isn’t as amazing, but it’s still a great film in its own right and refreshingly much darker. I am happy to say that The Hidden World ends the trilogy on a high note and although it is still on the downward trajectory in terms of the overall quality, it’s still a terrific film when everything is taken into account.
Let’s first talk about the story and there is a lot to talk about here. A huge part of this film is Toothless’ relationship with the Light Fury who’s the only other surviving Night Fury in the world and a female fittingly enough. The bulk of this film consists of the courtship and the growing romance between the two and although some may consider that as filler, I personally adored it as it was refreshingly lighter than the rest of the movie (the whole movie is lighter than the previous film which I liked) and it was both very funny and immensely endearing.
That led to Hiccup feeling sad that his buddy chose another dragon over him. That is just one of Hiccup’s problems in this film. The others include him having to come up with another solution to be a hero without his dragon and also realizing that the dragons and the humans are just not yet fit to live together. That led to a lot of growth to his character who’s by far one of the most complex, stupendously written characters in the history of animation. He’s the moral center of the story once again and the embodiment of everything that is great about these movies.
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And yes, I absolutely adored the final half an hour or so of the film which was simply perfection to me. I am the kind of guy who finds the last impression in a movie the most important and nowhere is that more evidenced than in this flick which was clunky in some of the middle parts and weirdly edited for sure, but all of those minor flaws were rendered unimportant when that glorious finale arrived and thus the movie got another perfect rating from me and is, along with the newest ‘Planet of the Apes’ trilogy, the only perfectly rated franchise on my behalf. These two are truly the pinnacle of American blockbuster filmmaking.
But getting back to that ending, the entirety of it was literally a metaphor for dog suffering which affects me personally on a regular basis so obviously I connected with this film wholeheartedly. The dragons represent the dogs and the movie states that we do not deserve their loyalty and greatness. That was a powerful sentiment that rang so true and so close home to me that it was honestly deeply affecting.
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But just seeing the two say goodbye to each other was heartbreaking and I honestly did cry a bit during that sequence. Also, the rest of the finale is amazing too with that flash-forward being simply beautiful and witnessing Hiccup with his kids and Toothless with his offspring was so heartwarming. I just loved that the movie ended on this bittersweet note and it was a perfectly happy/sad finale to this glorious franchise and to me the best part of the trilogy lie in those last twenty or so minutes.
Let’s talk about some of the other characters too. So I loved the dragons and I found his love interest gorgeous and the two were adorable together. That flying scene between the two was stunningly realized. The other dragons are cool as well. I really liked Astrid and Hiccup’s romance as well and it was so well executed and quite sweet.
Valka definitely needed more screen time in my opinion as she was ridiculously shortchanged here, but the movie has a plethora of characters so not all of them could get too much to do, but everyone got some moment to shine here and there which I appreciated.
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I liked the poignant flashbacks with Stoick quite a bit and I just loved Ruffnut who surprisingly got a lot of screen time and deservedly so as she’s absolutely hilarious with every one of her lines being so amusing in their ridiculousness. Her grossness, stupidity and charisma make her a winning sidekick for sure. The others are also quite funny from time to time leading to what is by far the funniest entry in the franchise as it cracked me up quite a bit.
As for Grimmel the Grisly, I honestly really liked him myself and I cannot understand the criticism that he’s a weak villain. He’s not as amazing as Drago, that’s for sure, but still I loved how theatrical, badass and obviously extremely smart he was. I personally love that this franchise refreshingly for this age had a big villain in every one of its installments and the fact that this one is also a dragon hunter with the same motivation as the others only helped the movie further press on the point that humans are just too cruel towards animals and that the two species at least for now cannot co-exist.
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The movie again features absolutely gorgeous photorealistic animation and it’s the best that CGI animation has to offer in my book. The flight sequences continue to amaze me and the character designs are superb across the board and a lot of the imagery including the titular world is absolutely mesmerizing. In particular the water, the clouds, the fern and some of the interiors looked as real as they can possibly be.
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World also has a very strong score, albeit weaker than the previous ones. Yes, the pacing issues in the middle section are evident, but they’re not huge, just making the movie a bit rushed at times. But otherwise I loved both its grander and smaller moments, both the humor and the serious battles and both the emotional and the fantastical sequences. The voice acting is very good and the world building is reliably superb. It’s a perfect example of how to properly close the trilogy.
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Featuring breathtakingly photorealistic CGI animation, very strong voice acting, a superb depiction of animal suffering and much improved humor with Ruffnut being hilarious in her every line, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World has it all as it’s heartwarming, funny, epic and incredibly emotional in its final twenty or so minutes which are pure perfection and a textbook example of how to properly finish the franchise. It’s not as amazing as the first two entries having in mind that the pacing is tad clunky in some parts, but still it came awfully close as it offers us the full, complex and very powerful end to the journey of Toothless and Hiccup. The film’s perfectly bittersweet ending left a lasting impression on me and thus I am confident to say that this blockbuster franchise is, along with the new ‘Planet of the Apes’ trilogy, the greatest movie series of all time.
