My Thoughts: HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD (2019)

In 2010, DreamWorks Animation released a film that would spawn a beloved franchise! Nine years later, that franchise would come to a close with the third film in the trilogy, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. Read on for my review of the film, but be warned that there will be spoilers!

Set a year after the events in How to Train Your Dragon 2, Hiccup, voiced again by Jay Baruchel, is getting used to his position as chief of Berk following the demise of his father. His main life mission seems to be rescuing dragons from dragon hunters with the help of his group of friends, including his love interest, Astrid, voiced by America Ferrera.

As more and more dragons get saved, Hiccup brings them back to live with him and his people on the island of Berk. This, however, leads to an overcrowding problem. Not to mention that a dragon hunter named Grimmel, voiced by F. Murray Abraham, has set his sights on Hiccup’s Night Fury, Toothless, with the intention of killing him.

These two plot points persuade Hiccup into finding a new land for his people and seeking the fabled Hidden World, a safe haven for dragons. Along the way, Hiccup must learn to trust himself and not rely solely on dragons.

While this is probably my least favorite of the trilogy, I still enjoyed it as all three of these films are generally good. It was nice to see Hiccup take on more leadership responsibilities in this as well as see him learn how to be a better leader.

I also was glad that Hiccup and Astrid FINALLY got married in this film! Every character in the movie was pushing for this marriage to happen, so it’s not just us shippers, lol! I’ve always loved Astrid’ character as she has always been a supporter and confidence booster of Hiccup! I feel seeing female characters as supporters of their male love interests is a rare sight these days, so I’m definitely grateful to see it being displayed in this franchise!

It was also sweet to see Toothless find love with a female Light Fury. The “controversy” that somehow erupted because the Light Fury was a female was just such a stupid one! I don’t even know how the heck that started in the first place!

The ending was a bit sad when Hiccup and his people released all the dragons, but it was a necessary one for them to realize that they need to believe in themselves. But at least it led to us seeing an older, bearded Hiccup…although hearing Jay Baruchel’s voice come out of that was super odd, lol!

I did have a few criticisms of the film though. A big one for me was the color scheme! There are many scenes in the film that take place in the dark of night, amidst a fog, or just in dull brown color palettes. This made it super difficult for me to be able to decipher what was going on. I understand that maybe it was intentional so as to give an aura of mystery, but it had me more confused than intrigued.

The story itself was also not that well-threshed out. Hiccup and his people find a new land rather quickly and the reason why they had to move in the first place didn’t seem that strong of a reason. Even the Hidden World was disappointing as it only appeared for like five minutes.

I also was disappointed at times with the villain. While Grimmel was a much better villain than Drago from the second film, he did lose some of my respect when he just let one of the characters whom he captured go. It wasn’t even that he was following the character to Hiccup’s new land as he seemed to already know where it was. He just let the character go, followed close behind, and then attacked. He could have easily just led a surprise attack without releasing his prisoner!

All in all though, the film ends the trilogy in a satisfactory manner! If you’ve seen the other two films already and love the characters, then definitely give this one a chance!