How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World has come out bringing the story of Toothless and Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III (Jay Baruchel) to a dramatic close.
The first two How to Train Your Dragon films are fantastic so I was very excited for this one and, while I still prefer the other two films, this was a great way to end the trilogy, and director Dean DeBlois did a good job.
After becoming chief in the previous film, Hiccup is stuck with a lot of situations like the growing dragon population and people constantly encouraging him to marry Astrid (America Ferrera).
This is worsened by the appearance of feared dragon hunter Grimmel the Grisly (F. Murray Abraham) who is sent to capture Toothless.
All the while, a mysterious female Nightfury makes itself known to Toothless, starting a hilarious series of failed romantic attempts by him.
The animation and voice acting for The Hidden World are top notch with the stand outs being Baruchel and Ferrera, who have amazing chemistry.
Speaking of Baruchel as Hiccup, it is great after seeing this movie to look back on where he was at the beginning of the first How to Train Your Dragon.
His arc from beginning to end, across the three films, is fantastic and tied up nicely here, along with his relationship with Toothless and Astrid.
However, there are some things about The Hidden World that hold it back from being as good as the other two for me.
First, is the side characters, who have little to no arcs.
Worst of all is Tuffnut (Justin Rupple), Ruffnut (Kristen Wig), and Snotlout (Jonah Hill) who are unbearably annoying with their jokes never landed for me.
Finally, some of the events in the Hidden World do seem to just repeat various story beats seen in the previous two films.
Still, these flaws temporarily left my mind when I saw how great the ending is.
It is a fantastic way to conclude the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy, again, tying up the character arcs of Hiccup, Astrid and Toothless perfectly.
Despite a few flaws, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World concludes the series nicely and you should definitely check it out.
THE REVIEW MONSTER 