Review:
*Originally written February 4th, 2019*
I was very late to the game with the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, I'd initially dismissed the films as more generic kiddie crap, but when I actually watched them, I was surprised to learn these were some of the best animated films of the decade, rivalling even Disney and Pixar. I'll admit it took me a little while to warm to those first one, but I was instantly won over by the sequel.
What's surprised me is how long this final entry in the trilogy and franchise (For now) took to make. It has been five years since HTTYD2 came out, which is a shockingly long time for most sequels to get churned out. So I really appreciate they took their time and effort to perfect this finale and it really shows. It might go places you'd expect, but this is an extremely effective and emotional end to Toothless and Hiccups story.
We're once again given some of the most beautiful animation in recent history. Bursting with such insane attention to detail, creative and incredible creature and location designs. I absolutely loved every bit of animation on display here. Every scene just popped and sparkled to a degree I did not expect. I really can't wait to see this bad boy on 4K in the future.
The focus here is once again on Toothless and Hiccup as they search for a hidden world where the dragons can live in piece without the threat of humans hunting them, while at the same time they are hunted by a deranged hunter obsessed with killing Toothless (The last of his kind) and Toothless finds himself a love interest.
The way Toothless is brought to life on screen is so easy to make you love him and care about his relationship with Hiccup, he's just so damn adorable. Plus it's great to see how much Hiccup has changed throughout the series, I'd recently rewatched both the previous films in preparation for this and the character really has grown and matured. Turning from the embarrassing child obsessed with killing a dragon to a man trying to bring peace to his late father's land and live up to his legacy.
The real only gripe I have with this whole thing is the villain, who is just pretty bland and uninspired. He's just another bad guy evil for the sake of being evil and having very little in the way of motivation. There is at least some cool stuff in the form of him having a few controlled and evil dragons, leading to some insanely fun set-pieces that live up to some of the best this series has seen.
I'd also seen a lot of people calling this easily the worst of the trilogy, which is fair enough, but for me I found it easily the most engaging, emotional and fun to watch out the three. It might help that this is the only one of the trilogy I've actually seen in theatres, but this all popped for me. The final scene is pretty up there in terms of endings for kids films. You're probably a monster or dead inside if you felt nothing at the end of this.
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is a triumph in animated film making. A beautiful, insanely creative and touching, heartfelt end to the story of Toothless and Hiccup that we've been following for nearly a decade. I really hope they just let this series lie and stop here though. This was something special that I didn't see coming. It's only February and animated films have had a seriously high bar set for 2019.
9/10 Dans
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is out now in cinemas in the UK
Watch the trailer below:
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