Review of How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019) by Noahpfister — 27 Feb 2019

The How to Train Your Dragon franchise has been the black sheep of Dreamworks line up of movies. Where most of their films consist of pop culture references and toilet humor, HTTYD has souly relied on its characters, story, and music.

I remember seeing the first one in theatres when I was 12. It blew me away. I remember seeing the second one in theatres when I was 17. It blew me away. I have seen this one when it was pre-released on February 2, when I was 21.

How does this third and final movie cap off this trilogy? With. A. BANG. The Hidden World is the absolute perfect ending to a movie that I have ever seen. I sobbed -- LITERALLY SOBBED as the credits rolled.

No other movie has ever made me feel the way The Hidden World has made me feel. It is a perfect movie, or damn near it. Jay Barachel truly nails his role as Hiccup as does America Ferrera does with Astrid.

The story is beautifully told with fast paced beats and high stakes. Toothless himself gets a huge role in the movie and there are large portions where it's just HIM and the Light Fury. The villain is menecing and does prove to be the perfect villain to cap off the series being a sort of anti-Hiccup, or what Hiccup would have been if he killed Toothless.

The music by John Powell and the writing and directin of Dean DeBlois are what make this movie what it is...Well...that and the animation which is just skjfhvdkjfgfwkejhfsiurgkfhrudhvjrd. That's me trying to put the noises I made while gawking at the screen into words.

It's beautiful, is what I'm saying. The only downsides of the movie is that some of the characters we got to know in the last one don't get fleshed out more, the side characters we've been with since the beginning don't get much more to do development-wise, and the pacing can sometimes be an issue.

But these are MINOR nitpicks that won't affect or effect your overall viewing pleasure. I plan on watching this and watching it again, and again, and again, forever as this trilogy has proven to stand the test of time and filmmaking itself.

While I am happy to see thatwe got a great movie, I can't help but feel sad. The journey that I started nearly a decade ago has met its end. And the ride it took to get there...was worth it.