Film Review: How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

08:45 February 27, 2019
By: David Vicari

The How to Train Your Dragon saga is a series of films that just keeps getting better and better. This third outing, subtitled The Hidden World, is one of the most beautiful looking computer-animated films I have ever seen. It really pays to have the great cinematographer Roger Deakins (FargoBlade Runner 2049) as your visual consultant. So, The Hidden World is great to look at, but it has a good story going for it as well. 

Hiccup (voice of Jay Baruchel) is now the leader of his Viking tribe, and they spend much of their time rescuing enslaved dragons. It comes as a surprise when Hiccup's dragon, Toothless, finds a Night Fury like himself, and a female Night Fury at that. So, Toothless is in love as both Hiccup and Astrid (voice of America Ferrera) try avoiding that whole marriage thing.  However, all is not sunny bliss, as a hired dragon hunter, Grimmel (F. Murray Abraham), is set on finishing off the last of the Night Furies. Hiccup realizes that the only hope for the dragons is to find a fabled dragon utopia.

This closing chapter of the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy is just as exciting, fresh and emotional as the first two. We see Hiccup grow into a wise man, and Grimmel is such a formidable villain that you really feel that a lot is at stake. 

And yes, The Hidden World is a visual wonder, like when Toothless goes on a date with his Night Fury girlfriend and they fly through dark storm clouds. Or when Hiccup is painting Toothless' prosthetic tail fin, you can see Hiccup's blurred reflection in the paint. And the eye-popping colors of the hidden dragon world is a sight to behold. 

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is a movie you need to see in a theater and catch it in 3D if you can. 


*** ½ out of four

Sign Up!

FOR THE INSIDE SCOOP ON DINING, MUSIC, ENTERTAINMENT, THE ARTS & MORE!