Toothless and the rest of the dragons of Berk return for a third and final installment of adventure and action and even a bit of romance. Here’s my How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World Review. The film is slated for release Feb. 20 from United International Pictures Philippines.

The third film is released locally by United International Pictures, and is directed by Dean DeBlois.

The film brings back main protagonist Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) , now the new chief of Berk after the events of the last film. An old conflict is reintroduced with Berk’s old enemies, the dragon trappers getting fed up with all the Berkian’s activities. They bring in the one man who killed all the Night Fury, Grimmel (F. Murray Abraham). And now Grimmel has been set on Hiccup and Berk together with a surprise, a Light Fury. A female Light Fury, who Toothless has fallen in love with.

The movie for me felt strong. It finished strong and it gave something that fans of the franchise wanted. Some form of closure for Hiccup, Berk and the dragons. The problem I had though is that it felt unnecessary. They could have found other ways to end their problems and yet, they force themselves to do what Hiccup think is best for everybody. But then again, it still made for some engaging story.

I have to say for this How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World review that the visuals are once again raised a bit higher. They were able to make things more beautiful compared to the last movie. That I really appreciated. They also made it possible to bring as much vikings and as much dragons in one scene. Imagine how hard it was to animate all that.

The key focus of this though is Toothless and him finding love. Did he find love? yes. Was it bitter sweet for audiences? Yes. But that is love. No matter how you love someone or something, there will come a time where you need to set them free.

So while the message that The Hidden World is giving is solid, I still feel like it could have done more or could have changed. But the finish product still kicks hard in the gut and is a good way to finish the story.

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World Review – Verdict

9/10

“The Hidden World” was a lot of fun and contained a lot of epic scenes. It’s got a good twist to end the story and will most likely be the second best “How to Train Your Dragon” movie. Maybe the third in the franchise. It had a lot of moments where you kinda just dismiss everything and a few cringeworthy moments too like that rivalry over Hiccup’s mom. That was… ummm… yeah. Still, the dragons were beautiful, the message was fantastic and the action was insane.

Special thanks to UIP-Philippines for the invite!