Throughout the years, How to Train your Dragon has perfected the story of “a boy and his dog” wait, I mean dragon, and taken it to a whole new level. It overcame the trope of the nerdy misunderstood outcast and has become a trophy among DreamWorks animation studios. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is the finale for the film franchise and literally tied the knot for the characters.

SPOILERS AHEAD

In the last movie, the father/chieftain Stoic died. The Hidden World picks up here. Hiccup, our grown-up John Krasinski look alike, is dealing with how to manage the pressure of being in charge. We are later introduced to the villain of the story, Grimmel the Grisly, who’s objective is to kill all the Night Furies. Meanwhile, the titular Night Fury, Toothless has fallen for the female equivalent but in the form of a Light Fury.

Hiccup wishes to find the Hidden World from what he remembers from the stories his father told him as a kid. He described this place as a safe haven for dragons. Grimmel worked for warlords before double crossing them to take all of Berk’s dragons. He uses the Light Fury to finally kill the last Night Fury. At the end, the villain is defeated and Hiccup realizes he wishes for all dragons to be free. All of Berk’s dragons are set free to live in the Hidden World. Years later, Hiccup and Astrid are married with children and meet again with Toothless and the Light Fury, who respectfully have mated and have baby dragons. Hiccup promises that the Berkians will guard the secret of Dragons until the world is ready.

The first movie set the stage for the characters and setting, while the second raised the stakes and introduced/took characters away. The final movie serves as a resolution to the franchise, but doesn’t deliver as the others have. It has the beautiful animation that the others have illustrated gorgeously, but uses it in smaller ways. Whether it was the clouds in the sky while flying or the sand when Toothless was dancing, the animation quality never faltered.

After leaving the theater, I was emotionally struck but not because what I saw was terribly sad, but because the story was ending. Sure, the parting of friends was bittersweet, but the finale could have been stronger if the stakes at hand were higher. The villain didn’t have any grand motivation other than the fact that he was evil. He was the least memorable out of all the movies.

To any hard core HTTYD fan, this movie emotionally wraps up everything that the franchise is all about: dragons and relationships. But to a regular movie watcher who doesn’t understand the depth of the main character and the dragon, this movie has some good animation, an excellent soundtrack and a cliché good-bye.

This movie is definitely worth your money. It serves as a faithful ending to the franchise but didn’t do anything to add to it either. It fulfills its role as the last movie and nothing more. But at the same time, is wonderfully cute to watch and you genuinely become invested even if the stakes are not worth it. When Toothless and Hiccup were together, it was at its best and had no equal to all relationships in the movie. It is incredibly endearing when focusing on the beauty of the dragons.