When it comes to animation it’s fairly impressive when a film franchise outside of Pixar manages to be perfectly acceptable entertainment. It’s rare, as usually a quality first film in a franchise spells certain doom for a sequel, but How to Train Your Dragon has managed to complete a trilogy outside of Pixar with a good finale: The Hidden World.
When we catch up with Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) he’s developing a human/dragon utopia that’s overloaded with rescue dragons. When a famed dragon hunter vows to wipe them out, and a female version of Hiccup’s dragon is discovered, Hiccup has to defeat him while trying to find the mythicized hidden world where dragons can exist without humanity hunting them down.
It’s a children’s film, so you’re not going to expect anything brilliant, and this is a solid if unremarkable film and finale that signals one thing: the franchise has run out of momentum. It’s hard to continue to sustain a narrative after three films, a series of shorts and a number of television series all around the same universe.
There’s a number of interesting features included, from a pair of shorts that are worth viewing as well as the usual EPK pieces.
Dreamsworks presents How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. Written and Directed by Dean DeBlois based on the book series by Cressida Cowell. Starring Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, F. Murray Abraham, Cate Blanchett, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, Jonah Hill, Kristen Wiig, Christopher Mintz-Plasse. Run Time: 104 minutes Rated PG. Released on DVD: 5.21.2019
