Short Summary is an original series in which I write brief reviews of movies, TV shows, video games, books, and more. Spoilers, for sure, as I’m going to be talking about all three HTTYD movies here.

Disney and Pixar rarely miss with their animated films, both in terms of their quality and box office returns. Illumination has seen rocketing box office success, but is largely derided for churning out average films. Studios such as Blue Sky Studios, Warner Bros Animation, and Sony Pictures Animation, among others, are all in the mix as well, some up-and-coming and some fighting to stay in the game. And Studio Ghibli remains far off in the distance, still rather inaccessible for most Western audiences.

Meanwhile, I’d say Dreamworks has experienced the biggest roller coaster of ups and downs critically and financially. The huge hits? The Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, and Madagascar franchises and all of their spinoffs. The smelly duds? Bee Movie, Shark Tale, and Monsters vs. Aliens, to name only a few.

I have my personal favorites. I love Prince of Egypt and The Road to El Dorado, and I really like Megamind, Rise of the Guardians, and Sinbad.

I bring all of this up because I think the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy is Dreamworks’ strongest offering, and The Hidden World is a fairly solid conclusion to the story.

I adored the first How to Train Your Dragon for more reasons than I can spell out here. I thought How to Train Your Dragon 2 was a great, if not a bit forgettable, sequel. And I feel like The Hidden World, while having its flaws of course, is a pretty good outing with the very difficult task of serving as the final chapter. In that regard, The Hidden World absolutely delivers. I’d be damned if I didn’t get choked up by the movie’s end.

The main cast is back, and Hiccup has fully become the new chieftain of Berk. The Hidden World takes place one year after the events of How to Train Your Dragon 2, and the Berkians have to deal with the ramifications of that movie, which feels like an organic and natural progression. The new villain is Grimmel the Grisly, who is similar to Drago Bludvist — and even mentions him by name —, but Grimmel isn’t just any dragon killer. Specifically, he’s The Night Fury Killer. So he’s after Hiccup and Toothless, and along the way, they discover a female Night Fury that also gets roped into everything. All the while, Hiccup is determined to find the Hidden World, a secret place Stoick always told him about when he was a child, and he’s convinced that the vikings and dragons of Berk will all finally be safe there.

I have my gripes with the movie, no doubt. They vary from certain plot points and in-universe retcons to relatively minor grievances with the side characters and subplots. Despite those, though, the crux of the trilogy has always been the friendship between Hiccup and Toothless, and The Hidden World pulls no punches. Yes, in How to Train Your Dragon 2, Toothless kills Stoick. But it was while Toothless was under the Alpha’s control, so Hiccup forgives him by the end of that movie. I feel like The Hidden World is the first movie to seriously test that bond throughout the movie’s runtime, not just during the climax. And The Hidden World actually wrestles with the idea of whether the vikings should even keep training dragons and riding them or allow the dragons to be free, which obviously affects Hiccup and Toothless’ relationship.

So while The Hidden World is easily the most kid-friendly of the trilogy, it still has some mature moments and interesting ideas, like its predecessors. It’s also probably the weakest entry, yet this is far from an insult or saying that it’s bad. The other two movies just set such a high bar for me. The Hidden World by no means lacks emotional payoffs, and honestly, that’s the most important thing I wanted to see from this movie.

It wouldn’t surprise me if there were more How to Train Your Dragon movies in the future; however, I’d be shocked if there was any continuation to Hiccup’s arc. I feel like that door has been definitively closed… although I’ve been wrong before (ahem, Toy Story 4).

It was neat to see The Hidden World in theaters when I originally wasn’t going to. I recommend everyone, especially big fans of the first two movies, go to this one and see the satisfying conclusion as it currently stands!