How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (Dir Dean DeBlois, 1h 44m)

  

Bidding farewell to a series that you've grown up with is hard, and harder when that series is of uniformly high quality-Toy Story, before Disney and Pixar unboxed their childhood toys once more for a bizarrely unnecessary sequel was such for a great number of people, if the reports of grown men reduced to tears was any gauge. However, for me, that series is How To Train Your Dragon. When Dreamworks announced the release of the first film, back around the time I went to university, I was somewhat dubious-Cressida Cowell's novels, whilst excellent, did not have the dramatic scope of a big budget animated film. Two hours later, I was convinced that this might be one of the best animated films ever made. I still very much think that's the case.

I saw the second film with close friends four years later, a little older and wiser, a little more cinematically literate, and How to Train Your Dragon 2 may be one of those rare things, a sequel that was, if anything better than its sequel, expanding its world, continuing the character's stories, although a cartoon series also fillled in the gaps between the first and second films. Hell, i like this series so much I even have an impressively large plush of Toothless next to my desk. But, as with everything, all good things must come to an end, and How To Train Your Dragon's end, in The Hidden World is a spectacular and worthy one.

A year after the previous film, and with Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) balancing the roles of the chief of Berk, rescuing and protecting the dragons that now seek refuge on the island, and still learning about the dragons that share the Vikings' world, so things seem to be idyllic, aside from the now chronic dragon overcrowding, with Hiccup and Astrid (America Ferrera) beginning to kindle their romance. However, things are afoot, with villainous dragon hunter, Grimmel the Grisly (an enjoyably devilish performance from F. Murray Abraham) who wants nothing less than to kill every Night Fury, including Hiccup's dragon and friend, Toothless, and has the perfect bait in the shape of a white Light Fury, hoping to trap and destroy the last of the Night Furies, whilst his allies, a group of bickering warlords, aim to use Toothless's power as the Alpha to weaponise the dragons.

Meanwhile, Hiccup continues his quest for the mysterious Hidden World, which his father, Stoick, attempted to find where dragons originate for, despite Toothless becoming increasingly distracted by the illusive and secretive Nightfury, in an adventure that tests both of them to their limit, as the Berkians attempt to make their way to a new home, to protect their dragon allies, whilst Hiccup slowly begins to realise that the best way for him to protect the dragons, and in particular Toothless may end this alliance, with a nigh perfect final act acting itself as a pitch-perfect ending to the series as a whole.

With its message of emotional maturity and independence, in learning when to let go-and the scene where Hiccup finally realises this is one of the best in Dreamworks' ouvre to date-of a person, and stand on your own feet, as Hiccup slowly adapts to his role as chief and begins to realise that his growth came from within and not just from his bond with dragons, it would have been easy for this film to become needlessly dark. Whilst some of the scenes do run a little darker than the previous two films-an enjoyably tense showdown between Grimmel and Hiccup, in his own home, is almost akin to the showdown between Bond and one of his villains, complete with badinage and villainous gloating, whilst a later setpiece in which our heroes become trapped in an increasingly firey cage is nailbiting.

Yet, what has always made this series great, what makes The Hidden World great is its sense of humour, its ability to walk the line between serious and funny perfectly-that very same showdown with Hiccup and Grimmel is peppered with jokes, and when one of the group, Ruffnut (Kirsten Wiig) is captured by Grimmel, she annoys her way out of captivity and to freedom in one of the film's single best scenes. Even Toothless's courtship with the Light Fury is stuffed with jokes, with him hopping round like a bird of paradise at one point to woo her, to her confusion. Elsewhere, the bickering of the rest of the group, from the macho Snotlout (Jonah Hill) to the nerdy but cheerful Fishlegs (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) gets more than their share of laughs.

What is clear, however, is that, with the ending of the series, there is a sense that our heroes have come so far, with a wedding, several hints that the group have finally become the next generation of Viking heroes, and with this, we get an increased sense of maturity-Hiccup is now, undoubtedly, the leader of the village, respected and finally beginning to realise he is every inch the man his father was, with a little help, whilst Astrid's friendship with him begins to be tinged with romance, her  care for him, and support key. Whilst its finale's message, of realising that your power came from inside all along is a well-trodden one, rarely is it told in such a charming and emotionally resonant way. Even the character designs seems just that little more mature, and whilst the film does not make any huge visual steps forward, with the exception of the stunning Hidden World itself, everything seems just that little more accomplished, just that little more visually impressive. 

 Thus, How to Train Your Dragon goes out on the highest of notes, on the best possible ending-it is undoubtedly a highmark, not only for Dreamworks, but animation in general, and there are few franchises in animation that come close to it. This, in short, is the perfect ending:

Rating: Must See