For ten years now I have been invested in the world of How to Train Your Dragon. From the very first time I watched the very first movie when I was 11 years old, I fell in love with the world of Berk and the antics of Hiccup and his eclectic crew. Not to mention that Toothless is basically the giant, medieval, scaly-version of a dog with all of his adorableness and fierce loyalty. The plot line set forth in this first film established that the arc of the story would encapsulate the process of discovering your true self, growing up and learning to let go.
But y’all, I was NOT ready for the emotional rollercoaster of this third– and final– addition to the franchise.
The story picks up a few years after the second film leaves off, but the mission remains the same: bring captive or mistreated dragons to Berk, a now-overpopulated safe haven for our scaly friends. But, during one of their most recent missions to rescue dragons from a crew of Vikings bent on transforming the dragons into an army of killers, Hiccup and the crew are discovered, and Grimmel the Grisly– who turns out to be the newest and meanest villain of the franchise– is alerted of their arrival. The “bad” Viking crew hire Grimmel to capture all the dragons on Berk so that they can build the previously mentioned evil army, but little do they know that Grimmel agrees in order to do one thing: kill Toothless. Having built his reputation as the killer of all Night Furies, he goes in for one last kill to seal the deal.
He tries, and nearly succeeds, but, of course, there’s one thing that keeps him from winning: love.
Throughout the movie, Toothless courts a Light Fury, which of course leaves Hiccup in the odd position of being both supportive and jealous. Eventually, Toothless leaves Hiccup altogether to be with the Light Fury and live as the Alpha in the Hidden World. The moment that Toothless and Hiccup part ways is excruciatingly painful. I cried. A lot. The moment relates a lot to how we often have to let go of the things and people we love most in order for both to flourish. As you can tell, I’m skimming over the plot because YOU HAVE TO WATCH IT. This isn’t Wikipedia– you have to see the film in order to truly understand and appreciate it.
However, I will say that the details of the film are absolutely AMAZING. The animation has really progressed since 2010, and there are so many vibrant colors and patterns that aren’t present in the past two films. There are also so. many. dragons. There were so many new and different dragons introduced in the film, and it was, in the truest sense of the word, fantastic.
If you’re in the mood for a film that touches on childhood nostalgia mixed with all-too-familiar and bittersweet experiences of loss and friendship and absolutely stellar animation, How to Train Your Dragon is your best bet.