How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

A year after becoming chieftain, Hiccup, his Night Fury Toothless, and their fellow dragon-riders continue to rescue captured dragons to bring them to Berk. However, the island has become overpopulated with dragons and faces constant attacks by dragon hunters. In response, Hiccup desires to find the "Hidden World", a safe haven for dragons once spoken of by his late father, Stoick. Meanwhile, a white female Light Fury, held captive by warlords, is given to an infamous dragon hunter named Grimmel the Grisly as bait for him to capture Toothless for the warlords' use as an alpha. Toothless finds the Light Fury in the woods, and they become enchanted until she flees, sensing Hiccup and Astrid nearby. Later, Hiccup and Tuffnut discover Grimmel's dragon traps. That night, Grimmel visits Hiccup, demanding Toothless while boasting of killing nearly every Night Fury to extinction. Hiccup, having prepared an ambush, faces Grimmel, who escapes as his Deathgripper dragons destroy Hiccup's house and Berk. Hiccup then leads the citizens and dragons to seek the Hidden World for safety from hunters. Mid-journey, the Berkians discover an island on which they initially plan to rest, but soon begin to settle there, dubbing it "New Berk". Seeing Toothless' inability to fly solo hindering his growing relationship with the Light Fury, Hiccup rebuilds an automatic tailfin for him. Upon receiving it, Toothless flies off, meeting up with the Light Fury and flying with her to an unknown land. On a scouting patrol, Valka notices Grimmel's approaching army and reports back to Hiccup. Hiccup and the dragon riders head to capture Grimmel, but fall into his trap and barely escape, except Ruffnut, who irritates Grimmel until he lets her go. Hiccup, Astrid, and Stormfly search for Toothless and find the Hidden World, where Toothless has become the alpha of the dragons there with the Light Fury as his mate. When the resident dragons spot Hiccup and Astrid, they attack the duo, but Toothless saves them and returns to New Berk. Hiccup realizes that humans would be intruders and are unsafe in the Hidden World. Ruffnut returns but unknowingly leads Grimmel right to them. He captures Toothless and the Light Fury, who had followed Toothless back to the island. Grimmel uses Toothless's alpha status to capture Berk's dragons by threatening to kill the Light Fury if he does not comply. With Astrid's support, Hiccup joins the dragon riders to thwart Grimmel and his army. They surprise Grimmel's forces while gliding on wingsuits, sparking a battle to rescue the dragons. Hiccup, aided by Stormfly, frees Toothless as Grimmel drugs the Light Fury and flies off with her. Hiccup and Toothless chase Grimmel, defeating his Deathgrippers with lightning, but Grimmel tranquilizes Toothless midair, making him fall. Realizing he needs help, Hiccup frees the Light Fury and urges her to save Toothless before falling with Grimmel towards the ocean. The Light Fury saves Toothless and returns to rescue Hiccup, who removes his prosthetic leg that Grimmel was holding onto before being carried away, leaving him to die from the impact. Back on the island, Toothless and Hiccup acknowledge that dragons are not safe in the human world and that humans are forbidden in the Hidden World. Hiccup shares a heartfelt goodbye with Toothless as the Berkians release their dragons to the Hidden World. Months later, Hiccup and Astrid marry and become New Berk's chieftains. A decade later, Toothless and the Light Fury have mated and hatched three hybrid dragon fledglings called Night Lights. Hiccup and Astrid, along their daughter and son sail across the sea to visit them at the edge of the Hidden World. After introducing his children to his old friend, Hiccup and Astrid take their children flying on Toothless and Stormfly, accompanied by the Light Fury and their offspring. Hiccup vows that, until humans and dragons are ready to co-exist peacefully, the dragons will stay hidden while the Berkians guard their secret. ==Voice cast==

• Jay Baruchel as Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, the son of Valka and the late Stoick the Vast, the newly crowned Viking chief of Berk, and the one who initially trained the dragons • Craig Ferguson as Gobber the Belch, a seasoned warrior, blacksmith, and dragon dentist • Jonah Hill as Snotlout Jorgenson, a brash, overconfident, and fairly unintelligent but reliable friend of Hiccup • Justin Rupple as Tuffnut Thorston, Ruffnut's fraternal twin who is friends with Hiccup. Rupple was brought on to dub over Miller's lines. • Kit Harington as Eret, Son of Eret, a former dragon hunter who used to work for Drago Bludvist, who has joined the dragon riders after the events of the second film • Julia Emelin as Griselda the Grievous, an aggressive warlord who works with Grimmel • Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Ragnar the Rock, an incompetent warlord who works with Grimmel • James Sie as Chaghatai Khan, a less aggressive and stubborn warlord who works with Grimmel • David Tennant as Ivar the Witless, a dragon trapper who works for the Warlords • Tennant also voices Spitelout Jorgenson, the father of Snotlout • Robin Atkin Downes as Ack, a blond-bearded Viking • Kieron Elliot as Hoark, a Viking with a knotted beard • Ashley Jensen as Phlegma the Fierce, a female Viking who works as a botanist at the School of Dragons • Gideon Emery as a trapper • Randy Thom as vocal effects for Toothless, Stormfly and Light Fury ==Production==

In December 2010, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg announced that there would also be a third film in the series: "How To Train Your Dragon is at least three: maybe more, but we know there are at least three chapters to that story." Dean DeBlois, the writer and director of the second and the third film, stated that How to Train Your Dragon 2 was being intentionally designed as the second act of the trilogy: "There are certain characters and situations that come into play in the second film that will become much more crucial to the story by the third." DeBlois said in an interview that the third part would be released in 2016. Although the series has taken a different path of telling a story of Hiccup and Vikings, author Cressida Cowell revealed that the trilogy and the book series will have similar endings (with "an explanation as to why dragons are no more"). The film was produced by Bonnie Arnold with Justin Rupple replacing T.J. Miller as Tuffnut. DeBlois revealed that Miller did originally return to voice Tuffnut, but DreamWorks recast him after the actor's sexual assault allegations and arrest for calling in a fake bomb threat. During the earlier stages of production, DeBlois stated that Djimon Hounsou would also return as Drago Bludvist. It was even planned to have Drago redeemed by the film's end, but halfway through development, DreamWorks co-founder Steven Spielberg convinced DeBlois that the story of Drago's redemption required more screen time that they could not provide, causing his inclusion to be scrapped. On April 17, 2018, DreamWorks Animation announced that the sequel's title would be How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. The animation challenges of the production required DreamWorks Animation to update and invent new software to handle complex tasks, such as lighting the Light Fury dragon. Music Like the previous two films, the film's score was composed by John Powell. In addition, Powell's collaborators Batu Sener, Anthony Willis, and Paul Mounsey are credited as additional composers. Also returning from the previous films, Jónsi wrote a new song for the film, titled "Together from Afar", which was released as a single on January 31, 2019. Jónsi also provided vocals for a track titled "The Hidden World". ==Release==

In September 2012, 20th Century Fox, DreamWorks Animation's then-distributor partner, and the studio itself announced that the film was originally going to be released on June 17, 2016. In September 2014, the film's release date was pushed back a year from its original release date of June 17, 2016, to June 9, 2017. DeBlois explained the release date shifts as such: "It's just that these movies take three years. I think it was a little ambitious to say 2016... As is normally the case, they kind of throw darts out into the future and wherever they land they call that a release date until we start talking about it in practical terms, and then it's like, 'Uh yeah that's not enough time'. So knowing that they take three years from this moment, from outlining and writing the screenplay through to the final lighting of it, it's just a process of building models and doing tests and animating, storyboarding, the whole thing just adds up to about three years." In January 2015, the release date was pushed back a year again from June 9, 2017, to June 29, 2018, following DreamWorks Animation's corporate restructuring and lay-offs meant to maximize the company's "creative talent and resources, reduce costs, and drive profitability." On June 18, 2016, the release date was moved up from June 29, 2018, to May 18, 2018, taking the release date of the Warner Animation Group's The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part. On December 5, 2016, the United States release date was pushed back from May 18, 2018, to March 1, 2019. The release date was moved up for the final time from March 1, 2019, to February 22, 2019, taking the slot of The Turning, a live-action DreamWorks film which in turn was pushed back to January 24, 2020. The film was the first DreamWorks Animation film to be distributed by Universal Pictures, following the acquisition of DreamWorks Animation by both Comcast and NBCUniversal in 2016. Home media Universal Pictures Home Entertainment released How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World for digital download on May 7, 2019, and on Blu-ray, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, and DVD on May 21. Physical copies contain two 2018 short films: Bilby and Bird Karma. Video games Unlike the first two films of the trilogy, The Hidden World does not have a tie-in game based on its plot. Instead, there are two games set before the events of the film, which are the top-down action adventure game DreamWorks Dragons: Dawn of New Riders available on consoles and personal computers (Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows) and the match-3 game Dragons: Titan Uprising for mobile devices (iOS and Android). ==Reception==

Box office How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World grossed $160.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $379 million in other territories, for a worldwide gross of $540 million, against a production budget of $129 million. In the United States and Canada, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World held early screenings at 1,000 theaters on February 2, 2019, and grossed $2.5 million, one of the highest advance showing totals ever. It was released alongside the wide expansion of Fighting with My Family, and was initially projected to gross $40–45 million from 4,259 theaters in its opening weekend. After making $17.5 million on its first day (including $3 million from Thursday night previews), weekend projections were increased to $60 million. It went on to debut to $55 million finishing first at the box office. The film made $30 million in its second weekend, retaining the top spot, before being dethroned by newcomer Captain Marvel in its third. The film grossed $1.5 million on its opening day in Australia, setting a record for a DreamWorks Animation film in that country (surpassing Shrek 2). In New Zealand, the film grossed $173,000 on its opening day, ranking as DreamWorks Animation's second biggest opening day in the country, behind Shrek 2. By its third weekend of international release the film has grossed a total of $41 million. As of March 24, 2019, the film's largest markets in other territories were China ($53.7 million), Russia ($26.8 million), France ($25.0 million), United Kingdom ($24.8 million) and Mexico ($21.0 million). On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 71 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale (the same score earned by the first two films), while those at PostTrak gave it a 90% positive score and a 77% "definite recommend". Michael Nordine of IndieWire gave the film a B, saying, "Directed once again by Dean DeBlois, The Hidden World strikes a bittersweet chord in reminding its young audience that all good things — including the age of dragons — must come to an end." He later went on to applaud the CGI, lauding the "arresting visuals", and stating that "The animation itself is striking — an early sequence in which the sky is filled with dragons is an early sign of the visual treats to come — and ends up being the film's highlight." Ben Kenigsberg of The New York Times gave a positive review of the characters and emotional messages of the film, writing "More bittersweet and less triumphal than its predecessors, and directed by a returning Dean DeBlois, The Hidden World concerns the exigencies that Hiccup faces as a leader, both politically and personally. If you truly love that dragon you trained, its message says, let him go." Conversely, some critics felt the film had the presence of too many juggled sub-plots and an obligatory ending, with Movie Crypt concluding that "Fans will enjoy seeing their characters grown and progressing as story arcs are closed, but the final resolution rings hollow. Ultimately, none of it appeared necessary other than a need to say goodbye; the dragons and their champions certainly earned a better conclusion than that." Kerry Lengel of The Arizona Republic says that "The plot is thin and holey and the characters are mostly just a single gag set on repeat" and calls it "a lazy effort". Accolades == Spin-offs ==

A short film titled How to Train Your Dragon: Homecoming was released on December 3, 2019. Set before the epilogue of The Hidden World, it depicts Hiccup and Astrid teaching their children about the friendship between humans and dragons in order to protect their legacy. An animated television series, titled Dreamworks Dragons: The Nine Realms, premiered in October 2021, and ran for eight seasons, concluding in December 2023. Set 1,300 years after The Hidden World, Hiccup and Astrid's descendant Tom Kullerson explores the realms with his friends and his dragon named Thunder, who is a descendant of Toothless and the Light Fury. ==Notes==