Over the past nine years, the animated series "How to Train Your Dragon" has struggled to build a fan base for its story about a young Viking, Hiccup, who bucks tradition by befriending a dangerous dragon nicknamed Toothless. Based on Cressida Cowell's 12-volume book series, the movies _ two so far _ have earned more than $1 billion combined. Still and all, you just don't see a lot of Hiccup Halloween costumes and Toothless plushies out there.
The third installment, "How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World," is also the last, and it feels a bit like gentle euthanasia. Other series have been treated worse: "The Chronicles of Narnia" fizzled out after four films, "Percy Jackson" stalled at two and the woebegone "Divergent" is on ice. "Dragon" fans can at least be grateful for a fond farewell.
"The Hidden World" begins with Hiccup and his friends saving dragons from poachers with such regularity that their little village, Berk, is crawling with the creatures. Hiccup, once a runt but now a chief (Jay Baruchel again lends his boyish voice), decides to relocate all of Berk to a mysterious island, "off the map," where outsiders will never find them. In hot pursuit, however, is the dragon-hunter Grimmel (a wonderful F. Murray Abraham), a brilliant strategist with a secret weapon.
That weapon is a Light Fury dragon _ a female, of course, who will capture Toothless' heart. Writer-director Dean DeBlois falls into some traps himself here, painting this female as sleek and sexy (flawless skin, feline eyes) but lacking in personality. Unlike Toothless, she doesn't even get a name. In fact, characterization is an overall problem in this movie. Hiccup and Astrid (America Ferrera), once shy lovers, have become as familiar as an old married couple _ an oddly dull development in an animated fantasy _ while their Viking friends feel newly irritating. (T.J. Miller, the comedian who originally played the rowdy Tuffnut and recently generated some #MeToo-style headlines, has been replaced by Justin Rupple. It's no improvement.)
Like its predecessors, "The Hidden World" manages to lodge a few arrows in the heart. Hiccup and Toothless cannot stay a boy and his dragon forever; adulthood beckons, and laws of nature must be obeyed. As a finale, this film feels premature and hasty, but at least we get to say goodbye.
