12. How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
The third installment of the How To Train Your Dragon series is coming out in 2019, and there’s a lot to be excited about. In the latest and final installment of the series, Toothless finds love and a brand new villain appears to threaten all of dragonkind.
The current trailer for the third movie is honestly not overwhelming, but then again the first trailer for the second movie felt a little slapdash as well—and the second one won a Golden Globe for Best Animated Picture, so it’s best to reserve judgment for now. Plus the trailer shows us Hiccup and Toothless playing fetch with Hiccup’s prosthetic leg, so that’s pretty much perfect.
The How To Train Your Dragon movies have always managed to maintain a near perfect balance between cuteness, majestic visuals, and a genuine emotional center. Despite being animated movies, both previous films have pulled no punches when it comes to the consequences of the story. In the first movie, Hiccup loses a leg; in the second, he loses a father. And now, with the series’ final installment, director Dean Deblois has said that How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World will have a bittersweet ending.
It’s already heartbreaking to think of what Hiccup might lose next, but it’s often the saddest endings that feel the most satisfying in the long run. And these movies are in it for the long run; between the first How To Train Your Dragon movie and the last, we get to see Hiccup go from gangly teen to, as the trailer teases, bushy-bearded adult. That’s a really interesting angle for a kid’s movie to take, and only further suggests that the themes within it will be even more mature—and heartbreaking.