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How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
Movie

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

2019 • Animation, Action, Adventure

Woke Score
3
out of 10

Plot

As Hiccup fulfills his dream of creating a peaceful dragon utopia, Toothless' discovery of an untamed, elusive mate draws the Night Fury away. When danger mounts at home and Hiccup's reign as village chief is tested, both dragon and rider must make impossible decisions to save their kind.

Overall Series Review

The final installment of the trilogy chronicles Hiccup's struggle to lead his people and protect his dragon utopia. The narrative is driven by the emergence of a ruthless dragon hunter, Grimmel, who forces the Berk Vikings to confront the unsustainable reality of their overcrowded, dragon-filled existence. The story culminates in a powerful, self-sacrificial choice by the human and dragon protagonists: to part ways permanently. This is framed as the only way to save the dragons from the inherent greed of humanity, sending them to a hidden world. This decision is criticized by some for contradicting the previous films' message of human-dragon unity and for its underlying misanthropic conclusion about human nature. Conversely, the film concludes with the hero and his love interest getting married and raising a family, affirming traditional familial structures.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics2/10

The characters are Viking, a culturally homogenous group, and the core conflict focuses on a species-based struggle (human vs. dragon) rather than race or intersectional identity. The hero, Hiccup, is defined by his intellect, moral character, and sacrifice, adhering to a universal meritocracy. The villain is a white male dragon hunter, an individual evil, not a representation of 'whiteness' or a systemic power structure.

Oikophobia8/10

The central resolution is the hero choosing to abandon the entire civilization's defining achievement—the co-existence of humans and dragons—because humans are judged as fundamentally and immutably evil and corrupting. The film concludes that the world is not safe for dragons because of human nature, making the 'Noble Savage' dragons superior and the only solution permanent segregation. This embodies a profound civilizational self-hatred, abandoning the hope for a better future achieved through progress.

Feminism3/10

Female characters like Astrid, while still capable and courageous warriors, are narratively reduced from independent equals to roles primarily focused on supporting Hiccup as his 'moral compass' and soon-to-be wife. However, the film ends with the unequivocal celebration of the nuclear family, as Hiccup and Astrid marry and have children, which is the antithesis of the anti-natalist and career-centric 'Girl Boss' trope.

LGBTQ+1/10

The narrative explicitly reinforces the traditional male-female pairing and the nuclear family as the standard outcome. Marriage and children are the final markers of the main hero's journey into adulthood. Any potential ‘queer readings’ of previous films are erased, and a side character who was ambiguously non-heterosexual is made the mouthpiece for encouraging Hiccup and Astrid’s marriage, upholding the normative structure.

Anti-Theism2/10

The film's moral framework is secular, resting on personal responsibility, sacrifice, and the objective truth that the dragons' safety is paramount. There is no traditional religion, specifically Christianity, present to be vilified. Morality is not presented as subjective 'power dynamics' but as a higher ethical law that demands the hero's ultimate sacrifice for the good of his friends.