Lilo & Stitch (2025) Review

The early 2000s were, admittedly, a rough period for Walt Disney Animation Studios. After experiencing one of the most successful runs in their history thanks to the Disney Renaissance, the studio quickly found itself having a far more difficult time achieving that same level of critical and commercial success once the new millennium rolled around. While there were various factors behind this turn of events, arguably the most prominent of the bunch was the rise in success of computer animated films that was spearheaded by the likes of DreamWorks and, of course, the studio that Disney had begun to partner with in the 90’s before buying them out wholesale in 2006, Pixar. As a result, a bunch of the films that Walt Disney Animation produced during this time, such as 2000’s The Emperor’s New Groove, 2001’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and 2002’s Treasure Planet, ended up faring poorly at the box office and, on occasion, with critics. Now, with that said, many of these films would later go on to attract considerable cult followings from the generation of kids who grew up with them, undoubtedly thanks in part to the creative risks that the studio often took during these years to deviate from their long-standing narrative formulas of reimagined fairy tales full of Broadway-esque musical numbers. Ultimately, though, it’s safe to say that there’s a very good reason as to why, in the mid-2000s, Disney Animation opted to move away from making traditionally animated films in favor of making computer-animated features. However, if there was one undeniable bright spot during these so-called ‘dark ages’, that would be the first of two films that the studio produced in 2002: a little offbeat sci-fi themed ‘Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride’ known as Lilo & Stitch.

Directed by the duo of Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, who would later go on to co-direct DreamWorks’ highly acclaimed adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon in 2010 (which, on an incredibly ironic note given today’s review subject, is getting its own live-action remake in a few weeks), the film followed the adventures of its titular duo; Lilo, a young Hawaiian girl living under the care of her older sister Nani following the death of their parents, and her new pet dog Stitch. It’s just that, unbeknownst to Lilo and company, Stitch is secretly a destructive alien creature who was created by a mad scientist and is hiding out on Earth disguised as a dog to avoid being captured by intergalactic government forces. Unlike many of the other films that Disney Animation was producing at the time, Lilo & Stitch, which was the second of three films that were produced primarily from Disney’s now-defunct animation studio located within Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios theme park (the other two being 1998’s Mulan and 2003’s Brother Bear), was one of the studio’s cheaper productions from a budgetary standpoint. Whereas their other release of the year, Treasure Planet, was a costly $140 million flop, Lilo & Stitch only cost $80 million. And thanks in large part to a buzzworthy marketing campaign that saw Stitch wreak havoc across other Disney classics such as Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, the film performed quite well for itself critically and commercially, earning over $273 million while also garnering largely positive reviews from critics and an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature. As a result, Lilo & Stitch would go on to spawn what is quite arguably the most expansive media franchise of any Walt Disney Animation film of the early 2000s.

Its most prominent spin-off was the animated TV series Lilo & Stitch: The Series, which ran for 65 episodes over the course of two seasons and debuted on September 20^th, 2003, on ABC via Disney’s ABC Kids programming block. The series, which was preceded by a direct-to-video feature-length pilot film in Stitch! The Movie, followed the franchise’s titular duo as they went on various adventures across Hawaii to find and rescue the 625 experiments that Stitch’s creator, Dr. Jumba Jookiba, had created before he made Stitch AKA ‘Experiment 626’. During its run, the show notably pulled off one of the most ambitious crossovers in pop culture history by having not one, not two, not even three, but four whole episodes where Lilo & Stitch interacted with characters from some of Disney’s other hit shows at the time; Kim Possible, Recess, The Proud Family, and American Dragon: Jake Long. The show ultimately concluded in 2006 with another direct-to-video film, Leroy & Stitch, and during this time, the franchise also got another direct-to-video film in 2005, Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch has a Glitch, which, unlike the show, opted to be more of a direct sequel to the original film. After that, the franchise would go on to spawn another pair of television series; Stitch!, which ran for multiple seasons from 2008 to 2015, and Stitch and Ai, which was only a single-season show released in 2017. Unlike the bulk of the franchise’s media, however, these shows were considerably different in tone and execution, adhering more to the animation styles of the countries they were produced in (anime in the case of the Japanese-set Stitch! and donghua for the Chinese-set Stitch & Ai) and notably having Stitch paired up with new female protagonists instead of Lilo; Yuna in Stitch! and Ai in Stitch and Ai.

Simply put, there’s no denying that Lilo & Stitch is one of Disney’s most profitable IPs. Thanks to all the films, shows, merchandise, and numerous attractions at Disney theme parks (yes, that even includes the admittedly notorious Stitch’s Great Escape, which replaced the notoriously mature fan-favorite ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom), the franchise has earned nearly $3.5 billion worldwide which, according to recent reports from Disney, now makes it one of their Top 10 best-selling franchises. And because of all this, Stitch has become such a fan favorite in the eyes of Disney fans that it could even be argued that he could give Mickey Mouse a run for his money as one of Disney’s most beloved mascots. With all this in mind, I guess you can say that it was practically inevitable that Disney would attempt to make the original Lilo & Stitch the latest installment of its long line of animated classics to get a live-action remake. Thus, that’s where we are now with the live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch, which makes the 2002 original the latest in the Walt Disney Animation canon to get remade after the past few years of us getting remakes of most of the Disney Renaissance releases. In the director’s chair for this one is Dean Fleischer Camp, who had the breakout hit of his career in 2021 when he adapted Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, the trilogy of short films that he made with his then-wife Jenny Slate from 2010 to 2014, into a feature-length film that, despite being a live-action/animated hybrid, managed to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature. With a background like that, it’s no wonder that Fleischer Camp imbues this new version of Lilo & Stitch with almost the same exact level of heart and soul as its animated counterpart, even with its rather controversial (yet, in several cases, effective) changes to the source material.     

In a far-off galaxy, the United Galactic Federation arrests mad scientist Dr. Jumba Jookiba (voiced/portrayed by Zack Galifianakis) for his illegal genetic experiments as exemplified by his latest creation, Experiment 626 (voiced by Chris Sanders), who is touted by Jumba as an indestructible force of nature. Immediately realizing the threat that 626 poses to the galaxy, the UGF Council promptly orders them both to be imprisoned; however, 626’s superior intellect helps him escape captivity and flee to another galaxy, where he ends up crash-landing on the planet Earth on the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i. With both Jumba and the Galactic Federation’s Earth ‘expert’ Agent Wendell Pleakley (voiced/portrayed by Billy Magnussen) now on his tail as part of a deal that the former makes with the UGF’s Grand Councilwoman (voiced by Hannah Waddingham) so that he can avoid going to prison, 626 disguises himself as an Earth dog and is subsequently taken in by a young girl named Lilo Pelekai (Maia Kealoha), who has been living under the care of her older sister Nani (Sydney Agudong) following the death of their parents. Thanks in large part to Lilo’s troublemaking habits, Nani has struggled to be a proper caretaker for her sister, thus putting her in increasingly hot water with their family’s social worker, Mrs. Kekoa (Tia Carrere), who pushes for her to get her act together or else lose Lilo to child services. Naturally, this stressful situation is only exacerbated further by the arrival of 626, whom Lilo names ‘Stitch’, as the two sisters quickly discover that their new ‘dog’ is quite the handful.

Now, despite everything that we’re going to get into when it comes to its narrative changes, this new version of Lilo & Stitch still follows in the footsteps of practically all its fellow live-action Disney remakes by recreating several key sequences and iconic lines from its animated counterpart in live-action form. However, unlike something like the CGI-animated remake of The Lion King from 2019 where any changes made to its source material were arguably minimal at best, the Lilo & Stitch remake doesn’t end up feeling like nothing more than a ‘shot-for-shot’ remake of the original animated film as it does make a few noticeable changes to its story. And yet, as was seen with the 2020 remake of Mulan with its notable omissions of elements such as its music and characters like Mushu and Shang, this then leads to the exact opposite kind of reaction from those who question the need to remake an animated classic; one where, instead, fans of the original are angered by all the things that the remake leaves out that they find to be some of the original film’s best aspects. Sure enough, the remake of Lilo & Stitch has faced tons of scrutiny from fans of the original over the changes that it makes to its source material, such as the exclusion of one of the franchise’s most prominent villains and the subsequent re-working of a long-standing series protagonist into being this film’s main antagonist to make up for the lack of that other villain. However, what has easily been the most controversial change is this film’s reworked ending; without spoiling exactly what happens in it, many have argued that it betrays the original film’s key message stressing the importance and beauty of ‘ohana. After all, as Lilo famously declares in both versions of this story when Nani attempts to get rid of Stitch, “‘ohana means family and family means that no one gets left behind or forgotten”.

And yet… I don’t think that this film’s reworked ending is harmful to that theme. In fact, I’d argue that a lot of the criticism revolving around it seems to stem from those who only read about what happens and then proceeded to take it directly at face value without paying any attention to the key bits of narrative context surrounding it, which helps to convey the genuinely positive developments behind this turn of events. As a result, I’d say that this new ending still manages to convey the beauty of ‘ohana, even if it goes without saying that it goes about this in a drastically different manner than the original film. And more importantly, the remake does retain much of the same level of heart and soul as the original, much of which is, of course, thanks to its iconic titular duo. Stitch is still the same adorably chaotic dog-like alien that he’s been throughout the entire franchise, especially thanks to the pivotal move of having his longtime voice actor, none other than the original film’s co-director Chris Sanders, return to voice the character even if some of Stitch’s lines are clearly lifted directly from previous installments of the franchise. And while your mileage will most likely vary on how effectively this film translates the franchise’s alien characters into live-action (a recurring criticism of Disney’s recent live-action remakes), Stitch’s CGI design is easily one of the best instances of this being done. Then, on the human side of things, you have the utterly adorable Maia Kealoha, who shines in her film debut as she flawlessly exudes Lilo’s silly yet wholly sympathetic qualities.

But, of course, as any fan of this series will remind you, Lilo & Stitch is more than just the wacky escapades of its titular duo. Alongside the hilarious hi-jinx that ensue from Stitch pretending to be a dog, there’s also the emotional saga that is the relationship between Lilo and her sister Nani in the wake of their parents’ death as the latter works tirelessly to ensure that they stay together. In the case of the original film, this was one of the first major instances where a Disney film’s plot largely revolved around sisters more than a full decade before it was, admittedly, overshadowed by the billion-dollar juggernaut that was Frozen. And while the remake’s take on Lilo and Nani’s relationship does end up revolving around the aforementioned ‘reworked ending’, it’s still just as strong as it was in the original film and Sydney Agudong deserves just as much credit as Maia Kealoha’s been getting for her performance as Nani, especially thanks to the perfectly sweet on-screen camaraderie that she shares with Kealoha. All in all, the film succeeds in maintaining the strong characterizations of its three leads, and while this does mean that other recurring characters of the series don’t get as much to work with by comparison, everyone else in the cast is solid in their respective roles, such as Kaipo Dudoit as Nani’s good-natured love interest David and Courtney B. Vance as the enigmatic Cobra Bubbles, who’s reimagined here as a CIA agent investigating Stitch’s antics who only poses as a social worker (his role in the animated film) when he’s undercover. Meanwhile, Zach Galifianakis and Billy Magnussen provide plenty of laughs as the bickering duo of Jumba and Pleakley and the film even features a few cameos from the stars of the original animated film. OG Nani Tia Carrere takes over Cobra Bubbles’ role as Lilo and Nani’s social worker Mrs. Kekoa while Amy Hill, who played the elderly shop owner Mrs. Hasagawa in the original film and TV series, plays Lilo and Nani’s eccentric yet kind-hearted neighbor Tūtū, who’s also David’s grandmother.

At this point, I’ve become the very definition of a broken record when it comes to my controversially positive stance toward Disney’s recent trend of live-action remakes. At the risk of rehashing the same exact statements that I’ve made in my other reviews of Disney’s live-action remakes, I don’t believe that these new films are ‘harmful’ to the legacies of their animated counterparts, mainly due to the alleged implication that they make them feel ‘lesser’ by comparison. Instead, I feel that, as long as the original films are still available to watch thanks to services like Disney+ (their controversial habit of removing content from the service notwithstanding), there’s nothing wrong with seeing new spins on these animated classics. And when it comes to Lilo & Stitch, I’d say that its live-action remake is one of the best of the bunch, even if many will undoubtedly argue that this isn’t saying much. Director Dean Fleischer Camp does a fantastic job of maintaining the exact same level of emotional poignancy as the original film, even when taking its polarizing (yet largely solid) narrative changes into account. On that note, as notorious as some of these changes have been in the eyes of Lilo & Stitch fans, they do, at least, help to give this film its own unique identity rather than it being just a straightforward retelling of the original animated film. But above all, with the dedicated efforts of both its cast and crew to honor its story’s Hawaiian roots on full display here, Lilo & Stitch succeeds in being just as delightfully hilarious as it is beautifully touching on an emotional level.

Rating: 5/5!

How to Train Your Dragon - Series Retrospective (DreamWorks Animation Retrospective #4)

Welcome back to another installment of Rhode Island Movie Corner’s series of retrospectives on the numerous animated films produced by DreamWorks Animation. As my way of not having to do a massive singular post covering the 45+ films that the studio has produced since 1998, I’ve been dividing its filmography up into multiple parts, starting with their biggest franchises. And today, we’ve finally come to the DreamWorks franchise that I’ve been anticipating covering the most. Sure, Shrek may have been the franchise that made DreamWorks the household name that it is today, but if you want to talk about the franchise that almost single-handedly reshaped the idea of what a DreamWorks Animation film could be, look no further than the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy. Loosely based on the best-selling book series by author Cressida Cowell, this is a franchise that has yielded some of the most critically acclaimed animated films from the past decade and a half and has widely been cited as the prime example of how DreamWorks has very much come a long way since the days when their filmography was seen by many as being nothing more than a bunch of pop-culture dependent kiddie flicks. And on a personal level, today I finally get to rectify the fact… that I’ve never seen any of these films before. Yeah, yeah, I know, I know; to make a long story short, the first How to Train Your Dragon had the unfortunate distinction of being the first DreamWorks film that I didn’t see in theaters since anything that came out before Shrek, and seeing how it’s only 1% away from having the mythical perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s safe to say that I clearly missed out on something special. But now I’m finally ready to see why this series has become such a beloved staple of the current pop cultural zeitgeist; thus, without further ado, it’s time to take a journey to the magical land of Berk as we look at the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy.

(Disclaimer: *Insert your standard ‘I’m only covering the films’ ground rule here. Please refer to previous DreamWorks Retrospectives for further instructions*)

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (2010)

In 2003, author Cressida Cowell published How to Train Your Dragon, a children’s novel that expanded upon the world from Hiccup the Viking Who Was Seasick, a picture book that she wrote in 2000. Set in a world full of Vikings and the mythical dragons that many of them own, it followed the previous book’s titular protagonist Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third as he looked to prove himself to both his father, Stoick the Vast, and their village of Berk along with his dragon companion Toothless. Upon its release, the book would go on to spawn Cowell’s first official franchise of novels as an author, with eleven subsequent novels published up until 2015 that have collectively sold over 7 million copies worldwide. Just one year after the original novel’s release, the series caught the attention of DreamWorks Animation, with animation veteran Bonnie Arnold spearheading the potential film adaptation as its main producer. While the original script for the film was a largely faithful adaptation of its source material, this would change under the direction of the duo of Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, who had made their mark in the industry back in 2002 with the most successful release of Disney Animation’s post-Renaissance era, Lilo and Stitch. Instead of the original premise of Vikings living in harmony with dragons, which Sanders and DeBlois found to be overly whimsical and geared too heavily towards younger audiences, the film reimagines the plot into one where the Vikings have been hunting dragons for years. Thus, instead of just simply looking to prove himself to his doubtful father and peers, Hiccup also finds himself having to undo years of animosity between humans and dragons after befriending the rarest dragon of all, a Night Fury, which he names Toothless.

Upon its release, How to Train Your Dragon quickly became one of DreamWorks’ biggest hits of all time. It earned over $494 million worldwide, with a $217 million domestic haul that made it the highest-grossing DreamWorks film in the U.S. outside of the Shrek series, a record that it still holds today. But perhaps most importantly, the film was a runaway success with critics, securing a near-perfect 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the best score that any DreamWorks film has ever secured on that site. And yet, as I noted in the intro, this was the first DreamWorks film that I had missed out on seeing in theaters in about a decade… and boy, did I miss out! How to Train Your Dragon is very much an animated masterpiece with some of the best animation to ever come out of a DreamWorks film up to that point. Part of this is thanks to the filmmakers utilizing the assistance of legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins as a visual consultant to, as they put it, give the film a uniquely live-action feel, which is certainly on display throughout, especially in the spectacular flying sequences that many have argued are on par with and possibly even better than the flying sequences from what was quickly becoming the biggest film of all-time, Avatar. In previous DreamWorks Retrospectives, I noted that I didn’t see a lot of the studio’s films at this time in 3-D even though many have said that they were amongst the best in the industry to utilize the format at a time when the market was getting oversaturated with films that were both hastily and poorly converted into 3-D. Case in point, How to Train Your Dragon may just be the most prominently lauded of them all when it comes to its use of the 3-D format.

But aside from all its visual splendor, the film is also buoyed by its thoroughly charming underdog story led by an endearing main protagonist in Hiccup, excellently voiced by Jay Baruchel, and his lovable dragon pal Toothless. That said, it is interesting to note that one of the biggest deviations from the book was the portrayal of Toothless since, in the book, Toothless was a more narcissistic and abrasive character rather than the adorably loyal kitty cat-like companion that he is in the films. They’re then joined by a top-notch supporting cast that includes Gerard Butler as Hiccup’s over-demanding father Stoick, America Ferrara as Hiccup’s training rival turned love interest Astrid, and Craig Ferguson as Stoick’s best friend (and dragon-hunting teacher) Gobber, along with the likes of Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Kristen Wiig as Hiccup and Astrid’s fellow dragon-hunting trainees. And so, with all this in mind, it’s easy to see why the first How to Train Your Dragon went on to become one of the most acclaimed films that DreamWorks Animation had ever made up to that point. Rather than the unabashedly irreverent comedic endeavors that they were long known for at the time, this film appropriately goes for a more dramatic narrative approach that, nevertheless, still delivers a bunch of great comedic moments amidst its solid emotional and character beats. In short, even if this was the same year that Pixar’s Toy Story 3 became only the third animated film in history to garner a Best Picture nomination along with its expected Best Animated Feature win, How to Train Your Dragon genuinely gives it a run for its money as one of the best films of 2010.

Rating: 5/5!

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 (2014)

Given the immense success of the original How to Train Your Dragon, it’s no surprise that a sequel was immediately announced just one month after its release. It would ultimately come out in 2014 and retained most of its predecessor’s core cast and crew members; the only major loss in that regard was co-director Chris Sanders due to his commitment to DreamWorks’ 2013 release The Croods. Thankfully, though, he stuck around as an executive producer while his co-director Dean DeBlois officially took over as the franchise’s main director. Set five years after the events of the first film, How to Train Your Dragon 2 sees Hiccup, Toothless, and their friends confronted by their most dangerous adversary yet; Drago Bludvist (voiced by Djimon Hounsou), a vicious dragon-hunting warlord who seeks to assemble a dragon army and take over the world. And if that wasn’t enough, Hiccup also ends up reuniting with his long-lost mother Valka (voiced by Cate Blanchett), who has been protecting dragons from Drago for years. Upon its release, How to Train Your Dragon 2 did even better than its predecessor at the box office, earning over $621 million worldwide, currently standing as the 7^th highest-grossing DreamWorks film of all-time and the franchise’s highest-grossing installment. And while it lost that year’s Oscar for Best Animated Feature to Disney’s Big Hero 6, it gamely followed in its predecessor’s footsteps by maintaining a strong critical reception.

Sure enough, How to Train Your Dragon 2 is exactly the kind of excellent sequel that you’d want to see in the sense that it naturally improves upon its already fantastic predecessor in plenty of ways. Once again utilizing the assistance of Roger Deakins (who, at this point, had also served as a visual consultant on other DreamWorks films such as Puss in Boots and Rise of the Guardians), this film boasts even greater visuals and action sequences than its predecessor, arguably thanks in large part to a brighter color palette that’s used to its fullest effect. And sure, maybe the film’s main antagonist Drago isn’t as strong of a villain as he could’ve been in part due to a limited screentime, but the addition of Hiccup’s mother Valka (and her subsequent reunion with both her son and her husband Stoick) provides a strong emotional hook that carries throughout the entire film. Add in some other strong emotional beats such as the devastating death of one of the main characters and the continued efforts to strengthen the bond between Hiccup and Toothless and it’s easy to see why director Dean DeBlois cited The Empire Strikes Back as a primary source of inspiration for this sequel. Just like that film, How to Train Your Dragon 2 effectively raises the narrative stakes in a thematically darker film (which, admittedly, was a source of contention amongst some audiences) that nevertheless doesn’t lose sight of its family-friendly appeal, its endearing main protagonists, and its penchant for spectacular visuals.

Rating: 5/5!

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD (2019)

Before we conclude today’s retrospective, I’d like to point out an interesting bit of trivia about this series that I ended up coming across while working on this post, and that is the fact that the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy has the unique distinction of having every installment released under a different distributor. The original How to Train Your Dragon, released in 2010, came out near the tail-end of DreamWorks’ almost decade-long distribution deal with Paramount that had started back in 2006. After that, DreamWorks signed a distribution deal with 20^th Century Fox, with 2014’s How to Train Your Dragon 2 being the studio’s most commercially successful release of that era. Finally, the trilogy’s grand finale, 2019’s How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, had the honor of being the first DreamWorks film to be released through their current distributor, Universal. As the title suggests, the film sees Hiccup and company embark on a journey to try and find the mythical ‘Hidden World’, the perfect sanctuary for dragons, when they realize that Berk is no longer safe for their dragon companions due to the increasing number of dragon hunters that have come after them such as their latest foe Grimmel (voiced by F. Murray Abraham), who has singlehandedly killed nearly every Night Fury in the world except for Toothless. And yet, at the same time, Toothless finally comes across one of his own when he meets and falls in love with a female counterpart AKA a ‘Light Fury’.

Like its two predecessors, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World was a bona fide success with both critics and audiences. While it may not have matched How to Train Your Dragon 2’s franchise-best run at the box office, it did achieve the franchise’s second-best worldwide total as it grossed over $525 million worldwide. And even when faced with the inevitably intense expectations of being a threequel given the typically mixed reception that most franchise threequels tend to get (which is something that DreamWorks is quite familiar with), the film was yet another runaway hit with critics. However, even with that said, it seems like this one ended up being a bit more polarizing amongst fans of the franchise specifically because of its ending. Now, for the sake of those who haven’t yet seen these films, I won’t spoil the full details of this ending, but to make a long story short, some felt that it went against a lot of the key themes that the franchise had established over its run and the whole premise of Hiccup and company’s efforts to prove that humans and dragons can peacefully co-exist with each other. And yet, while I do genuinely see where they’re coming from in some cases, the way that this film concludes its saga of humans and dragons is done in a way where, despite the devastating decision that’s made and what it means for both parties, it still presents a positive outlook on the potential of the two of them living in harmony without any sort of threat to the latter.

In other words, from a narrative standpoint, I do believe that The Hidden World is a top-notch conclusion to this phenomenal trilogy… especially since I’d argue that this is one of the rare instances of a trilogy where each subsequent installment is better than the last. First, to get the obvious superlatives out of the way, because of all the technical improvements that have come with each new film (case in point, it has been well-documented that DreamWorks had to update a lot of their animation software to achieve all their visual aspirations for this film), The Hidden World boasts the franchise’s most stunning visuals and epically thrilling action sequences. And whereas the previous film’s antagonist Drago was an admittedly lackluster villain, The Hidden World features the series’ best antagonist in Grimmel, excellently voiced by F. Murray Abraham and an all-around sinister foe who’s properly established as a legitimate threat to our heroes right from the beginning. Finally, given its status as a, well, ‘finale’, it goes without saying that this film delivers the franchise’s best emotional beats, such as whenever it focuses on the blissfully sweet budding romance between Toothless and the Light Fury or, as I noted earlier, its powerful gut-punch of an ending that, like it or not, does feel emotionally justified. In short, what more can I say about this franchise that I haven’t already said here today? While all three films are phenomenal in their own way, The Hidden World ultimately stands out amongst them all as it sends off this beloved franchise on the best note possible, firmly asserting its status as a trilogy that has always matched its grand visual splendor with its wholly heartfelt storytelling.

Rating: 5/5!

And that concludes the latest installment of Rhode Island Movie Corner’s series of DreamWorks Retrospectives. Simply put, it was a lot of fun to finally see what this franchise was all about after years of never getting around to seeing these films despite being fully aware of how beloved they were. And while The Hidden World may have marked the end of the franchise in terms of animated films, that doesn’t mean that this is the end of Hiccup and Toothless’ adventures as a live-action adaptation of the first film is currently in the works for a June 2025 release. Sure, this announcement undoubtedly frustrated those who, just like all the recent live-action remakes of Disney’s animated classics, question the need to make a live-action version of an animated masterpiece, but at the very least, this new film will benefit from the return of series director Dean DeBlois in the director’s chair. As for its casting, Mason Thames, breakout star of Scott Derrickson’s 2022 hit The Black Phone, headlines the film as Hiccup while Nico Parker, fresh off her acclaimed turn as Joel’s daughter Sarah in the HBO adaptation of The Last of Us, will star as Astrid. Edgar Wright regular Nick Frost takes on the role of Gobber while Gerard Butler returns to reprise his role from the animated films as Hiccup’s father Stoick. And if that wasn’t enough, 2025 will be a big year for the franchise in general as it’s set to serve as one of the five lands in Universal Orlando Resort’s upcoming fourth theme park, Epic Universe.

As for our next endeavor in the DreamWorks Retrospective series, this is where things get interesting. As I’ve said before, my goal with this series was to start out by tackling DreamWorks’ biggest franchises; more specifically, any franchise that has elicited, at the very least, a trilogy of films. With that in mind, when I first started this series back in 2022, How to Train Your Dragon was the most recent DreamWorks franchise to achieve this feat; thus, my plan at the time was to then do a quick detour and tackle the studio’s brief foray into traditionally animated features before moving on to the rest of their filmography. However, by the time that this post has been published, another DreamWorks franchise has recently achieved the trilogy mark. And so, for our next DreamWorks Retrospective, we’ll be tackling what has arguably become DreamWorks’ flagship franchise as of late, the Trolls franchise.