For those who are shocked that How to Train Your Dragon is getting a live action remake, you shouldn’t be. It’s one of the best animated movies of the century, turning dragons into adorable pets/merchandising opportunities. DreamWorks did all the “right” things with the remake: similar cast, same director, Toothless looks cute as ever. Except the most important thing.
For the newbie 6 year olds, How to Train Your Dragon starts on the Scottish ish island of Berk. The town is besieged by dragons constantly, only holding together because of chief Stoick (Gerard Butler), weapons tinkerer Gobber (Nick Frost), and the brave Berkian soldiers and volunteers. But definitively not Hiccup (Mason Thames), Stoick’s son and town outcast who causes more problems than he helps. Hoping to win over the town and maybe the heart of brave, beautiful Astrid (Nico Parker), Hiccup vows to shoot down the infamous “Night Fury” no one has ever seen. He gets lucky and succeeds…but can’t quite finish the job, instead turning Toothless (the night fury) into the best pet ever.
I thought Director Dean Deblois, who directed all 3 Dragon Training movies, would really try something different, as he wasn’t afraid to do bold things with the 2 Dragon Sequels. Sadly, he plays it safe here, for whatever reason (studio interference, live action fears, etc). The 2025 live action remake is 90% EXACTLY the same as the animated movie. I was saying the dialogue to myself before each line, knowing exactly what was coming, and when. This was done clearly not wanting to piss off the eager and excited audience. Only one problem with that: it’s gonna piss people off either way. When you remake the best scenes of any movie, the best you can do is replicate that feeling but without the first time experience part; you can’t really ever improve upon it because that moment is so powerful. So you’re setting up poor Mason Thames for failure at each key moment in the film, cause there’s no way even the best actor could hit the highs of the 2010 movie moments. Deblois also screws himself over with the other big moment: the first “test drive” with Hiccup riding Toothless. The CGI is great for the dragon in still moments: it looks pretty tactile and real close up. But in flight? It’s a bit of a blur, hard to follow, and zaps a good chuck of the power of that moment, saved only by the beautiful scenery and killer soundtrack.
As for the other 10%, about half of that is actually worthwhile good choices, mostly around Astrid. Deblois’s 2025 version of her is less defined by her relationship to Hiccup, making her closer to an equal than just a requisite love interest. Nico Parker is up for the physical work here, and gets some added on scenes that make her more interesting as a character, including a key added on moment in the final battle. It’s not much, but at least it’s something. As for the rest, there’s a pointless Snotlout (Gabriel Howell) subplot with his dad, and more Gerard Butler, because he’s the biggest name in the cast. Most of that feels pretty forced and keeps us away from Hiccup and Toothless, the real sauce of these movies. The funniest add on is when Deblois realized that Viking culture didn’t have a lot of diversity, so there’s an unintentionally hilarious moment where we get one Benetton ad shot of other non Caucasian Viking, who are wordless, and never mentioned again, which is somehow worse.
Disney, this is your fault. Your pointless live action cash grabbing has now spread to DreamWorks. So that means like a cold, this dumb virus is going to spread everywhere. Get ready everyone for Mike Myers as Shrek and Eddie Murphy as Donkey in a Cats like remake there. Plus, you don’t think Steve Carell is getting in a Gru outfit, and we get some psychotic CGI minions somewhere soon, you’re crazy. I will reiterate this every time: but remake the BAD or MEDIOCRE movies and make them better please? Don’t tarnish the great ones with this pointless garbage.