The new version of “How to Train Your Dragon” doesn’t do a single thing better than the original. It’s not quite as soulless as the worst of these live-action remakes—the Disney updates to “Beauty & the Beast” and “The Lion King” have no reason to exist outside of capitalism and one can feel traces of craft hereoo from Dean Deblois, a co-creator of the original animated trilogy—but it’s a film that’s constantly painting in the lines. If you’re going to remake a film, especially one as recently beloved as this one, it requires something new in the tracing. Ticket buyers have always responded to familiarity, but I can’t wrap my brain around the artistic half of the equation in a film like this one. Sure, most of these movies make money. But that’s just content creation, not filmmaking, and fans of one of the best modern animated trilogies deserve more.
If you’ve seen the 2010 adaptation of Cressida Cowell’s book then you can truly skip through the plot section of this review. With shot-for-shot fidelity through large sections of the film, we return to Berk, a place defined by a generations-long battle between dragons and Vikings. The leader of the latter is Chief Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler, reprising the role he voiced in the films), a man obsessed with finding the dragon’s nest that will allow his Vikings to finally rule over the creatures of the night who steal their sheep and burn their huts.
Stoick’s son isn’t exactly following in dad’s footsteps. Awkward and anxious, Hiccup (Mason Thames) dreams of designing the right weapon to fell an infamous species of dragon known as a Night Fury, which he does in the film’s extended prologue. He finds the dragon that he will dub Toothless in what becomes a riff on Androcles and the Lion, the classic tale of a beast and man who become friends when the latter saves the former. In this case, Hiccup designs a new tail for Toothless, becoming his ally, discovering that the war between dragons and Vikings can be stopped with a little peace, love, and understanding.
All the animated supporting characters return, including Nick Frost as the playful Gobber, who trains the Viking recruits that Hiccup eventually leads: Snotlout (Gabriel Howell), Fishlegs (Julian Dennison), Ruffnut (Bronwyn James), Tuffnut (Harry Trevaldwyn), and, of course, Astrid (Nico Parker), the toughest young warrior in town and an eventual love interest for Hiccup.
Without any significant narrative changes, the 2025 version of “How to Train Your Dragon” runs 27 minutes longer than the animated one. It’s a lengthening by a hundred inserts: stretching some dialogue here, giving Astrid a bit of back story, extending a flight sequence there, taking us back to recruit training more often, and of course, the aesthetic differences between establishing shots in live-action vs. animation. It may not sound like a huge deal for hardcore fans of this franchise, but the bloating seeps into the overall experience in a way that can’t be underestimated. The lyrical, flowing nature of the original (and its sequels) feels clunkier here right from the beginning. Even the “Welcome to Berk” prologue just feels a beat or two too long; the pacing is off and not just because we know everything that’s going to happen next before the characters do. This version of “HTTYD” just doesn’t pop, doesn’t flow like the originals, almost playing like an extended cut of a film that was originally tightened in the editing bay.
Of course, the main argument for doing a film again 15 years later is a technical one: Use modern special effects to adapt the original book in a way that couldn’t be done in 2010. And some of the new “How to Train Your Dragon” looks pretty impressive, especially the one-on-one scenes with Hiccup & Toothless, in which you’ll forget Mr. Thames is acting across from a tennis ball and/or a puppet. However, the film isn’t even perfect visually, with some of the flying scenes betraying how much we’re seeing isn’t really happening. It’s funny how much we will get lost in animation, buying the impossible as real, but when a film reaches for live-action “realism,” we can more easily see the flaws in the CGI.
As for performance, Butler knows this character well and commits to the Viking bit with expected gusto, but Thames struggles to match Jay Baruchel’s blend of optimism and intelligence, turning Hiccup into more of a passenger on this journey than a protagonist. Nico Parker makes out much better, finding Astrid’s confidence, and arguably giving the best performance in the film. She’s clearly a future star in the making, someone who makes some of the very few unexpected choices even in a highly expected film like this one (she was also in Tim Burton’s “Dumbo” remake, evidence of how much retelling stories has become an industry in Hollywood). The cast outside of Butler and Parker struggles to make any memorable impression. Even Ruffnut and Tuffnut feel like cosplayers more than characters.
Really, that’s all this is: very expensive cosplay. It’s fans and a few creators of an original putting on the costumes, saying the lines, and going through the motions again. No one ever stops to ask why. They’re too busy planning the merchandising; this one comes as a sort of accompaniment to an entire section at the newly-opened Epic Universe in Orlando dedicated to Berk. Is it a stretch to say that hundreds of people have created an extended commercial for a theme park? Maybe. But it’s depressing that it’s even a question worth asking.
