How To Train Your Dragon remake trades animated magic for money-hungry mediocrity
A live-action remake that ironically feels more fake than the animated original glides by on goodwill alone.
Photo: DreamWorks Animation
It’s quite dragon-like to see a hoard of riches and to want some for yourself. Disney has been making money with live-action remakes of its classic films, so why wouldn’t DreamWorks Animation get in on the action? There’s plenty to mine from—DreamWorks Animation has released 50 movies, only 13 fewer than Walt Disney Animation Studios despite the House Of Mouse being around for a half-century longer—and How To Train Your Dragon, a beloved coming-of-age fantasy adventure, is the first of what may soon be many rival live-action adaptations. So perhaps it’s natural that the 2025 How To Train Your Dragon is an extremely faithful remake, gliding by on the strength of the original film. Is it as good as the animated movie? Well, are any of these?
How To Train Your Dragon isn’t shy about its devotion to the first film. Dean DeBlois, director of the three animated HTTYDs, makes his live-action debut with the remake despite some earlier public comments dismissing the whole live-action remake trend; Gerard Butler returns to play Viking chieftain Stoick The Vast after previously voicing him; and John Powell, whose score is the not-so-secret key to the series’ power, revisits his own music. The plot, which always relied on familiar tropes, is the same: Hiccup (Mason Thames) lives on the Isle Of Berk where everybody’s main occupation is fighting the dragons that burn their homes and steal their sheep. Much to the dismay of Stoic, his father, Hiccup doesn’t appear to have what it takes to fight dragons, but when he manages to knock a rare dragon out of the sky, he ends up befriending it rather than slaying it. The unlikely friendship between Hiccup and his new dragon pal Toothless changes everything.