How To Train Your Dragon remake trades animated magic for money-hungry mediocrity

An overlooked young protagonist has what it takes to do what nobody else in their community could and saves the day—audiences know these story beats. The magic of the animated How To Train Your Dragon, based on the books by Cressida Cowell, derived from how wonderfully it executed these plot points, rather than its story trying to reinvent the YA fantasy wheel. The remake, of course, doesn’t try to do any reinvention of its own beyond changing mediums, and the fidelity to “realism” that live-action seemingly demands hurts more than it helps. 

Berk is admirably brought to real life, though there’s a darkness and grayness to many of the scenes that saps their vibrancy, and the nods to the more cartoonish costumes or designs don’t completely work either, like The Northman by way of Fisher-Price. Toothless’ catlike behavior and design are essentially ported directly from the animated original, just with higher-fidelity scales to attempt to make his texture fit in the real world. The result has Toothless flying through an uncanny valley, especially since the other dragons aren’t as cartoonish. The dragons spit realistically rendered fiery breath and brandish sharp claws—a visual raising of stakes that ironically makes the 2025 version feel more fake than the animated film, since nobody gets burned or hurt during the fights.

As Hiccup, Thames is totally capable, but without the nasal casualness of Jay Baruchel’s voice performance, the character seems that much more like a generic pretty-boy hero. It’s just another case of stripping away some of the details that made the original How To Train Your Dragon more than it might’ve seemed on paper. But though the live-action transition mutes its exuberance and puts a ceiling on How To Train Your Dragon‘s magic, it’s not all bad. While Hiccup may suffer, the actors who play his supporting cast of teenage dragon slayers in training (Gabriel Howell, Julian Dennison, Bronwyn James, and Harry Trevaldwyn) get an opportunity to be more fleshed out than their cartoon counterparts. Astrid, especially—the tough girl and love interest to Hiccup, played here by Nico Parker—conveys a greater sense of internality and depth. This could be because, for as much as the 2010 film’s CG animation holds up a decade and a half later, its character models look plasticky. (They look much better in the sequel, released just four years later.) Replacing those models with talented, expressive young actors elevates these supporting parts.

Perhaps it’s simplest to compare the two versions of How To Train Your Dragon at their literal and thematic high points: the sequence where Hiccup and Toothless first take flight together. It’s visceral and thrilling as the pair soar through the wind, narrowly dodging emerald cliffs and spraying surf—perhaps even more so than in the original. It also lacks the pure wonder that made that sequence, and the whole animated movie, so special. Rather than trying to train something new, How To Train Your Dragon is riding an already proven beast; even its “first flight” has been done before. It can’t reach those old heights, let alone any new ones. And it doesn’t try to, nor does its audience really want it to. For live-action remakes, cruising altitude is the highest they can hope for. 

Director: Dean DeBlois
Writer: Dean DeBlois
Starring: Mason Thames, Nico Parker, Nick Frost, Julian Dennison, Gabriel Howell, Bronwyn James, Harry Trevaldwyn, Ruth Codd, Peter Serafinowicz, Murray McArthur, Gerard Butler
Release Date: June 13, 2025