DreamWorks
Dragon cards on the table, I am a huge fan of the How to Train Your Dragon film franchise. This means that while I’m ready to be sold on a remake, my expectations are also incredibly high. Director Dean DeBlois returns to the franchise to bring it into live-action though not with his original directing partner Chris Sanders, who made the acclaimed The Wild Robot last year. Along with DeBlois returns the original’s composer, John Powell, and everyone’s favorite Spartan turned Viking, Gerard Butler reprising his role as Stoic.
Same director, same musical mind, and even the same father figure all coming back, so what’s actually new in this film? The actors and that’s about it. Yes, if you’ve seen the original then you’ve seen ninety nine percent of this film. Some moments are allowed to breathe a little more but the main plot here plays out pretty much identically. The character Snotlout gets a dad played by Peter Serafinowicz, and a teeny bit of a subplot attached but it’s so oddly brief I feel like there was more shot sitting on the cutting room floor.
Something that happens in this remake is the strong elements of the original shine and the lesser parts stick out even more in live-action. Mason Thames and Nico Parker as Hiccup and Astrid, respectively, do a great job with roles that were already endearing. Though I must say Mason’s Hiccup had to win me over as I find the actor a little too teen heart-throbby for the gangly outcast Hiccup. With feathered hair and a fit build it’s a bit hard to believe him as the nerdy outcast of town. He does get there, and by the end of the film Thames shows he can carry this franchise forward. Nico’s Astrid starts just a shade harder and meaner in her delivery than the animated version but I think this works better in showing the difference in these two characters’ ambitions.
Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Snotlout, and Fishlegs were always the weakest parts of the animated films. Two dimensional characters purely there to deliver one-liners for kids to laugh at. I found them all annoying in their animated forms, and the live-action renditions feel even cringier. Luckily, much like the original, their screen time is brief and spread out through the film.
DreamWorks
What sells this film though are the visuals. They nailed the look of Berk and the dragons. Yes, a couple dragon riding scenes have that green screen look but by and large the special effects in this film are fantastic. In a world where Disney is giving us horrifying Dwarfs, DreamWorks is giving us Dragons that feel alive and terrifying and then awe inspiring. If I had to nitpick one thing visually about this film, it is that some of the costumes feel a bit too cosplay-esque, maybe a tad too clean in replicating the original designs, but once the story kicks in you soon forget all about that.
Was this a necessary or game-changing remake? No, not at all. But it does manage to catch most of that same magic that exhilarated fans of this series. Pet owners, especially cat lovers, will feel the bond between Hiccup and Toothless again, as well as that thrilling feeling during their first flight.
Stacking this up with the mountain of live-action remakes out there, it’s assuredly in the upper echelon and might even be the best. That being said the original is still better, but credit for just nailing this adaptation in all the ways that it needed to. Assuming this franchise continues, I’d love to see them grow and develop the supporting cast or fix some of the minor issues with the sequels. How To Train Your Dragon is a great way to spend a night with the family and worthy of being seen on a big screen.
How to Train Your Dragon has a run time of 2 hours 5 minutes, and is rated PG for sequences of intense action, and peril.
DreamWorks