How to Train Your Dragon review

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: 

HAVE YOU SEEN HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (2010)? THEN YOU’VE ALREADY SEEN THIS MOVIE EXCEPT DONE BETTER! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** out of 4

UNIVERSAL PICTURES AND DREAMWORKS ANIMATION

Hiccup and Toothless in How to Train Your Dragon (2025)

 

            Because Disney can’t keep things to themselves, DreamWorks feels the need to join the live-action remake club with How to Train Your Dragon, a reimagining of their 2010 animated film of the same name. I’m pretty sure I made this abundantly clear that I loved the original movie in my previous How to Train Your Dragon film reviews and hailed the entire trilogy as some of my favorite animated DreamWorks films alongside the first two Shrek movies, the original three Kung Fu Panda movies, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, and most recently, The Wild Robot. 

            Much like the original film’s directors, Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois (who also directs this movie)’ other iconic animated feature, Disney’s Lilo & Stitch, the first How to Train Your Dragon took a story we’ve heard a million times and tropes we’ve seen a million times and made it fresh and new with lovable characters, gorgeous animation that looked absolutely breathtaking in IMAX and 3D, and a strong emotional core. The film was a massive critical and commercial hit and spawned two sequels in 2014 and 2019 (How to Train Your Dragon 2 IMO is one of the best animated films ever made), various TV shows, and a series of shorts. 

            So, of course DreamWorks had to pull a “Greedy Mickey” and give How to Train Your Dragon the live-action remake treatment because it worked so well for Disney and everyone, everywhere loves seeing them destroy their animated legacy, only complete idiots don’t see the cinematic brilliance of their Snow White and Lion King remakes. The trailers for this did not grab me, it just looked like the same exact movie again except done in live-action, but I wouldn’t know for sure until I see it. 

            Upon seeing it… yes, this is a shot for shot, line for line remake of How to Train Your Dragon (2010) with absolutely nothing special about it. I can’t say it’s an awful remake as it does try to be as faithful to the original as possible and it isn’t soulless like the Disney Lion King remake from 2019, but it just hits all the beats you’ve already seen from the 2010 animated film and outside of a few amusing performances, hardly anything about it stands out. 

            The film is set on the island of Berk where Vikings have fought off terrifying dragons for years under the leadership of their chief, Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler-300, Olympus Has Fallen trilogy, Copshop; reprising his role from the animated films). But when his 16-year-old son, Hiccup (Mason Thames-The Black Phone) shoots a dragon (Night Fury) down only to find it wounded and harmless, he realizes dragons aren’t as they seem thus befriending the dragon he calls Toothless. 

            This causes a huge conflict between Hiccup, his father, and his love interest, Astrid (Nico Parker-Dumbo (2019), The Last of Us, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy) as he must prove to an entire island of dragon-killing vikings that everything they know about them is wrong. 

            The film also stars Nick Frost (Cornetto trilogy, Paul, The Boxtrolls) as Gobber the Belch, Julian Dennison (Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Deadpool 2, Godzilla VS Kong) as Fishlegs, Bronwyn James (Harlots, Wicked) and Harry Trevaldwyn (The King, The Bubble, The Acolyte) as Ruffnut and Tuffnut, Peter Serafinowicz (Shaun of the Dead, Guardians of the Galaxy, John Wick: Chapter 2) as Spitelout, Ruth Codd (The Midnight Club, The Fall of the House of Usher) as Phlegma, Murray McArthur (Game of Thrones, The Broken Man, The Northman) as Hoark, and newcomer Gabriel Howell as Snotlout. 

            Overall, How to Train Your Dragon (2025) is a competent re-imagining as it tries to honor the original animated movie as much as possible while also improving upon certain details from it, but it’s mostly another line for line remake of a great movie that comes off more as a nostalgic novelty rather than a unique take on a story we’ve heard before. There are good things about this movie, I like how the film handles its IMAX sequences and aspect ratio changes where the screen gradually grows and shrinks which honestly felt more natural and less jarring than when Christopher Nolan uses IMAX technology (Huh, go figure, a mediocre DreamWorks remake actually did IMAX aspect ratio changes better than one of the best filmmakers working today). 

            I don’t regret seeing the movie in IMAX 3D and like the animated films, the flying sequences are spectacular and the 3D and IMAX technologies are well utilized during these scenes. Personally I’d rather have an IMAX 3D re-release of the original three movies, but this was at least a good theater experience even if the movie itself was not IMO. 

            Some of the performances are strong particularly from Gerard Butler and Nick Frost, Butler has already portrayed Stoick in the animated movies, but he adds a lot of subtle facial expressions and mannerisms to his performance and makes it both in spirit with the original character while also adding his own flair to it. Nick Frost as Stoick’s close friend and village blacksmith, Gobber is perfect casting and I love Craig Ferguson in the animated films, but like Butler, Frost utilizes his face a lot in his performance and he incorporates a ton of comedy in the role without it feeling out of place, he perfectly encompassed that character… everyone else is fine! 

            The film also expands upon a few side characters and overlooked details from the original like the Elder being more prominent and a cut to a silhouette of Hiccup as Stoick is celebrating his son about to kill a dragon during the arena scene. I actually found Snotlout (The character Jonah Hill voiced in the original films) more memorable here and gave him more to do in the story which I liked. 

            Despite all that, the movie just hits every beat from the original movie, repeats every line, and does every comedic bit we’ve already seen. It is neat to see certain scenes recreated in live-action, it ultimately just made me wish I was watching the original again despite its valiant attempts. 

            How to Train Your Dragon (2025) isn’t soulless like some of Disney’s remakes, but it’s an unremarkable attempt from DreamWorks at trying to replicate what Disney has been doing. A sequel is already in-development and I’m hoping that one will actually take it in a new direction with this just being a starting point and that this doesn’t become a recurring thing for DreamWorks, I have no desire to see a live-action remake of Shrek, you feel me?