I took it as a sign I was getting old when I talked to a fully grown adult the other day about the upcoming How To Train Your Dragon live action remake. “Oh yeah! I’m excited!”, they exclaimed. “That was my favorite movie when I was a little kid!” I did a double take and googled it. Yeah, the original came out in 2010…fifteen years ago. Seriously?! I still consider that movie to be so new and innovative. The peak of “recent” animation. But, alas, it’s now considered a classic. And rightfully so. During a time I held little interest in 3D animated films outside of the occasional Disney offering, How To Train Your Dragon captured my attention and deep respect as a genuinely wonderful film, balancing storytelling, charming characters, unique dragon designs, and sincere emotion without feeling too pandering.
And of course it’s being remade into a life action. After years of Disney giving this treatment to all of their most beloved films, it’s no surprise that Dreamworks is finally getting in on the trend. I don’t blame them for the choice to start with this particular film. It’s well loved, has plenty of sequels, has enough human characters to film, as well as some gorgeous scenery to interpret. In case you haven’t seen the original, the story is about Hiccup (Mason Thames), a teenaged viking living on the fictional island of Berk. The culture of Berk revolves around hunting and killing the various species of dragons that are a constant threat to their way of life. Unfortunately, Hiccup is awkward and clumsy, much to the disappointment of his father Stoik (Gerard Butler), the chief of the island. However, everything changes when Hiccup shoots a legendary Night Fury out of the sky, only to befriend the dragon, naming him “Toothless”. Through his continued experiences with Toothless, Hiccup learns that dragons aren’t what his society deems them to be, and must now find a way to teach the citizens of Berk to think differently.
I was surprised and pleased that Dean DeBlois, the director of all of the original films, is back for this one. It’s far more common for a studio to wish to bring in new blood for a new perspective on the animated to live action transition. Upon watching the new film, it’s completely apparent that it’s the same director. Every shot is practically a love letter to the original, to the point that I would be a bit insulted if someone else did it, as they would be practically copy/pasting DeBlois’s work. You can definitely tell that this franchise is his baby, and he put every ounce of love he had for the animated films into making the live action.
Visually, is where we can definitely see that love the most. The sets, the color pallets, the costuming, everything was spot on here, while at the same time, not being too “cartoony”. I will say, the only element that felt a little cartoony were the dragons themselves. Not in a bad way though. The visual team avoided a common pitfall of redesigning the very stylistic creatures of the original into being far too realistic “edgy” versions of themselves. Every dragon, especially Toothless, was completely recognizable, retaining the charm that made them so beloved in the animated films. The only film I can recall I’ve been as impressed by that was the Pokemon in Detective Pikachu.
Another factor this remake got spot on was the casting. Always a touchy subject when we visualize a character looking and acting one way in the original, only to be completely different in the live action, I feel this cast was perfect. If I met Mason Thames on the street before I saw him in this film, I would probably have called him “Hiccup” in my mind anyway. And Gerard Butler already literally was Stoik in the original films, so him reprising the role of the manly Viking chieftain was the ideal outcome. I also have praise for Nico Parker who plays the tough as nails young dragon hunter trainee Astrid. She captured the role wonderfully, while probably adding more depth to the character in this version than anyone else got.
That does bring me to a major question I’ve been asking. Was this a very well done live action remake? Yes, no doubt. But the constant question was, was this necessary to even be made in the first place? If the original was great the way it was, and the remake was near perfect faithful to it, how is its existence justified? In the case of How To Train Your Dragon I do think the live action remake was marginally justified. There is an incredible amount of human emotion in this film that had a bigger impact because we see the performances of the actors themselves. Also, the extended length of a live action did afford the film to have more moments to breathe and let emotional beats hit harder. And while it was very subtle, extra lines of character motivations were added, giving us more understanding as to why they were the way they were.
As much as I wish to deny that fifteen years have passed between the original film and now, time has certainly marched on. But I’m thankful at least that those years have been kind to this particular franchise, enough for Dreamworks to give them the live action remake they deserved, which is better than many Disney films get, unfortunately. While that’s not quite enough to make me feel safe any time a new live action remake of an animated classic is announced, I’m glad in in this particular case, How To Train Your Dragon was done justice.
