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Movie review: Live-action remake expands dragon scenes

Article (news)

Fred Hawson

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/175013532691120250617050636_toothless_hiccup_fly-min.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>Hiccup (Mason Thames) and Toothless. Universal Pictures </div>Hiccup (Mason Thames) was the son of Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler), the heroic chieftain of their Viking village of Berk. Unlike other villages, the big pest problem of Berk did not ordinary bugs. Instead, they are dragons who fly into their fields grabbing their sheep and burning down their homes. Hiccup was told that his mother had died because of a dragon. He grew up wanting to be able to kill dragons. However, he was physically incapable of doing so.In 2010, Dreamworks released &quot;How to Train Your Dragon,&quot; an animated feature about the friendship between a Viking boy and a Night Fury dragon, based on the 2003 novel and book series of the same title by Cressida Cowell. A commercial and critical success, this film launched its own franchise, including two sequels (2014 and 2019). This year, Dreamworks followed Disney&#x27;s lead and produced its own live action remake of this modern classic.The first film was written and directed by Chris Sanders and Will Deblois. Deblois alone wrote and directed this remake. (Meanwhile, Sanders worked on and released the live-action remake of his 2002 animated film &quot;Lilo and Stitch&quot; for Disney.)  Also back from the original films was Gerald Butler. He once voiced the character of Stoick the Vast, an important source of dramatic conflict in the story. Now, we see Butler himself perform on the big screen.Having live actors led to more emotional engagement between characters. Scenes of dorky Hiccup (Thames in a winsome performance) and his stern father had a lot more depth, especially in the third act. Astrid (a pretty, badass Nico Parker) was given more screen action, including a scene in a dragon&#x27;s mouth. Snoutlout (Gabriel Howell) even had a subplot with his father not in the original. A mystic Elder Gothi (Naomi Wirthner) was prominently featured.This live action remake followed the animated original loyally -- practically scene for scene and line for line. This new version ran for 125 minutes, while the original ran for only 98 minutes. The major difference that caused this difference in running time was that the human versus dragon action sequences were much more prolonged. All the 3D CGI dragons now look a lot larger, more menacing, less cartoonish-looking than the original animated dragons. <div> </div>This review was originally published in the author&#x27;s blog, “<a href="https://said-fred.blogspot.com/2025/06/review-of-how-to-train-your-dragon-2025.html">Fred Said.</a>”

This year, Dreamworks followed Disney's lead and produced its own live-action remake of its modern classic 'How to Train Your Dragon.'

This year, Dreamworks followed Disney's lead and produced its own live-action remake of its modern classic 'How to Train Your Dragon.'