How To Train Your Dragon review: A gorgeous, sincere adaptation
Dreamworks’ How To Train Your Dragon has quietly become a beloved franchise, with the animated trilogy winning over critics and audiences. Artistically, 2019’s The Hidden World was the perfect goodbye, but this is Hollywood, and no IP stays dormant for long. Thus, we have a live action remake.
How To Train Your Dragon is set in a fantasy world, where Vikings have fought dragons on the remote Isle Of Berk for generations. Mason Thames plays Hiccup, the son of the mighty Viking Chief Stoic (Gerard Butler). Timid and slight, Hiccup doesn’t live up to the standards of a Viking, although he dreams of proving himself by training to become a dragon killer. However, when he meets and befriends an injured dragon he calls Toothless, a bond forms that compels him to stop his people hunting them.
As Disney has proved, live action remakes of beloved cartoons are hard to pull off. If it’s too similar, people question its existence; if it’s too different, you’re accused of tarnishing a legend. This remake opts for the former, following the first animated film very closely – in some cases, shot for shot. This is partly because director Dean DeBlois also made the original trilogy, also bringing in Butler who voiced Stoic in the animations.
This may prompt eyerolls for some, as most remakes offer at least a little bit of deviation from the past. However, the story still holds up, never losing its sense of wonder or relying on your nostalgia to fill the gaps. Hiccup and Stoic’s father-son conflict has a bit more tension in live action, and the message of embracing your difference feels more relevant than ever.
Visually, fans will be delighted with how their universe has been realised. The locations chosen for Berk are stunningly beautiful, and the action is even more epic with the mythical beasts now rendered in CGI. The final act, featuring a giant mother dragon, deserves to be seen on the biggest screen possible.
Simply put, it musters the same emotions the first film did, thanks primarily to a talented cast. 17-year-old Thames masters Hiccup’s awkward sarcasm, becoming a hero that you want to see succeed. His winged best friend is just as adorable as before, and likely to make a fan of the youngsters coming to this story for the first time.
A talented crew of character actors provide the laughs. Nick Frost, soon to be seen in the Harry Potter TV series as Hagrid, is gruffly endearing as Viking trainer Gobber, while Butler is having a blast becoming a hairier version of his character from 300. Nico Parker is spiky but mighty as Astrid, Hiccups rival-turned-love interest, while special attention should be paid to Deadpool 2 star Julian Dennison as the hilarious dragon nerd Fishlegs.
The reasons for its existence may be purely financial, but the live action How To Train Your Dragon retains the heart and soul of the original. This gorgeous, sincere adaptation sticks rigidly to the animation’s playbook, but in doing so reminds us what makes the story special.
How To Train Your Dragon is in cinemas now