For the most part I am against the recent trend of live-action remakes for animated films. Some wind up good like The Jungle Book or even Lilo & Stitch from a few weeks ago, but many (especially some recent Disney output) just feel like pointless cash grabs. How to Train Your Dragon is one I thought felt completely unnecessary, it's only been 15 years since the original came out and 6 years since the most recent film in the franchise. Walking out of the theatre for this retelling though, I was actually really pleased.
One thing I will say, if you want to see a fresh telling of the story this is not the movie for you. While some of these remakes have made drastic changes to the story, this is damn near the same movie. Some small changes exist but it hits pretty much every beat of the original and even has moments that feel like direct recreations of the animated film. For some this will be an issue, but we just saw Disney butcher Snow White by trying something new and the director of this is Dean DeBlois who made the animated films, so while this doesn't feel fresh it does still feel like a ton of love is poured into it.
If you haven't seen the original, what on earth have you been doing the last decade and a half? Sorry that was harsh. How to Train Your Dragon follows Hiccup (Mason Thames), a young viking and the son of his village Berk's leader (Gerard Butler). While some places have rats or other vermin, Berk is constantly victim to dragon attacks, and despite his father's stature Hiccup is incapable of killing dragons. When he lucks his way into catching one, a night fury he names Toothless, he learns that rather than fight the dragons they may be better off learning to co-exist.
One area I think this adaptation knocked it out of the park was in the casting. I was worried that losing Jay Baruchel's voice as Hiccup would deeply sour the movie for me but I thought Mason Thames did a genuinely terrific job. He has that same kind of awkward innocence and while he doesn't have that iconic voice I think this could have gone south if he tried to do an imitation rather than his own thing. I am far from a fan of Gerard Butler, but he is perfect reprising his voice role as Hiccup's father. He has the size and grandness that the character needs and while we don't have Baruchel's voice it's great to still have Butler's. I was really excited to see Nico Parker as Astrid, and she was solid although I expected her to really command the screen which I never really felt. Julian Dennison is a perfect choice for Fishlegs, maybe being the lone character I'd say I prefer the live action version of, and Gabriel Howell is pretty great as Snotlout. The twins Ruffnut and Tuffnut I sadly didn't love, the people playing them in Universal's new theme park look like they're doing an amazing job which made the casting here a bit more of a let down for me.
The production also impressed me a lot. The set design is magnificent, recreating some great locations from the animated film but also offering some gorgeous natural settings. The costumes are also great in recapturing the original film's magic. Perhaps most importantly though, the dragons look great. The CGI in a lot of the Disney remakes has been a large downside, but Dreamworks clearly put some money behind this as the effects are amazing. Toothless is brought to life beautifully, and the other dragons all look great as well. It would have been easy to make this lose some of the animated film's magic, but the effort placed on making these dragons both believable and personable is a huge part of what makes this work. There is a moment or two where the green screen is noticeable, and the cinematography in some of the flying/fighting scenes feels a bit shaky, but I was really impressed with the amount of care put into this.
It's hard to give this all the credit for how strong it is. It has a terrific source material that it sticks to from start to finish, and it feels like I can't even commend some elements like the music because it's essentially the same score that was so magical fifteen years ago. This is treading no new ground, and it doesn't need to exist, but there's so much love and care put into it that it doesn't really matter. This is a beautiful adaptation even if it is too familiar, and in a theatre full of noisy kids and annoying parents coming in late and flashing their phones around, all I could focus on was the movie and I think that's a strong testament for how well done it was. 4/5
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