Live-Action How To Train Your Dragon Is 10 Years Too Early, Even If It Looks Perfect (2024)

The live-action adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon appears to be a perfect shot-for-shot remake of the original, but it has arrived much too soon. The original movie was an instant hit, earning strong reviews and starting a How to Train Your Dragon movie and TV franchise. The dragon species in How to Train Your Dragon, are all different, but the story focuses on Toothless, a Night Fury. When the prospective dragon-slayer, Hiccup, injures Toothless, he can't bring himself to kill him and discovers that the two species can live together in harmony.

When the list of How to Train Your Dragon's cast and characters was announced, it was an exciting surprise to see that Gerard Butler would reprise his role as Stoick the Vast in the animated movie. The trailer shows a brief clip of him in the role, looking almost exactly like his animated counterpart. However, the trailer also shows a perfect recreation of one of the movie's most emotional scenes, and this draws some concern. If the movie is a shot-for-shot remake, then How to Train Your Dragon is arriving 10 years too early.

The How To Train Your Dragon Adaptation Looks Authentic To The Source Material (Which Is What Everyone Wants)

The Live-Action Adaptation Might Be Too Faithful To The Original How To Train Your Dragon

While there has only been a teaser trailer and a handful of first-look images released so far, the How to Train Your Dragon adaptation appears to have stayed authentic to the original movie. The teaser trailer shows the iconic scene in which Toothless allows Hiccup to touch him for the first time, and it has been recreated down to the last detail. This may come as a relief to viewers considering that not every live-action adaptation of an animated property succeeded in capturing the magic of the original.

Audiences have wanted the live-action adaptation to stay faithful to the original movie, but almost every scene in the How to Train Your Dragon trailer is a direct copy. This means the movie may not offer anything new to potential audiences other than live actors. Adapting a beloved movie is often a gamble, with changes from the source material drawing criticism, but there is a risk in playing things too safely, as How to Train Your Dragon appears to be doing. A perfect recreation might have been better in 10 years if the original movies looked dated.

It's Too Soon For A Live-Action How To Train Your Dragon Adaptation

A Live-Action Spin-Off Could Have Been A Better Move For How To Train Your Dragon

While there are many Disney live-action remakes, these have mostly adapted movies from the 1990s, or even earlier, in the case of Snow White. Even then, Disney has usually updated the story for a modern audience or changed significant plot points to make the new movie different from the original. This makes the timing of a shot-for-shot recreation seem even stranger. The latest movie in the How to Train Your Dragon franchise was only released five years ago, and the original was released 14 years ago, making a copy of such a recent story feel redundant.

Many sagas, like the Jurassic Park and Disney Princess franchises, have successfully expanded with spin-off series. These often look different from the original movies but build on the worlds they show. A much better choice for the How to Train Your Dragon franchise would have been to further explore the world around Hiccup and Toothless, as it would be a natural continuation of the movies. Each of the How to Train Your Dragon movies features a new and exciting location, and a live-action spin-off could offer another, with the actors bringing something new to the story.

Live-Action How To Train Your Dragon Was Always A No-Win Scenario

Adapting How To Train Your Dragon Would Likely Be A Challenge Even 10 Years Later

The How to Train Your Dragon filmmakers already faced a challenge because making a completely different movie was likely to be criticized. The filmmakers could have taken the Disney route and made the same movie with a few changes, but this was also likely to be unpopular based on the mixed reviews that Disney live-action movies tend to attract. There was no way to make this adaptation a success so soon after the original movie.

To make a successful adaptation, there usually has to be something to be improved about the original. Many Disney reboots change outdated stories for a modern audience, and old science-fiction movie effects can be transformed with a remake. However, as made clear by its nearly perfect Rotten Tomatoes score, there was nothing wrong with How to Train Your Dragon, nor do its visuals look dated. How to Train Your Dragon is a timeless story, and it's difficult to find a reason for a live-action remake to exist.

How to Train Your Dragon

Action

Adventure

Family

How to Train Your Dragon, set on the Viking island of Berk, follows Hiccup, a young Viking who challenges tradition by befriending a Night Fury dragon named Toothless. Their bond reveals new insights about dragons and transforms Viking society's understanding of these creatures.

Director

Dean DeBlois

Release Date

June 13, 2025

Studio(s)

DreamWorks Pictures

Distributor(s)

Universal Pictures

Writers

Dean DeBlois

Cast

Mason Thames , Nico Parker , Gerard Butler , Nick Frost , Julian Dennison , Gabriel Howell , Bronwyn James , Harry Trevaldwyn , Ruth Codd

Character(s)

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III , Astrid Hofferson , Stoick the Vast , Gobber the Belch , Fishlegs Ingerman , Snoutlout Jorgenson , Ruffnut Thorston , Tuffnut Thorston , Phlegma

Franchise(s)

How to Train Your Dragon