How to Train Your Dragon

How To Train Your Dragon Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Mason Thames, Nico Parker, Gerard Butler, and Nick Frost.

Director: Dean DeBlois

What’s Good: The new CGI on the dragons makes them look just amazing, and while some of the designs don’t translate well to live action, overall, the dragons’ look is a huge win.

What’s Bad: The film just doesn’t justify its existence other than keeping the IP alive, while worsening some secondary characters with questionable casting.

Loo Break: The film is as tight as the original one, so there are no breaks to go to the loo.

Watch or Not?: Watch only if you’re a massive fan of the original, or if you have never seen the original animated film before.

Language: English (with subtitles).

Available On: Theaters

Runtime: 125 Minutes

User Rating:

Opening:

Disney is certainly the king of the live-action trend, but in the last couple of years, they have stumbled several times at bringing their animated films to the live-action realm, with failures such as Mufasa and Snow White. Meanwhile, Universal, Disney’s biggest competitor, is getting ready to do the same, which is a shame, but business is business, and this How to Train Your Dragon live-action film is so close to the original that while it is, no doubt, unnecessary, the film is still entertaining.

How To Train Your Dragon Movie Review: Script Analysis

In many ways, How to Train Your Dragon might be the mainstream case of “Funny Games,” where we saw Michael Haneke remaking his film shot-by-shot for the US market without any changes whatsoever. In this case, Dean DeBlois is remaking his own animated film from scratch into the live-action format, keeping things 99% the same, except for some lines here and there and, of course, the logical visual improvements from a film that is now 15 years old.

As such, if you saw the original How to Train Your Dragon, then you have seen this film before, as it has very few changes. What changes isn’t precisely big either and entails logical changes from when you take an animated movie and make it live-action, as some animated elements don’t translate very well into live-action. Some of the humor involving secondary characters falls flat, for example, as the actors just don’t have the exaggerated movements and behavior of their animated counterparts.

As it is, the film still stands in the same way as the original, a powerful tale of individuality, chasing dreams, and responsibility for yourself and those around you. It uses several narrative structures that are considered cliché by today’s standards, but they work nevertheless, and with this level of presentation, the straightforwardness of the film is an asset and not a flaw. It would have been great if this second chance allowed for better development related to secondary characters, but it is too much to ask.

The script doesn’t have big surprises and doesn’t deviate from what we know; only the tone of the film changes a bit, which might add or subtract depending on who you ask. For me, both versions are just too similar to really start comparing who did what best. Both films have pros and cons when viewed from afar, but because they are at their core the same, don’t be surprised if a new generation considers this their definitive version.

How To Train Your Dragon Movie Review: Star Performance

The story and structure are the same as in the original animated film, but the biggest differences are plain to see when it comes to acting. Live-action actors just don’t have the expressiveness of the characters in the animated version, but also the animated version cannot match the nuance of the performances when done by real people on camera. Mason Thames, our new Hiccup, does a great job putting on the screen what makes the character tick, and his conflict when trying to be what his family wants him to be, and what he actually wants to be as an individual.

Gerard Butler also stands out as Hiccup’s father, a role he also played in the animated version; he is both funny and serious and can cause audiences some really strong emotional damage. Nico Parker also does a great job as Astrid, but for some reason, changes in her behavior conflict with the original version. The rest of the cast does a solid job, but some of them, like the rest of Hiccup’s crew, feel very out of place.