How to Train Your Dragon, the animated version released 15 years ago, and I am someone who has seen that film in theaters. And those shots of Hiccup riding Toothless, similar to a rollercoaster, along with that theme music, is something that would give an adrenalin rush to anyone. So, walking into a live-action version of the same story, I was slightly skeptical about whether the movie could have the same impact. Because the story is the same, the treatment would be more realistic since it is live-action, and I, as a human being, am older. But director Dean DeBlois, who co-directed the animated version in 2010, is able to recreate the magic, and to be frank, it had that same euphoric feel of watching all these re-releases these days, which brought back all those nostalgic memories.
If you have seen the 2010 movie, this is the paragraph you can easily skip unless you just want to refresh your memory. So the story is set in this Viking village, Berk. This village is frequently attacked by dragons, and the life mission of their chief, Stoick, is to put an end to this misery. Hiccup, Stoick’s son, who is considered a soft one by almost everyone, wants to prove his mettle by killing a dragon. What we see in How To Train Your Dragon is the events that happen when Hiccup meets a rare Night Fury dragon, whom he names Toothless.
The good thing here is that they are not trying to make a live-action based on the written script of the animated movie. Yes, the structure is pretty much the same. However, one can see that they have taken each scene and tried to redevelop it in a way to have much more details about that world and characters. Since it is live-action, there are limitations in taking creative liberties, and with that darker tone and real humans, the target audience of the movie is getting an age bracket shift. Unlike the animated feature, this one has a visual color palette that doesn’t have too much of punchy colors, and the skin texture of dragons is so real that I could see kids in the audience being nervous and crying in that first interaction scene of Hiccup and Toothless.
They are not making any significant plot changes to make this movie very different from the original. But like I said, they are taking a bit more time to show us the character dynamics. If the original one was 98 minutes long, this one has a duration of 125 minutes. Hiccup’s mother was rarely mentioned in the animated version, but here, the screenplay uses that character to put Hiccup as someone who sided with the dragons who took his mother. Diversity is addressed in a subtle manner during Stoick’s speech before his expedition to find the nest. The sequences that feature Hiccup and Astrid having discussions about which side to take in this battle have a more mature tone compared to the original, as they address a lot of debatable angles that one can see in many of the current real-world war scenarios.
Dean DeBlois has done this upgrading sort of remake in a pretty convincing way. It’s been a while since I saw the 2010 version, and seeing the same story all over again reminded me why I loved the original in the first place. There is drama, there is cuteness, and there is that adrenaline rush of seeing those dragon rides. Even as a live-action film that needs to do all those things in a realistic manner, they are able to recreate the magic. Even though Toothless is pretty much the same in terms of design, his skin is no longer glossy, and the matt finish does make him intimidating in those early portions. The overall quality of the CGI elements in the movie is superior. The cinematography recreates all those iconic scenery and shadowy interior drama bits in an appealing manner. The theme score by John Powell can still induce goosebumps.
Mason Thames is playing the part of Hiccup in this movie, and he really looks like a live-action version of the character. The kind of hesitations we associate with that character in the original was portrayed in a believable way by Mason. Nico Parker has played the role of Astrid, and she carries the confidence and fury of that character in a convincing manner on screen. Even though he was the voice behind Stoick in the animation version, I never thought there would come a day when I would see Gerard Butler as this mighty, chunky Viking leader. Well, he looked really solid as Stoick, and there are moments in the film that really utilize his Leonidas energy. Nick Frost as Gobber, the supportive guy who acts like a bridge between the father and son, was also pretty good.
The live-action version of How To Train Your Dragon almost works as a more nuanced version of the original. The darker and more realistic rendering of the visuals makes it less of a kids-friendly movie and more of something that an adult can rejoice in. Like, if you were in your teens when you saw the animated version, this one sort of accommodates the growth you may have had in terms of life experiences. With all the beats that worked in the original getting recreated with the same wit, warmth, and wow factor, How To Train Your Dragon is worth your money and time.