How to Train Your Dragon The animated film was one of the best I’ve seen in the last twenty-five years or so. It had beautiful animation and an inspiring story to go along with the animation. It spawned two equally good sequels, which bot were nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards the same as the first one was. With the ever-growing landscape of animated remakes from Disney, it made sense that Universal Pictures and DreamWorks would get into the remake game. Why not remake one of their best animated films to date? That remains to be seen.

Like the animated film, this live-action remake takes place in the fictional cliffside viking community of Berk. These people live a fine life, but they are constantly under attack by dragons who steal their sheep and destroy their homes. The vikings, in turn, try to kill or enslave the dragons for training exercises. While in the process of making a name for himself in the community and living up to his father’s expectations of him, Hiccup (Mason Thames) sets out to take out the most dangerous dragon of them all, a Night Fury. Little did he realize that he started a chain reaction of events that would lead him to helping the dragon and them becoming linked as friends. This would cause a whole new direction for his people.

Gerard Butler has had an up and down career ever since his breakout role in The Phantom of the Opera. He had a good showing in Zach Snyder’s 300 as King Leonidas, but arguably his best role since then has been that of Stoik the Vast in the How to Train Your Dragon franchise. I thought it was a little odd that the producers cast him once again in the live action reboot, but it turned out to be a good thing in the end. He’s fantastic once again as this overbearing father who has a lot on his table as leader of his people. The interactions with the Thames character are right on par with the animated films.  He brought the dramatic tension the story needed. Hopefully, this will be a resurgence for his career.

Thames is a relatively newer actor from my perspective, so getting the role of Hiccup was a big deal for him. He handles the pressure of this role very well, though. This character has a lot of the heavy lifting in the story and interacts with cgi dragons as well as the human characters. There is a mix of comedic moments as well as dramatic scenes he needed to balance. There is even a romantic element he is potentially tied into with Astrid (Nico Parker, Suncoast). He is an adversary at first but eventually falls for him. There is a natural attraction between these two from the very beginning of the film. Thames and Parker make for a good team together. They aren’t the only young people in the cast, though.

Nick Frost, Julian Dennison, Bronwyn James, Gabriel Howell, and  Harry Trevalwyn round out the supporting cast as Thames characters trainer and friends. They all add to the overall entertainment value of the story. Most of the are part of the comedic aspect of the movie. They have a lot of banter and end up doing dumb things. The training sessions are the main area where all the younger actors get to flex their comic muscles, but once again, the cgi of the dragons come into play. Seeing Thames and Parker interact with this lot was a lot of fun. It was like a dichotomy to the more dramatic aspects of the film. Which were quite heavy.

With this being a reboot of an animated film, the cgi of the dragons was an important part of the story. The animated version had some creative ways to design the dragons. This one did that as well. Even though this is a fictional take, it is crealy a children’s story with a PG rating. It made sense to stick with the overall aesthetic from the animated films.  Some people might have an issue with Toothless being very similar in look and feel to the animated version, but I didn’t have a problem with that. This was on purpose, and it made sense considering the nature of the story. A more realistic looking dragon would have scared kids, which are the main audience of the film. That being said, I liked the overall look of Toothless. 

I heard talk of why this movie was necessary because the franchise and first film specifically that it was based on was so successful. There is always the mantra of you still having the original films, so even if this one didn’t turn out so good, you could go and watch those movies. That’s what I stand by in any case of a remake or reboot. The original film is always going to be available. I did like this version, though. It was a beautiful reboot, though. The cinematography was absolutely breathtaking to behold. The acting was solid, and the mix of comedy and drama was balanced very nicely. The relationship between Thames’ character and Toothless was pretty good. The human interactions were better in the end. I enjoyed this reboot/remake, and I hope people will get over the idea that it wasn’t necessary. 

3 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen