Film Review: How To Train Your Dragon

How To Train Your Dragon
Director: Dean DeBlois
DreamWorks Animation, Marc Platt Productions
In Theaters: 06.13.2025

I’ve written so many reviews of Disney live action or photo realistic remakes (there is no live action version of The Lion King, dammit) that I’ve run out of opening paragraphs on the subject, though it’s important to note that I haven’t been dismissive of all of them. In fact, I gave rave reviews to Cinderella, Mulan and The Jungle Book, and I even defended many aspects of Snow White. The fact remains that as a whole, this is a redundant and reductive cash grab, and with DreamWorks entering the game, it’s becoming a full on genre from hell. While the studio is likely to make a lot of money on How To Train Your Dragon, they never come close to answering the question: Why Train Your Dragon Again?

On the harsh and wind-swept island of Berk, Vikings and dragons have long been locked in a fierce and unforgiving feud. But Hiccup (Mason Thames, The Black Phone, Monster Summer), the clever and often underestimated son of Chief Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler, 300, Olympus Has Fallen), dares to be different. When he forms an unexpected friendship with Toothless, a mysterious and deadly Night Fury, Hiccup challenges everything the Vikings think they know about dragons, who are not mindless beasts, but intelligent creatures capable of great trust and loyalty. As war looms and loyalties are tested, Hiccup, along with a budding young warrior named Astrid (Nico Parker, Dumbo, Suncoast), must choose between the world he was born into and the future he believes is possible — for both Vikings and dragons alike.

Writer-director DeBlois certainly can’t be accused of not getting the material — he co-wrote and co-directed the 2010 original, along with Chris Sanders (The Wild Robot), and he’s lovingly recreated the animated classic he helped bring to life. He’s also reduced it to being the most elaborate storyboard ever created, as this “new” version of How To Train Your Dragon becomes a shot for shot, line for line, even inflection for inflection remake that is flawlessly executed yet never brings us so much as a single of frame of anything new. It’s impossible to call it a bad movie, because it’s literally the exact same film we loved 15 years ago. But can it possibly be called a good one, either? That’s debatable, but for me, while it may stand as one of the drummer’s more enjoyable blockbusters, How To Train Your Dragon sounds an alarm bell, warning that originality in mainstream filmmaking has reached a genuine crisis point. If you only have a passing familiarity with the the three animated classics, it’s easy to mistake this film for being a worthy effort, and I’d never wish to insult the intelligence of those who enjoy it — in fact, at times, I even enjoyed it — but respectfully, anyone who is characterizing it as a worthy effort is objectively wrong. 

The cast is appealing, with Thames and Parker bringing sincerity, charm and authentic chemistry to Hiccup and Astrid. Butler, who looks like he’s cosplaying as himself, is good, but he was far more endearing in his animated form. Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) gives a solid performance as Gobber, the trainer of the dragon warriors, but it’s little more than an imitation of what Craig Ferguson gave us in three superior films. Even the magnificent score by John Powell is lifted from the original.

This rehash of How To Train Your Dragon is either the best movie I’ve ever hated, or it’s the most creatively bereft movie I’ve ever let slip by with a passing grade. Is it a satisfying experience that the whole family can enjoy together? Most certainly. It’s also a devastating blow to the cause of bringing original stories to mass audiences through the power of the silver screen. If remake fever has really descended to this level of pointlessness, perhaps popular cinema as an art form truly is dead at last. —Patrick Gibbs 

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