How To Train Your Dragon review – never quite…

Live-action remakes have come to dom­i­nate the kick­off of the sum­mer movie sea­son. Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders, the cre­ative duo behind ear­ly 2000s ani­mat­ed hits Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Drag­on, have gone their sep­a­rate ways, each now attempt­ing to win the hearts of long­time fans and a new gen­er­a­tion of movie­go­ers through live-action adap­ta­tions of their beloved ani­mat­ed clas­sics. While Sanders has stepped back into the record­ing booth to reprise the voice of his mis­chie­vous alien cre­ation, Stitch, DeBlois takes the reins as direc­tor of Dream­Works’ first ever live-action remake, steer­ing the project in its entirety.

A live-action remake car­ries far more to answer for than an orig­i­nal film or even a sequel. In the case of How to Train Your Drag­on, the adap­ta­tion large­ly fol­lows its source mate­r­i­al beat for beat, rais­ing the ques­tion: what does the use of real actors and CGI bring to the table that ani­ma­tion does not and can that added tan­gi­bil­i­ty tru­ly offer an expe­ri­ence that sur­pass­es the mag­ic the orig­i­nal still holds to this day?

Like every­one else in the Viking com­mu­ni­ty on the Isle of Berk, Hic­cup (Mason Thames) longs to prove him­self by slay­ing the drag­ons that ter­ror­ize his vil­lage, set­ting rogue fires and mak­ing off with their live­stock. But when he final­ly comes face-to-face with a Night Fury, one of the most feared and elu­sive breeds of drag­on, the moment that should define his brav­ery once and for all reveals some­thing deep­er. Blade in hand, he fal­ters, not out of fear, but out of empa­thy, and makes a choice that sets him on a path no one in his tribe could understand.

Unlike his peers, such as Astrid (Nico Park­er) – one of the tribe’s most promis­ing young mem­bers – Hic­cup strug­gles to meet the expec­ta­tions of his father, Sto­ick, the tribe’s for­mi­da­ble chief. Time and again, Sto­ick is frus­trat­ed and embar­rassed by his son’s per­ceived lack of tough­ness. But what Sto­ick doesn’t real­ize is that Hiccup’s empa­thy and inven­tive mind may be exact­ly what their com­mu­ni­ty needs to survive.

Slow­ly but sure­ly, Hic­cup begins to train and heal the Night Fury he names Tooth­less, inspired by the dragon’s retractable teeth and endear­ing, gum­my expres­sion. As fans of the orig­i­nal will remem­ber, Toothless’s behav­ior was famous­ly mod­eled after a cat, and this adap­ta­tion pre­serves that play­ful, curi­ous ener­gy, empha­siz­ing the time­less dynam­ic of a boy and his pet. The bond that forms between Hic­cup and Tooth­less remains the film’s unde­ni­able heart, just as it was in the ani­mat­ed classic.