If It Ain’t Broke…
Unnecessary? Totally. entertaining? Yes. At least the latest live-action cash grab doesn’t embarrass itself.
How to TRain Your Dragon
Director: Dean DeBlois • Writer: Dean DeBlois, based on the novel by Cressida Cowell and film by DeBlois and Chris Sanders
Starring: Mason Thames, Nico Parker, Gerard Butler, Nick Frost
USA • 2hrs 5mins
Opens Hong Kong Jun 12 • IIA
Grade: B+
Back in 2010 How to Train Your Dragon hit screens with a low-key affecting story about a Viking kid who was a little different forging his own path in a rigid world, and a timeless, under-the-radar anti-war message. It was a surprise hit – because it was, you know, good – and made serious bank on its way to trilogy-dom. Since then, Disney has cornered the market on raiding its own library to remake its classic ’toons as live action films, making even more bank in the process. Most have hovered around middling (The Lion King, Mulan) a few have been gawdawful (The Little Mermaid, Pinocchio) and only a handful, if that, have been watchable (The Jungle Book, Aladdin). Do you even remember Dumbo? So here comes DreamWorks to get in on the action. There are only so many ways to say “cynical cash-grab”, “creatively bankrupt” and “ballsless, inoffensive filmmaking” before it just gets repetitive; in fact it already is. It was a matter of “when” not “if” DreamWorks noticed the lazy, ancillary value of its back catalogue (there are 50-ish, among them Shrek, Megamind and The Croods) and hopped on this bandwagon. For once the studio and the filmmakers involved haven’t entirely humiliated themselves scrambling to hit all demographics and spit out a four-quadrant hit. Dean DeBlois – who co-directed the original animated film – has made a near-carbon copy of How to Train Your Dragon and in playing it super-safe hasn’t completely fucked it up. That alone earns a B. Is it better than the original animation? Probably not; none have been. It’s not infuriating, and that’s saying something.
It looks familiar because it is
The biggest differences between the Dragon of 2010 and the Dragon of 2025 is the less evolved sense of humour on display now and the more down the middle, cute teenaged boy energy star Mason Thames (The Black Phone) brings to the hero, Hiccup, versus original voice actor Jay Baruchel’s weary snark, which deepened the character’s loneliness. Also missing is a subtle weed joke. In the first version Hiccup discovered a catnip-type grass that mellowed out dragons in a snap. That’s been replaced by allergic reaction-inducing dandelion seedhead fluff. We’re this uptight now? That said, a good change is the one that gives Hiccup’s fellow dragon slaying students Snotlout (Gabriel Howell), Fishlegs (Julian Dennison), and twins Ruffnut and Tuffnut (Bronwyn Jame and Harry Trevaldwyn) more personality this time around, particularly Snotlout, who has his own heartbreaking non-relationship with his dad, from whom typical conversation comprises “Never speak to me in public.” Ouch.
Beyond those minor tweaks and some extended flying and battle sequences that puff the running time by 30 minutes How to Train Your Dragon is a duplicate, down to stirring images and dialogue, of the first. In case you missed it, young Viking Hiccup has no fighting skills and instead uses his stronger engineering skills to build contraptions, one of which downs a rare Night Fury, one of the dragon species plaguing his Isle of Berk home. Still, he’s a disappointment to his father, chief Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler reprising his role from ’10 and bringing along his absolutely enormous mitts) and a joke to budding dragon slayer Astrid (Thandiwe Newton’s kid Nico Parker, The Last of Us). Hiccup manages to befriend and tame the dragon, who he names Toothless (who looks like my cat who is, indeed, toothless), win over the village with empathy and start a new chapter in dragon-human relations.
How to Train Your Dragon ’10 was vibrant and colourful in a way that the “realistic” How to Train Your Dragon ’25 is not, which is a shame. The first adaptation’s bright palette added to the storytelling when its 3D wasn’t demanding attention. Oh, yeah, you forgot 2010 was a post-Avatar peak 3D year. Uh huh. It was those quieter, in-between moments that really made Dragon ’10 so engaging. It’s the same case here, except the story happens when the CGI doesn’t dominate. Parker is working way too hard for this film, delivering a legit performance and very gently highlighting the deeply buried issues of inherited warfare and the normalisation of conflict, even if it’s ultimately about a kid who wants his father’s approval. Butler is his usual amiable self, sneaking in some serious acting when we’re not looking and seeming to enjoy a chance to lean into his Scottish brogue for a change. I need not sing his praises further.
It’s unlikely to pull in the US$775 million that Lilo & Stitch has so far, but like that film this rehash does nothing to deepen the story, though both had plenty going for them to start with. However, unlike Lilo & Stitch it doesn’t look like crap and rely on a wholly unqualified lead. How to Train Your Dragon ’25 at least has a solid cast and looks good, with mostly impressive CGI and suitably fantastical looking dragons (a bit more hard edged this time) especially Toothless, who is milked for maximum cute. He’s still cute. So is Stitch, but you’re not going to leave the theatre angry this time.
There be dragons here
Game of Thrones absolutely was not the first to give us dragon adventure and Spirited Away is too easy a pick.
Dragonslayer, d: Matthew Robbins (1981)
This cult favourite is dark AF and kinda gory for a Disney (!) fantasy. A little dated now? Sure. A surprisingly nuanced medieval romp? Hell yes.
D-War, d: Shim Hyung-rae (2007)
The Korean film with wypipo is a dumpster fire on the acting and story front but if you want some hot dragon action, you could do way worse.
Reign of Fire, d: Rob Bowman (2002)
More G.But (!), plus Matthew McConaughey and Christian Bale fighting dragons in a post-apocalypse kick-started by infrastructure projects. Glorious.