By Brandon T. McClure
Released in 2010, the original How to Train Your Dragon launched a new and more confident era for Dreamworks Animation. With a new theme park in tow, Universal Studios has now remade the classic adventure of Hiccup and Toothless, this time for a live-action audience. While it feels like Universal has adopted at the end of its life cycle, they are no doubt hoping to cash in on Disney’s trend that has plagued much of the 21st century. Directed by the original’s co-director, Dean Deblois, How To Train Your Dragon, sports the tagline “the legend becomes real” but falls short of the original's greatness. While there is fun to be had, the film can’t get away from the cynical nature of the very style it’s cashing in on.
Once again, audiences are introduced to Hiccup, the scrawniest Viking in Berk. His desire to prove himself leads to him taking down a Night Fury, the most dreaded dragon the Vikings of Berk have ever faced. At this point, you know the story. Hiccup couldn’t kill the Dragon and the two form an unlikely bond that allows Hiccup to learn more about Dragons and change his world for the better. All the while his stubborn father has to be dragged kicking and screaming away from his Ahab-like hatred for Dragons in order to finally see his son. If you’ve seen the animated version, then there’s nothing on a macro scale that’s entirely new. But there’s a lot of tiny changes that both add and subtract to the overall theme of the film.
Much criticism has been lobbied at Disney for making unnecessary changes to their animated films when remaking them into live-action. Truthfully, it’s a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation. If you keep the film exactly as it is, then it feels unnecessary, but if you change little things, then it still feels unnecessary. At the same time, with little changes they to try and trick the audience into thinking they’re watching a different version. For example, it’s never explained in the original Beauty and the Beast how the village that Belle lives in could forget about a castle right next door to them. The live-action version explains it by saying it was part of the curse that befell the inhabitants of that castle. No one who watched the original film ever had that question in mind, however, and having it answered doesn’t change the movie for the worse. It just feels like an unnecessary detail that was added for the sake of it. How To Train Your Dragon is no different, but there is one change that does help this live-action film stand-out from its animated counterpart in a positive way. That is the character arc of Astrid.
Hiccup (Mason Thames) and Astrid (Nico Parker) in How to Train Your Dragon
While the original film sees Astrid as the object of Hiccup’s affection, she doesn’t get much of a character arc in the film. She’s strong and dogmatic in her desire to be the best dragon hunter in Berk, but she serves the story as an extension of Hiccup and only comes into her own in the sequels. Here, director Dean Deblois attempts to give Astrid more motivation and character throughout the story. Since the cast of the new film is far more diverse than the original, Deblois feels the need to explain where all these Vikings came from, in a long monologue from Gerard Butler’s Stoic. In this film, the Vikings came from far and wide to settle in Berk with the hopes of defeating the dragons at the very source of where they came from. This iteration of Astrid, who is from one of these far off viking clans, feels like Hiccup has had everything handed to him as the son of the chief and resents him due to her family not being as privileged as the other Vikings on Berk. However, while it’s great to give Astrid more of a character, following it to its natural conclusion robs Hiccup of the climax of his.
In the original film, HIccup leads the other viking children into battle with The Red Death (the Queen on the island) while riding Stormfly with Astrid. He barks out orders to the other children as Stoic looks up in awe at his son as he finally sees Hiccup as the chief he will one day become. In the live-action version, Hiccups and Astrid's roles in the scene are reversed. While Hiccup and Astrid are still riding Stormfly into the battle, it’s Astrid who is leading the charge. A seemingly small change but does stop Hiccup's character arc in its tracks in favor of Astrids. In some ways it’s refreshing that Dean Deblois committed to following Astrids new character arc to its natural conclusion but it will be a change that will likely be debated in fandom circles for years to come.
Outside of that, much of the film plays out the same way as the original with very little cut out or changed. In fact, many of the actors feel like they’re trying to copy the performances of their animated counterparts and other times they feel like they’re deliberately trying to avoid copying them. This creates an identity crisis for the film in both design and performance. This has the unfortunate issue of making the film far less charming and even less funny than the original. Almost every single joke is left in the script, but the deliveries rob them of their charm. Hiccup is a far more depressing main character then he was in the original. To be fair though, if you took out Jay Baruchel’s charming performance, then the character probably reads just as sad. But there does seem to be a concerted effort to take out the inherent charm of the original Dreamworks classic in order to be taken more seriously as a film. Sadly, it has the opposite effect.
One of the biggest unfortunate side effects of the shift to live-action is that change in cinematographer. One of the reasons why the animated How To Train Your Dragon looks so striking and impressive all these years later is because Roger Deakins consulted on all three films. This was revolutionary for the time because it gave the film a far more cinematic look that truly changed the game. Now for the live-action film, Bill Pope steps into the cinematographer seat. Pope is an incredibly prolific cinematographer who has worked on films such as The Matrix, Chang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Baby Driver, but he’s not Roger Deakins. Without Deakins' eye, the film feels flat and lifeless as all the color has been stripped from Berk.
The cast is a mixed bag. Nico Parker and Gerard Butler are the strongest in the cast by miles. Parker is wonderful as Astrid and perfectly captures America Ferrera’s performance while merging the new aspects of the character introduced in this film. Butler, the only returning cast member from the animated film, is a veteran of this story so it should be no surprise at how well he’s able to bring Stoic from animation to live-action. He hits most of the same beats, this time without much of the humor, and still manages to capture what the animators were able to bring to his vocal performance. Mason Thames as Hiccup often feels miscast but still plays a decent enough Hiccup that proves he’ll likely be better in the sequel. The rest of the main cast is fine. They get similar moments to their animated counterparts, and Snotlout gets a new subplot that’s, frankly useless. Finally, Nick Frost is the weakest link in the cast. His Gobber, originally played by Craig Ferguson is a boring and pale imitation of Stoic’s loveable friend and sidekick.
Ruffnut (Bronwyn James), Tuffnut (Harry Trevaldwyn), Snotlout (Gabriel Howell), and Fishlegs (Julian Dennison) in How to Train Your Dragon
John Powell, who scored the original trilogy, returns to score the live-action film. The animated score can be argued as one of the best film soundtracks ever composed, and now that Powell has a bigger budget, he’s able to make an even grander version of the original. It frankly makes the entire film worth it. All the themes are present and in the exact same places but bigger and more grand this time around. Powell even sneaks in a track from How To Train Your Dragon 2 that eagle eared listeners will delight in. The only mark against it is that he makes a truly baffling change to the iconic “Test Drive” that will leave many fans scratching their heads.
Speaking of scratching their heads, fans will likely forget about this scene until the very end, but a (once again baffling) change to the story happens after the test drive scene. See, in the original, Hiccup learns much about the true nature of dragons, such as their weaknesses through his relationship with Toothless. The final thing he learns is that dragons aren’t fireproof on the inside of their bodies, through a cute little encounter with a couple of Terrible Terrors. This scene leads to Hiccup being able to defeat the Red Death by igniting a fire inside her that forces her to crash and explode. This scene is removed from the film but the way that Hiccup defeats the Red Death is not changed. It may seem like a small change on paper but audiences will be left wondering how Hiccup knew that would work in this new version of the story. This highlights one of the issues with these live-action remakes. While a change could seem small in the moment, it has the potential to dramatically change the outcome of the film and if you don’t follow that change to a new conclusion, but rather force the story to reach the same conclusion, then you end up hurting the film rather than helping it.
A more apt analogy of this idea would be if you were remaking a murder mystery. The audience already knows the outcome of the story so you decide to change all the clues so they point to a different murderer. The only problem is that the reveal in the original is so good and fans will be expecting to see that moment play out again, so at the last moment you reveal the murder to be the same person it was in the original. Except this time, it doesn’t make any sense because you robbed the audience of all the set up that was necessary for everything to pay off and didn’t follow the new clues set up to their natural conclusion. This is a much grander example than a bunch of animated films being made into live-action, but it gets the point across.
If you’re a longtime fan of the How To Train Your Dragon franchise, then you’ll delight in seeing the same scenes play out in live-action. As remakes go, it could have gone way worse. It’s honestly one of the better attempts at this trend and the financial success of the film means that Universal Studios will likely be looking at Dreamworks' library to see what else they can try and remake. But you’ll never be able to shake off the idea that it feels unnecessary. While director Dean Deblois clearly has immense love for the story he helped bring to life 15 years ago, even he can’t wipe away the stench of a cash grab. He referred to this film as a “second draft” and if it is, then it’s an unnecessary one. The original is a classic that will be remembered for decades, and this will simply be a footnote in its memory.
