How to Train Your Dragon (2025) Movie Review - Spoiler Free

It has been fifteen years since the original animation came out. Does this warrant a live-action remake? Especially one that follows the plot beat-to-beat?

Genre: Adventure / Drama / Fantasy

Director: Dean DeBlois

Cast: Mason Thames, Nico Parker, Nick Frost, Gerard Butler, Julian Dennison, Gabriel Howell, Harry Trevaldwyn, Bronwyn James, Ruth Codd & Peter Serafinowicz.

Run Time: 125 min.

US Release: 13 June 2025

UK Release: 09 June 2025

German Release: 12 June 2025

Another year, another live-action remake of an animated film, only surprise… it is not Disney this time. Dreamworks paid close attention to all the Benjamins the House of Mouse was making with its real-life adaptations, then decided it wanted a piece of the cake for itself. Using one of their most beloved franchises, whilst hiring one of the directors who created the original, to recapture the magic with real actors… and CGI dragons. Was it really necessary? Not really, no. So let's soar through my review for How to Train Your Dragon

A centuries-old battle between dragons and the citizens of Berg reaches its peak, as a friendship between the young Viking Hiccup plus the dragon Toothless manifests. With an ancient evil endangering both sides, this unlikely duo becomes the key to survival.

In February 2023, DreamWorks announced that a real-life adaptation of the 2010 flick, which was itself loosely based on a children's book series of the same name, was in the works, with Dean DeBlois making his live-action debut as director, after filming the previous animations. Gerard Butler was then approached to reprise his role as Stoick the Vast.

I will start by saying this: It is an effective remake without question. In fact, it is better than many of Disney's offerings. However, I fail to see the point why this was necessary, as it is more of a one-to-one transition, using the same lines, same story structure, expanding minimally in already established scenes. My point being, if you want to see the movie, you don’t need to waste another 15 bucks on a theatre ticket, you can either stream it or pop in the disc of the already existing animated version.

Having said that, two major differences make this inferior to its original counterpart: The tone plus the runtime. The first version is crisp, ninety-eight minutes long, managing to tell everything it needed to, while enthralling kids, as well as adults, in the process. This clone is nearly half an hour longer, augmented scenes with needless dialogue or exposition, disrupting the flow, whilst causing uneven pacing.

Granted, the expanded training montage, extending how Hiccup learns about dragons, is sweetly comedic, creating a deeper connection with Toothless. Nonetheless, that is about the only part it improves on, as we get to the second issue: the atmosphere. In the 2010 edition, the population of the island was understandably on edge, due to the dragon curse. As such, tensions were high, though people were never fully rude or dislikeable. In this copy, everyone is angry, constantly yelling, just like lambasting the protagonist. It makes everyone shine in a displeasurable light, whom audiences don’t want to root for.

Part of the reason for the sudden shift in mood is due to the dialogue, which was tweaked to sound more aggressive. As such, while sounding familiar, the flair is overdramatised. The comedic aspects do fall mostly flat, as jokes that work in cartoons don’t in live-action.

Generally, the casting process managed to hire actors/actresses who looked the part of their animated counterparts. The best example for this is Mason Thames as Hiccup, who not only feels the part, but also managed to give the character a larger emotional resonance, audiences can relate to. His chemistry with the CGI dragon Toothless is surprisingly believable. However, the romance angle is less convincing.

Gerard Buttler returns to his role as Stoick, Hiccup's father. In the 2010 edition, though he had disagreements with his son, he sounded generally concerned that he might not survive in the rough world these characters live in. Here, he is simply an angry leader who is displeased with his son for not being the man he wants him to be. He yells with such wrath, one feels displeasure for the main character having such a paternal figure.  

Nico Parker might be the biggest deviation from the original, having been cast as young Viking maiden Astrid. That said, she gives a great performance with what she has been given. Unfortunately, her persona has been changed to be more selfishly driven, been straight out mean to Hiccup. As such, it comes out of nowhere when she backtracks, falling in love with the lead. 

Finally, the rest of the supporting cast is absolutely disposable. This might be forgiven in a children's movie, with a runtime of ninety minutes, yet by remaking this flick, the writers wasted the potential to give side personas a little more depth. Nick Frost is an exception in this, bringing a fun, likeable energy to his rendition.

The transition from computer-generated to live-action was well handled, being one of the major positives this film has to offer. Cinematographer Bill Pope did his homework, studying the primary premise frame by frame. The composition plus capture pays tribute to the 2010 production, with the camera sweeping close to the ground or alongside the dragons, creating visual grandeur. The colour palette reflects the Scandinavian setting, using cold blues and greys, just like sunny golds. The downside is that the cinematography feels too familiar, close to plagiarism. 

The stage design pays tribute to a lot of Viking settings, giving it a realistic touch. The creature design has been kept very close to the original, adding lifelike textures to the dragon’s skin, as well as believable muscle movements. Given its plot context, an overreliance on visual effects is unavoidable; that said, a few of the scenes do clash when CG is mixed with real characters or settings.

The soundtrack is once again composed by John Powell, which maintains the heart of its fifteen-year-old counterpart. The sounds of roars, flapping wings, heavy footsteps, and fireblasts have a strong sense of physical presence.

---

Verdict: As far as live-action remakes go, this one isn’t bad; it's simply needless. Having paid attention to the successes plus failures of Disney, Universal and director Dean DeBlois decided to play it safe, producing a real-life adaptation that plagiarises one-to-one its first model from fifteen years ago. Pacing issues surface, as it stretches out dialogues a little more to justify a longer runtime. Urgency and despair are replaced by an angry undertone, making side characters unlikable. The casting choices were great; however, I don’t buy the blossoming relationship between Hiccup and Astrid, due to the more aggressive nature of the latter. The camera captures the magic of its blueprint, while the special effects redefine the dragon's textures, without changing the general design. If you want to watch a better version of it, go see the original animation. How to Train Your Dragon obtains a 6.0  out of 10. 

Have you seen this newly released feature in cinemas? Are you planning to? Let me know what you thought of it. Thank you, as always, for reading!