Another animated movie was made into a live-action movie, and this one actually turned out to be better than expected. “How To Train Your Dragon” was originally produced as an animated film in 2010 from the book series written by Cressida Cowell in 2003, and has officially made its way to be a live-action film 15 years after the original.

Before you start reading, here’s a warning that this article CONTAINS SPOILERS! If you don’t want to have the movie spoiled before watching it, STOP READING HERE and come back after you watch!

Do you want to play the same game we played during the “Lilo and Stitch” live-action review? Let’s do it! How many times do you think I cried throughout the movie? Read through and find out the total at the end.

In regard to runtime, the animated movie has a runtime of 98 minutes (one hour and 38 minutes) while the live-action remake has a runtime of 125 minutes (two hours and five minutes). While not much has changed from the animated to the live-action, a lot of the scenes were extended and a couple of scenes were added to meet that runtime.

First, let’s talk about casting. Mason Thames played a perfect Hiccup, but I was disappointed with his lack of accent. Hiccup’s accent is one of the things that makes him him, but other than that, Thames portrayed Hiccup perfectly with his movements and line delivery.

One of the characters I thought was perfectly cast was Stoick, and that’s because he is indeed Stoick from the original movie! Gerard Butler brought everything to this movie as he did in the animated film and more! He nailed the accent, he nailed his movements and he had the personality of a perfect Stoick. Although it must have been an easy casting choice, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

A controversial casting choice to most people was Nico Parker being cast as Astrid. In the animated film, Astrid is depicted as a white girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. In the live-action remake, Astrid is depicted as a mixed-race girl with brown hair and brown eyes. Fans were upset about this difference, but director Dean DeBlois spoke strongly about this choice, saying he thinks his casting choices best embodied the characters.

Parker displayed the fire in Astrid’s character very well, especially during scenes where Astrid is frustrated. Similar to Hiccup, Astrid has certain actions and comments that are specific to her character and as Thames did, Parker delivers them in a perfect way.

In regard to all of the other characters in the film, I agree with DeBlois and 99% of his casting choices. Each actor played their role to the best of their abilities and did a great job doing so. Fishlegs’ one-liners were perfectly said and Snotlout’s personality was greatly executed. The one casting choice I was upset about was Gothi, also known as the village elder and healer. Instead of being a little old lady, she was younger and much taller. It’s a minor change, but a significant one to me.

Now let’s talk about some scenes. The first scene is almost identical to the animated film – the lines, the shots – it was just perfect. I could say the same thing about the interaction between Hiccup and Toothless when they first touch. If you put these animated scenes side-by-side with these live-action scenes, they would sync up perfectly.

I really enjoyed the scene of Toothless with the dandelions. Instead of him rolling around in grass, Toothless sneezed after being surrounded with dandelions, and I thought that was a nice change because it made it more humorous.

And now for the first time I cried – the argument between Stoick and Hiccup after Toothless was taken by the villagers of Berk. It was even more powerful than in the animated film. Especially the quote where Stoick says, “they’ve killed hundreds of us,” and Hiccup replies with “yeah, well we’ve killed thousands of them!” HEART. WRENCHING. So add a tally to the counter, there’s one!

Ready to add a second tally to the counter? Go ahead, because the scene where Stoick saved Toothless from drowning broke me, even more than the animated film. Yes, I knew he wasn’t going to die, but it was still so sad.

Now, let’s talk about a new scene where Astrid is an absolute boss. In the animated film, Stormfly and Astrid almost fly into the Red Death’s mouth, but Toothless plasma-blasts its mouth before they can. In the live-action film, the alpha catches Stormfly, but only by her tail. To get the Red Death to let go, Astrid jumps into its mouth and destroys its teeth with her axe. She was a BOSS and I loved the addition of this scene!

It’s time for the final time I cried. Any guesses on the scene? If you guessed the scene where everyone thought Hiccup was dead when he fell into the fire, but Toothless ended up catching and saving him (well, most of him), you’d be right. Again, I knew he wasn’t going to die, but Stoick’s performance in this scene was extremely emotional.

Another great addition was the character connection development between Snotlout and his father. Snotlout tried so hard to impress his father throughout the movie, but his father didn’t believe in him. It wasn’t until his dad saw him in action against the Red Death that he saw what his son could actually do. They finally had something to bond about, which I thought was special.

You’re probably wondering if Hiccup’s iconic quote was kept in the movie, and the answer to that question is yes – “thank you for nothing, you useless reptile” was indeed in the movie. And you don’t even know how happy I was when I heard it!

Another thing I was happy about was that they kept the original soundtrack in the live-action remake, especially the introduction song and the song when Astrid flies on Toothless with Hiccup for the first time. It is just pure serotonin and it goes so well with each of the scenes they accompany. I have to give props to Composer John Powell of both the animated and live-action films.

Although there are so many good things about this movie, the one critique I have is the way the scenes look when the actors are flying on their dragons, especially up close. The close-up shot of the scene of Astrid and Hiccup flying on Toothless looked so fake that it almost hurt. Further away, the shots looked less fake, but still not the best.

After the movie was over, I spoke with a few people who had some thoughts on the film remake and here’s what they had to say:

“I grew up with the franchise, and seeing it as a live-action was a true refreshment, considering some of the other live-action remakes of movies [being done poorly].” -Wyatt, Nevada

“I think it’s a really good movie, very faithful to the original, and a small detail I’d like to point out is the way they gave an in-universe explanation for why there are other races besides Europeans.” -Matthew, Virginia

“They changed a lot, but it was all things that they mentioned they wanted to change before. One thing they wanted to explain was how they got back to the island after fighting the red death because that was something that just, kind of, happened.” -Brody, Florida

Overall, I thought the movie was perfectly done and a great adaptation of this original animated film. If I were to give it a rating out of 10, I would give it a 9/10. I’m only deducting a point because Hiccup didn’t have an accent.I cannot wait until the second movie comes out in June 2027. Message me with any thoughts on Instagram and TikTok @ItsAshleyPotvin.

(If you were wondering, three was the total amount of times I cried).