REVIEWS

How To Train Your Dragon is the live action remake of the original animated film, which is also the first of its kind for Universal Studios. Seeing that the same director as the animated film, Dean DeBlois and the same voice actor of Stoick, Gerard Butler were coming back for this movie, I had faith! Aswell as the fact the trailers looked great and that the reviews were positive. So, I had high expectations, until I saw people saying that it is a direct shot for shot remake with every single line, camera angle and plot as the original with a couple of minor changes. I thought that wouldn’t be good for the film, so I had now mixed expectations. However, after watching How To Train Your Dragon, yes, it’s a shot for shot remake, but it works really, really well!

Mason Thames as Hiccup, Nico Parker as Astrid, Gerard Butler as Stoick and many more did fantastic jobs when playing their characters. They made me like them a bit more than the animated version. The CGI was amazing and Toothless looked so real and reminded me of my own dog. The soundtrack was good, however something that Universal did which I think might be Disney’s new feedback for live action movies, is the shot for shot remake. I agree nearly every sequence is the same as the animated version, but it gives the movie more depth because of the CGI and new actors. They also made some things clearer and understandable than the original with also the tiniest little changes being a good add-on to the film.

The few nit-picks I had were just involving how quick the start feels, which I know happens in the animated version, but it bugs me that we get to the main plot in like ten minutes! But that is the main negative.

How To Train Your Dragon is a great movie for everyone who loves the original or is new to the series. Also, just in case you’re wondering it’s thirty minutes longer than the animated, but I guess most live actions have to be these days! Before the second trailer even released Universal Studios released a video saying How To Train Your Dragon 2 (the live action) is going to be coming out June 11 2027 and let me tell you, I’m excited!