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What, you thought Disney had a lock on recycling their old animated films as live-action romps, in the name of milking back-catalog properties and nostalgia-driven fandom? The animation division of the former entertainment-bigwig supergroup known as DreamWorks may not have the deep bench that the Mouse House does, but they’re blessed with a few notable IP’s ripe for the “same thing but make it real-ish” treatment. And until we get the inevitable live-action Shrek, the 2010 adaptation of Cressida Cowell’s book series about a nerdy dude and his adorable, fire-breathing best bud was their best option. Look, it could have been worse. It could have been The Boss Baby but starring an actual IRL baby. Laugh all you want, you know some flop-sweating exec has 100-percent pitched this.
So, yes, you still get Hiccup, the original’s lovable dork that was voiced by Jay Baruchel and is now played by The Black Phone‘s Mason Thames. He’s still dealing with the oppressive standards of masculinity that comes with being a eighth-century Viking, as well as his overbearing tribal chief of a dad, voiced by Gerard Butler in the ‘toon version and now played by [checks notes] Gerard Butler. The one-armed trainer named Gobber (Nick Frost) and that teen gang of fellow would-be warriors, all vying for the illustrious title of “head slayer”? They’re present and accounted for as well, with the same notable attention paid to Astrid (Nico Parker, a.k.a. Pedro Pascal’s daughter in The Last of Us), the most competent in the competition and Hiccup’s love interest. And, of course, there are the “pests.”
For here, as in the animated version, there be dragons. Large dragons. Small dragons. Pudgy, rolly-polly dragons. Scary-looking dragons. Dragons with two heads. Most importantly, there is Toothless, from the “Night Fury” breed of these mystical creatures. He is initially fierce, before being wounded when he’s felled by Hiccup’s invention of a double-barreled bolo cannon — that detail is also brought over from the original, in one of the new film’s many scrupulously faithful, shot-for-shot re-creations. He’s passive, and a little mischievous, yet mostly curious about this two-legged interloper who had the chance to kill him yet somehow did not. Eventually, this winged beast with the big, green puppy-dog eyes turns out to be just one big cuddly-wuddly guy in need of the occasional scratch under the chin. Who’s a good dragon? Who’s a good draaaa-ggggonnnn?!? You are, Toothless!
There will be interspecies friendship, and suspicion when Hiccup starts taming the dragons he’s forced to fight in the arena instead of besting them in battle, and suspicion on Ingrid’s part, and macho bluster from Dad, and misunderstandings, and flying — lots and lots of flying. Filmmaker Dean DeBlois was, along with fellow animator Chris Sanders, one of the co-directors of the original How to Train Your Dragon, which may or may not explain why so many of the live-action version’s set pieces and comic business are exact replicas of the first movie’s set pieces and comic business. It certainly sheds light on why the numerous moments of Hiccup and his scaly bestie soaring, swooping, plunging, and gliding through the air remain a highlight, capturing the sense of wonder that made these same bits a standout in the source material. Kudos as well to the VFX team, who do an extraordinary job with making their CGI Toothless a perfect copy of the animated Toothless. It’s kind of like telling a forger that he’s really nailed a fake Rembrandt down to the brush strokes, but hey, a compliment is a compliment, right?
Look closely, and you can find enough slight differences and variations from HTTYD 1.0 in this live-action take. Butler, for one, seems to enjoy the chance to ham it up even more by getting to add facial expressions and physical presence to what was simply voice work as Hiccup’s alpha-male Pops. The climax, involving the Mother of All Dragons — no, not that one — still pulls out all the stops. And the various messages embedded in the story involving understanding over dominating, empathy over fear, brains over brawn, right over might, et al., continue to ring true 15 years later. Considering what’s happening all around us outside of the theater, they assuredly bear repeating.
But “repeat” is a word that applies to virtually all of this Dorks & Dragons tale rendered with real actors instead of sketched-out characters, and while we’re loathe to fully unload on this particular player for doing what it set out to do, we’re genuinely beginning to hate the game. The same question that so often plagues Disney’s live-action trips down memory lane hangs over this attempt to beat them at their own game as well: Why? You can say box-office receipts, suggesting that these films are simply meeting a need (see the current Lilo & Stitch — which, oddly enough, was another animated film that DeBlois also co-directed back in the day). You can point to corporate opportunism, skittish stockholders in need of reassurance via a sure thing, and a lack of imagination in the industry overall. You can declare that every generation deserves its own dragons to train, though what they might get out of this version versus the readily available animated version is a mystery.
The only answer that really makes any sort of logical sense, however, is: Because they can. A live-action sequel has already been greenlit, so regardless of whether this makes hundreds of millions or merely dozens of dollars, the folks who own these titles have no intention to stop raiding your old favorites for new hits. Debate all you want about whether this movie actually teaches you how to train a dragon. What this movie is actually trying to accomplish, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is how to train their audiences to keep buying the same thing over, and over, and over again.
