Empoword Journalism

How to Train Your Dragon: Review

Sian Topping
A long boat on a large body of open water.

Siân Topping

Dean DeBlois creates a heartfelt live-action remake of his original How to Train Your Dragon (2025) film, providing a new viewing experience for the next generation. 

The Lure Of Remake Culture

Movie reboots, remakes and sequels are an incessant feature of contemporary cinema and a near-constant means of conflict for movie-goers.

The live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon (2025) is, on the surface, no different.

Staying true to its roots, How to Train Your Dragon (2025) is ultimately a story of discovering your identity and finding the strength to stand by it proudly.”

The nostalgia for a childhood made brighter with the promise of dragons; the swelling in your chest or deep within your gut when hearing John Powell’s ‘Test Drive’ for the first time — these are our cherished vices, drawing us back into the screening every time.

Whether it’s to live that moment again or to lament the fact you never will, remakes are born from the love that already exists for these stories. When watching the new How to Train Your Dragon (2025), however, you are watching that same love pour from the inside out. 

Reprised Roles And Fan Favourites

Told not as a new story but as the much-beloved story told for new audiences, the live-action How to Train Your Dragon (2025) is a near frame-by-frame carbon copy of the original.

Following young Viking and son-to-the-chief ,Hiccup (Mason Thames), in a quest for home and identity, we watch him struggle with the same moral dilemmas and forge heart-wrenching friendships that prove no less impactful the second time around.

This element of loyalty carries beyond the realms of the script, as we see both Dean DeBlois (original co-director of the movie) and Gerard Butler (voice actor for Stoick the Vast) reprising their roles.

DeBlois’ return in particular demonstrates a clear understanding of what makes this movie soar.

Staying true to its roots, How to Train Your Dragon (2025) is ultimately a story of discovering your identity and finding the strength to stand by it proudly.

“Perhaps a by-product of transferring from animation to live-action, the stakes feel heavier, more personal — aptly — a little more real. “

If you are lucky enough to be experiencing this story for the first time, it remains an undeniably entertaining watch, with the script retaining all the magic and excitement of its predecessor.

Though it still begs the question of what, beyond profit, necessitates telling this story again? And why should anyone who has seen the original be interested in this retelling? 

A New Generation Of Actors For A New Generation Of Viewers

The answer lies in what the story can offer new viewers and new voices.

Whereas How to Train Your Dragon (2010) drives the story forward with humour and mischief, the 2025 adaptation offers a glimpse into a more nuanced dramatisation.

Perhaps a by-product of transferring from animation to live-action, the stakes feel heavier, more personal — aptly — a little more real. 

“How to Train Your Dragon (2025) takes its limits, and uses them as a way of producing a new viewing experience.”

While the quippy remarks remain, DeBlois’ direction noticeably favours dramatisation, and though this change was certainly not necessary for the original, it’s a slight, but significant adjustment for the 2025 adaptation.

This change causes the pressures our characters’ feel to become more tangible to us as viewers.

Astrid’s character in particular (Nico Parker) offers a key example of the additional depth this adaptation affords.

Though Astrid has always been a powerhouse of a Viking, Parker’s Astrid foregrounds her character in relation to the hyper-masculine and uber-competitive Viking world, exposing the parts of her character that are just as desperate to forge identity and respect as Hiccup is.

Moreover, it provides her with a more insightful backstory. Rather than simply accepting Astrid’s ambitions, we get a clearer glimpse into why they exist and just how deeply they’re felt.

Fantastical Worlds, Real-Life Locations

Perhaps one of the most difficult challenges to overcome when developing this remake is attempting to create a movie that can compare to the stunning animation afforded to the original.

“Nevertheless, though the remake features muted scenery, it still inspires creativity.”

The landscapes and settings crafted for How to Train Your Dragon (2010) are a staple of the series, and though Cressida Cowell’s beloved books were first inspired by the harshly beautiful environment of the Scottish island Little Colonsay, translating the dazzlingly curated spaces of the animation to what the natural world affords is a feat in itself.

Nevertheless, though the remake features muted scenery, it still inspires creativity.

Though the grey colour palette is far less stimulating, this change coincides with the overall aesthetic of this adaptation and its more realistic lens (as realistic as a movie about dragons can be, at least).

High-value visual effects are paired with fast-paced point-of-view shots of white-knuckled flights. All of it coming together to pull a world full of dragons visually closer to our own.

And maybe that is the true charm of this adaptation. Whilst nothing can compare to the original — a belief that seems shared by the movie makers themselves, if their refusal to make any real change is any indicator — How to Train Your Dragon (2025) takes its limits, and uses them as a way of producing a new viewing experience, in which dragons can fly in our world too.

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Featured image courtesy of Steinar Engeland on Unsplash. No changes were made to this image. Image licence found here. 

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