‘How to Train Your Dragon’ (2025) review: Live-action, but lifeless

Universal and DreamWorks follow the Disney live-action remake formula with the truly pointless How to Train Your Dragon (2025).

Animation is a wonderful thing. It can create landscapes with more vibrant colors and characters with more vibrant expressions. It defies gravity with movements that bend physics and logic for the sake of wonderment and (frequently) a laugh. It’s a launching pad for stories that are impossible to the basic human eye but can be fully-realized with the power of imagination. It can inspire people of all ages to dream something fun and wholesome that’s untouched by the cynicism of the real world. So with all of that said…why is Hollywood trying to kill animation?

Ok, maybe not ALL of Hollywood is trying to erase past achievements in animated filmmaking…but some of them are. The biggest culprit is Disney, ironically enough, who’ve spent the last 10 years remaking some of their most acclaimed animated features (Snow White, The Lion King, Lilo & Stitch) into live-action films. It’s pointless, misguided, and frequently results in middling movies. It also makes billions of dollars because parents recognize those nostalgic names as safe bets for their kids to watch instead of questionable clips on TikTok. So with Disney’s financial success, it was only a matter a time before another animation studio tried to rake in some dough by dusting off one of its intellectual properties and hitting the “copy” button for live-action. Step on up, DreamWorks!

Same ol’ story.

Originally released in 2010, How to Train Your Dragon tells the story of wimpy wannabe viking Hiccup trying to impress his viking chief father with inventions instead of brutality in a quest to slay dragons. One day, he finds a mysterious dragon who has trouble flying and forms a bond with this equally misunderstood creature. The two look to change the minds of other Vikings by showing that people from different worlds can come together and live in harmony.

15 years later, we have How to Train Your Dragon…again. You’re probably expecting me to go into the new plot details of this live-action remake and how this new version refreshes the original story for a new generation, shipped to the theaters by parents in need of a two hour break from their kids asking for screen time. Spoiler alert, it doesn’t. We have Hiccup (Mason Thames) as an awkward outcast among Vikings trying to impress his mighty father Stoick (Gerard Butler)…again. One day, Hiccup finds a mysterious dragon who can’t seem to fly and forms a bond with it out of a shared sense of being misunderstood…again. The two work together to change the minds of other Vikings and show how different people from different backgrounds can live together in harmony…again.

Formulaic fairy tale.

It’s truly shocking how flat How to Train Your Dragon (2025) is. Not since Gus Van Sant’s version of Psycho has there been such a blatant beat-for-beat remake of a movie. And that Hitchcock redo was from an auteur filmmaker experimenting with how far the “remake” concept could go, almost admirable in being that ballsy. How to Train Your Dragon has NO excuse, other than DreamWorks and Universal “experimenting” with Disney’s live-action remake formula. There are no new plot twists, no fresh aspects to the story, no revised setting, and no personality at all. While this might be new and refreshing to someone who has never seen the original Dragon (and it’s two sequels), as the old saying goes…we have How to Train Your Dragon at home. It’s easily accessible on streaming services and physical media. Nothing about the new Dragon warrants paying $15 and a ride to the theater for this “new” movie to do everything the same.

It’s also shockingly rushed for a remake, let alone a fantasy adventure. Co-writer/director Dean DeBlois directed all three animated Dragon films (along with the original Lilo & Stitch, funny enough), but this is his first live-action feature and he is not ready for prime time. DeBlois has trouble with camera movement, avoiding chances to slowly build tension when Hiccup is searching for Toothless and missing comedic beats once the odd couple start becoming buddies. Whereas the animated version had lush colors that amplified the rustic Scottish coast, cinematographer Bill Pope (The Matrix, Spider-Man 2) either uses too much natural light that washes out the scenery or doesn’t give enough light to the night scenes to make anything visible. While the climactic dragon showdown is somewhat neat to see come to life, it can’t erase the visual wonder of the animated original.

Weakened warriors.

The biggest (or maybe only) change to How to Train Your Dragon is the casting. Whereas Jay Baruchel brought his adorkable voice to Hiccup’s lanky design in the original, Thames in the live-action version makes Hiccup look more like the lead of a CW teen drama. He doesn’t fit the outcast archetype for Hiccup, looking more like Anakin Skywalker‘s understudy than an underdog to root for. Thames is a little more natural at cockiness near the movie’s finale, making you wish the movie rewrote Hiccup as a Marty McFly-type. There’s also Nico Parker awkwardly stepping into the role of village rival/love interest Astrid (originally voiced by America Ferrera). Parker almost has the look of the tough-on-the-outside heroine down, but she isn’t given much else to work with. The same goes for some of the talented supporting cast, including Nick Frost, Julian Dennison, and Peter Serafinowicz.

One element from the original that still truly shines here is Butler. The macho Scottish actor showed a more tender side of himself doing the voice of Stoick, matching the warm-hearted fatherly expressions of the cartoon with a genuine affectation. He may not be as expressive as his animated counterpart (which says a lot about his acting range), but Butler still has the tough poise of a Viking that he breaks down as his relationship with Hiccup develops. It’s some of Butler’s best work and maybe a sign to put his usual action hero gruffness into lighter, more heartfelt projects in the future.

The bottom line.

Do not be fooled by the attempts at whimsy and wonder in the new How to Train Your Dragon. Not only has this been done before in a more awe-inspiring fashion (three times, in fact!), the people behind the live-action remake barely put in any effort to make this stand on its own. The new How to Train Your Dragon is a business experiment, an attempt to chase a cash cow without ever realizing said attempt negates anything that made the source material special in the first place. It’s almost too fitting to call a movie this creatively bankrupt “toothless.”

How to Train Your Dragon (2025) is now playing in theaters everywhere. Watch the trailer here.

Images courtesy of Universal Pictures. Read more articles by Jon Winkler here.

Jon Winkler