How to Train Your Dragon’s Live-Action Remake Was Always a Mistake Despite Good Reviews

It’s hard to believe anyone could watch 2010’s How to Train Your Dragon and think it needs a near-shot-for-shot live-action remake — unless they’re looking to make a lot of money. 2025’s How to Train Your Dragon trades lively and colorful animation for dull live-action visuals while bringing nothing new to the already beloved DreamWorks story. In How to Train Your Dragon, a misfit viking befriends a rare dragon on the fictional Isle of Berk and teaches his people that the winged beasts are their allies rather than enemies to hunt. Mason Thames steps in front of the camera to portray Hiccup, previously voiced by Jay Baruchel, while Nico Parker succeeds America Ferrera in the role of Astrid. Deviating from the new live-action castings, Gerard Butler reprises his voice role as Stoick onscreen.

The live-action How to Train Your Dragon has received a fair amount of praise for its actors’ performances and for capturing the spirit of the original film; however, critics and audiences’ appreciation of the movie fails to acknowledge the troubling reality of its existence.

Just 15 years have passed since the release of the original How to Train Your Dragon, and even fewer since its sequels — 2014’s How to Train Your Dragon 2 and 2019’s How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World — hit theaters. All three movies made over $150 million at the domestic box office, proving that DreamWorks has another lucrative franchise in its ranks alongside Shrek, Madagascar, and Kung Fu Panda. A live-action remake might have been inevitable given Disney’s recent onslaught of live-action reimaginings of its classics, but How to Train Your Dragon‘s status as a replica of its predecessor simply cannot be justified and appears nothing more than a cash grab.

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How to Train Your Dragon‘s Live-Action Remake Cannot Justify Its Existence

In live-action, How to Train Your Dragon mirrors many qualities of the animated version, such as intricate world-building, charming characters, and John Powell’s rousing score, but that’s only because it’s a near-carbon copy. This new rendition of Hiccup’s tale of friendship with the mythical Night Fury, called Toothless, changes virtually nothing in the way of dialogue, characters, and the overall plot. While the visuals are attractive, they’re bizarrely grayscale and lack the creativity and pizzazz the animated How to Train Your Dragon movies displayed in their character models, environments, and effects.

Thames is up to the task as the hapless yet kindhearted Hiccup, Parker exudes all of the warrior toughness of Astrid, and Butler is as fearsome as ever in the role of Stoick. Meanwhile, Hiccup’s first ride on Toothless is undoubtedly breathtaking in live action, but there’s a freshness and sense of wonder that make the story’s most memorable moments and characters simply unconquerable in their original animated form. That’s why How to Train Your Dragon never should have been remade, especially not in live action. The 2025 version’s failure to generate a unique spin on the animated movie could feel like a missed opportunity; however, the opportunity for a remake shouldn’t have existed at all.

How to Train Your Dragon (2025) Sets a Disappointing Precedent for Animated Films

The only way How to Train Your Dragon‘s live-action reproduction justifies its existence is: money. Generating roughly $85 million in its domestic opening, the film will likely end up a commercial success by the time it leaves theaters. But the studio’s pockets don’t make the live-action How to Train Your Dragon movie a win. Artistically bankrupt, and devoid of its own vision, the live-action remake devalues animation as a form of storytelling, suggesting that even the most successful animated movies and franchises need a live-action version to pass as lucrative or “legitimate.” A like-for-like retelling not even two decades following the original is even more preposterous.

Given How to Train Your Dragon‘s status as one of DreamWorks’ most successful animated properties, it’s easy to understand why a new installment was made. Even so, there were better options for the next How to Train Your Dragon movie, and it should have remained in animation. An animated spinoff set outside of Berk would have worked well since How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World neatly concluded Hiccup, Astrid, and Toothless’ stories. DreamWorks should have set its sights on expanding the franchise’s world using its quintessential gorgeous animation without downplaying the trilogy’s fitting conclusion or disrespecting the original film by copying and pasting its story in live action.

How to Train Your Dragon (live-action) is now playing in theaters. Audiences can currently stream the original animated movie on Max and Peacock.