Movie Review - Universal's How to Train Your Dragon

The legend is real.

How to Train Your Dragon is a 2025 fantasy film directed by Dean DeBlois, written by Dean DeBlois, produced by DreamWorks Animation and Marc Platt Productions, and distributed by Universal Pictures. It is based off of Cressida Crowell's 2003 children's novel of the same name. It stars Mason Thames and Nico Parker. This is the fourth film in the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, although the first in the remake timeline. It acts as a remake of the 2010 film of the same name and will be followed by How to Train Your Dragon 2.

"I can't kill dragons." - Hiccup Haddock III

Plot

On the rough isle of Berk, vikings rule the lands and everything in them...with the exception of dragons. The centuries-long feud between dragons and vikings is now led by Chief Stoick the Vast. Stoick's son, Hiccup, looks to make a name for himself and make his father proud by becoming the dragon killer he so longs to be...until an encounter with an elusive Night Fury makes him question everything he's ever been taught about dragons.

The Sweet

For context, I am eighteen years old. How to Train Your Dragon came out when I was three. Despite that, I never grew up with it. Sure, I saw it and I saw the sequel in theaters, but it was never one of those movies that I constantly rewatched. However, with this film coming out, I decided to rewatch the entire trilogy...and was absolutely blown away. The first one especially is, I believe, one of the best animated movies ever made. And I think it lends itself to live-action very well, so I was super excited for this film.

And I think this is the best possible version of a live-action How to Train Your Dragon film that we could've gotten.

To start, the production design here is flawless. A lot of the creative team from the original returned, because it's a relatively recent film, and I think that helped, because they know this world so well. Berk just comes to life beautifully, with these vast landscapes and huge sets. They shot the film on an actual island in Belfast, and you can feel this authenticity in the location and the set design. The costumes feel pulled straight out of the animated film. Oftentimes, these animated live-action remakes just feel like cheap copies, but How to Train Your Dragon really just poured so much heart into bringing Berk to the big screen in live-action format.

And I think that these are the best "live-action" dragons ever put to screen. Now, obviously, dragons are fictional creatures and therefore are never live-action, but the CGI looks flawless. Toothless looks incredible, and the same can be said for the rest of the dragons. You look at any other fantasy movie or TV show: Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, The Hobbit, etc., their dragons, while cool-looking, still look very clearly fake. How to Train Your Dragon is able to capture the looks of the dragons from the animated film while also translating them into live-action and making them look truly real. There was never a moment when I was watching Toothless or the Red Death or any of the other dragons and thinking to myself "That's clearly a CGI creature". I am just truly in awe of how well they were able to bring these dragons to life.

As I mentioned before, How to Train Your Dragon brought back a lot of the creative team from the first film, and I think that worked to its benefit. Dean DeBlois, director of the entire trilogy, was also director on this one, and that's just a really smart move by the studio. He knows this world better than anyone, and he is definitely the most qualified to move it into live-action. He was able to capture the magic the first time that he did How to Train Your Dragon, and he is able to do the same here.

The cast was also a highlight. Mason Thames shines as Hiccup. He is awkward and clumsy in the way that you want Hiccup to be, but he actually has a little bit more agency and aggression to him, which I really appreciated. His chemistry with the gigantic CGI Toothless is just as good as Hiccup's is in the original, and that's really impressive. Gerard Butler is the other standout here. I'm not a huge fan of Butler as an actor, but he reprises his role as Stoick beautifully. He is obviously a big guy, so his physicality is able to capture the mountainous man that Stoick is along with his booming, intimidating personality. But everyone else was great, too: Nick Frost brought his own comedic charm to Gobber, Nico Parker was able to recapture Astrid's initial annoyance and eventual liking of Hiccup...everyone clearly just cared about making this movie, and you can see it in the final product.

This is a difficult movie to write positives on, because many of my positives are just due to the fact that the original How to Train Your Dragon is one of the best animated movies ever made. It's a nearly flawless film that can be entertaining for a five-year-old while also having this rich, moving story about a struggling relationship between father and son. Watching Stoick free Toothless to go fight the Red Death is always going to be a very powerful moment, animated or live-action. This movie is just a faithful, good adaptation of an already incredible story.

This is also a positive that belongs to the original, but the score here is just fantastic. How to Train Your Dragon has one of the most underrated scores of the 21st century, and there's just something about watching the pulse-pounding, exciting music backing real people doing real, exciting stunts. The opening sequence is super exciting, and the high-energy medieval-esc music just adds to it. The test flight with Hiccup and Toothless backed by the iconic music is just a breathtaking moment. Astrid's first flight is a gorgeous scene with gorgeous music behind it. I don't know the movies well enough to tell how different the score is, but this movie's score feels just as amazing as the first one.

And, finally, the action here is just as exciting and fun as you want it to be. This is the main reason why How to Train Your Dragon translates so well to live-action: it's a fantasy action film. Fantasy action films are usually very popular. Star Wars is space fantasy, but it's basically fantasy action, and then Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings are two of the biggest movie franchises of all time. How to Train Your Dragon operates in those ranges (although maybe more kid-friendly) so it just works very well as this different type of film in the same medium. The action sequences are just as invigorating as the animated one, but it is almost more impressive when you have these practical stunts combined with the beautiful CGI dragons.

The Sour

I feel like there's a ceiling that a live-action remake can hit, and it's a relatively low ceiling. When you have a live-action remake in the vein of How to Train Your Dragon that is adapting an already near-perfect film, it's just tough to outdo that or do anything different that really feels like it adds to the story. So that creates this limit for how good it can be. This is a really good movie, but it doesn't top the original and it never was going to. So just know that going into the film. It just doesn't have the freshness and the magic that the animated classic does.

Along those same lines, this movie is almost a half hour longer than the original, and I don't think that was necessary. Again, when you have a nearly perfect movie, there's not much you need to add to it, so an additional twenty-five, thirty minutes feels like it just drags the pacing a bit and gives us some minor tweaks that feel unnecessary. Snoutlout has a dad in this one. There's a few more scenes between Hiccup and Astrid. The only thing that I find truly adds to a live-action remake is when they extend action sequences because they are more exciting when they look real. Besides that, all the additions just don't feel that warranted or necessary.

My biggest problem with the movie (which isn't a huge issue for me but might be for others) was that it lacked the true comedy that you see in the original. How to Train Your Dragon is a pretty funny film, but a lot of the humor in this remake falls pretty flat. There are still some laugh-out-loud moments, don't get me wrong, but it isn't always consistent and some of the jokes aren't good. There are some moments that are clearly supposed to make you laugh, and my theater was dead silent during some of those. To be honest, my theater wasn't the most excitable crowd, so take that with a grain of salt, but I wasn't laughing at some of these jokes. So that was really my only slight disappointment.

Final Thoughts and Score

How to Train Your Dragon is about as good of a remake as you could hope for. It has the heart, the magic, and the best looking dragons I think I have ever seen. This is miles ahead of anything Disney has done with their live-action remakes.

I am going Sweet here. Age range is 8+.

SWEET N' SOUR SCALE

Sweet (Great) Savory (Good) Sour (Bad) Moldy (Terrible)

"How to Train Your Dragon"

Fun Factor: 9/10 Acting: 8/10

Story: 9/10

Characters: 9/10

Quality: 8/10

Directed by Dean DeBlois

Rated PG for minor violence and action, disturbing themes and images, thematic elements

Released on June 13, 2025

2 hours and 5 minutes

Mason Thames as Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III

Nico Parker as Astrid Hoffersen

Gerard Butler as Stoick the Vast

Nick Frost as Gobber the Belch

Gabriel Howell as Snoutlout Jorgenson

Julian Dennison as Fishlegs Ingerman

Bronwyn James as Ruffnut Thorston

Harry Trevaldwyn as Tuffnut Thorston