It’s very safe to say that I’m obsessed with How to Train Your Dragon. I’ve seen every movie, every short movie, and every episode of all of the TV shows, each more than once. I know all of the characters, their relationships with each other, and most of the breeds of dragons that are introduced in the shows. And like most fans, I didn’t like the third movie at all. It felt unnecessary, the characters were completely out of character, and lacked the depth that made them likable in the first place. All of the growth and development that the characters had achieved in shows like Race to the Edge were forgotten, and if anything, the characters were more immature than they were in the first movie. Ruffnut would’ve made sure to look behind her, and not have led the enemy to the group, and there’s no way that Toothless would’ve behaved in the way that he did, resulting in feeling like the movie just didn’t fit in with the rest of the franchise.Â
When I heard that they were making a new live action movie for the original How to Train Your Dragon, I remember being so excited about it! I couldn’t wait to feel all the emotions I did years ago when I watched the original animated movie for the very first time. Unfortunately, I do consider the live action version of How to Train Your Dragon to be just as disappointing as the third animated movie was for me. While I did appreciate certain elements of the film, overall, I felt it to be an unnecessary addition to the franchise.Â
Let me start by saying all the good things about the movie. I found the sets to be absolutely gorgeous, the valley where Hiccup befriends Toothless was just how I pictured it to be in a live action, and the arena where the kids learned how to fight the dragons was a perfect rendition of the animated one. I loved the way Berk came to life, from the iconic opening scene, to the construction of the houses and everything in between. It really was exactly what I had been hoping for when they announced the movie.Â
One of the other features of the film that I really enjoyed was the casting for Stoick the Vast. The iconic casting of Stoick from the animated movies was one of those castings that you just can’t replace, and when I heard that Gerald Butler was coming back to play Stoick in the live action, I really was so happy to hear the news. His acting and hearing his iconic lines again really did the character so much justice, and I really felt connected to the casting as a whole.Â
Now, with the good parts being addressed, there were so many aspects of the movie that I really felt didn’t do the original film any justice whatsoever. The biggest problem, to me, was definitely how they worked in the iconic John Powell music. The iconic music, with songs like “Forbidden Friendship” and “Test Flight” are what many people think of when they think of the How to Train Your Dragon movies, and unfortunately, it fell short in the live action rendition of the songs. In movies and TV shows, the music is part of what carries the story, and when it drops at the right moment, it helps describe an important turning point in the plot. In the live action, the music dropped in the wrong places, and even paused entirely during the famous “Test Flight” song and scene. This was arguably one of the biggest letdowns for me, as the music can absolutely make or break the movie, and in my opinion, made the live action almost unenjoyable for me!
Next, I really didn’t care for all of the dragon designs. Some of them, such as the Deadly Nadder, Hideous Zippleback and Monstrous Nightmare, were absolutely amazing, and really felt like they were omniscient of the animation, while still being a realistic representation of how the dragons would look in realism. However, others, including the Red Death, Gronkle, and even Toothless himself, were really just horrible, in my opinion. The Red Death’s design had made the dragon far too stocky and weird shaped, almost bug-like, with none of the gracefulness of the original design. How on earth it was believable that she could even fly is beyond me. And don’t even get me started on the Gronkle, because why did they design Meatlug to look like a flying turd? Losing all of the attributes that made the Gronkle design attractive, there was no redeemable quality of the live action rendition that I found that I liked. It really just looked like a flying piece of poo that drooled like a dog, and I couldn’t enjoy any of the scenes because it was honestly just too ridiculous to be considered a dragon.
Next is the Night Fury, which again, was far too large to be as graceful as the original animation. His head was more omniscient of a large dog than of the wild Night Fury that we had come to love in the 2010 movie. The wings on the design were so large and unwieldy that the flight scenes were more awkward than graceful, and he was much larger than the adolescent dragon he was meant to resemble. Rather than achieving a realistic dragon design, the live action had succeeded in making him look too cartoonish to be believable, and not in a good way. It really was a let down from what I had been hoping to see on the big screen again.Â
The next thing I noticed about the movie was how the actors delivered the famous lines that we all remember from the original movie. One good thing about the movie was that it really tried to include all the famous lines, but I don’t think that they did a good job in actually delivering them. The characters seemed one-dimensional and cheesy, and the lines felt like they were coming from a high school play, rather than a production of the film to be released in theaters. The actors didn’t have the characterization of their roles down to the point where the lines felt natural, and most of them felt like they were being simply said, rather than actually felt. This really made it difficult to relish in the important moments of the story, because it felt like they weren’t a big deal.Â
The final complaint I had about the movie was that they left out one of the most crucial turning points in the film: The Terrible Terror scene. In the animation, Hiccup and Toothless had landed on an island to have some fish after the Test Flight scene. During this time, a couple Terrible Terror dragons joined them, and attempted to steal from the large pile of fish that Toothless was eating, and Toothless fired a blast directly into the Terror’s mouth to teach him not to steal from him. In this scene, it’s where Hiccup discovers that dragons aren’t fireproof on the inside, and serves as very important foreshadowing to how he eventually beats the Red Death later in the movie. The absence of this scene in the live action leaves major plot holes on how Hiccup realized how to defeat the queen at the end of the film, making the conclusion feel incomplete. Overall, I felt like the live action movie of How to Train Your Dragon was an unnecessary addition to the franchise, despite a few good parts of the film. The original shows and movies will always have a place in my heart, and prove to me that you just can’t replicate perfection, and yes, I’m gesturing to all of it (wink wink).