The Live Action 'Dragon' Remake Captures the Thrills of the Original. Is That Enough?

Plus some quick thoughts on 'The Life of Chuck.'

This post contains spoilers for both versions of How to Train Your Dragon.

Long-time readers/listeners are probably aware of my love for Dreamworks’ original 2010 animated film How to Train Your Dragon. It’s a lovely story centered on the relationship between Hiccup, a self-deprecating Viking, and Toothless, a fearsome Night Fury dragon. Bound by fate, the two of them are thrust into an extraordinary situation where they must work together to save Hiccup’s tribe from annihilation.

Several key elements make the 2010 film special. Toothless is irresistible as an animated creation, a perfect combination of every type of conceivable pet you could have, only with the ability to shoot fireballs that can level entire towns. The central storyline is one that elevates the importance of science, curiosity, and friendship; Hiccup’s tribe is in a perpetual war with the dragons but Hiccup advocates for trying to understand them more deeply (he’s ultimately vindicated and his friendship with Toothless is instrumental to everyone’s salvation). The action sequences remain thrilling and immaculately assembled. And while I don’t think the animation has aged particularly well, at the time watching Dragon in IMAX 3D was one of my favorite moviegoing experiences (I recall seeing it in theaters 4-5 times).

So what’s the point of a live action remake?

On some level, the new How to Train Your Dragon struggles to answer that question. Directed by Dean Deblois, who also co-directed the animated film, the 2025 Dragon is a loving, slavish, and nearly shot-for-shot remake of the original. Sadly, some of the material doesn’t survive the transition too well. The costumes and hair, for instance, often feel out of place, as though it was more important to re-create the appearance of the original animated characters rather than choose looks that would make sense for these characters in this context. And the new Toothless looks almost identical to his animated self, which sometimes feels jarringly out of place given that everyone around him is a live actor. (You can’t confuse theme park visitors with a whole new design for Toothless, right?)

But the film also retains many of the things that made the original so great. It’s still a story about an epic friendship and why it’s more important to reach for understanding rather than bask in ignorance and hate. I believe that there are a lot of people out there — adults and children — who, for whatever combination of reasons, will probably never check out the 2010 original film. I’m grateful that newcomers will be able to experience this story in a fresh new way. If I were a kid watching this and it was my first exposure to this story, I could totally see this becoming a formative fantasy movie for me like Willow, The Goonies, or Hook.

There are a handful of ways that the new film improves on (or at least offers a different take on) what the original film was trying to do. In particular, everything involving dragons in this movie looks incredible. While the original animated film used smooth camera movements and carefully composed frames, the new film opts for a more frenetic, handheld style for Toothless’ flight scenes. The result is thrilling — watching Toothless navigate through realistic obstacles, land masses, and other dragons injects new life into these sequences, which were already among my favorite in the original film. The final boss battle with the Red Death dragon is also more terrifying and intense. Seeing its massive scale juxtaposed with that of Hiccup and Toothless is kind of awe-inspiring.

I’m also intrigued by how the remake tweaks story aspects of the original. Most of the scenes are paced more slowly (the new version is about 30 minutes longer than the original), seemingly to accommodate the generally slower pace of live action films. But a handful of scenes play out a bit differently and the film also (slightly) deepens the character of Astrid and her relationship with Hiccup. Given all this and given a live action sequel has already been greenlit, I wonder if Deblois might take some more liberties with the story of the next film, whose narrative underwent some major changes during development (in my opinion, likely for the worse).

Look, in general, I think the recent trend of live action remakes is creatively bankrupt and a blight on the industry. But given that the remakes will continue until morale improves, the 2025 How to Train Your Dragon is probably the best case scenario of how a film like this can be done. It keeps what makes the original film work and some of the live action elements actually make it better and more thrilling.

My Filmcast co-host Jeff Cannata has a great way of assessing the quality and significance of live action remakes: When it’s family movie night and you’re going to watch a movie like The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, or How to Train Your Dragon, which version of it are you putting on: the original or the live action remake? In almost all cases, the answer is going to be the original. But in the case of How to Train Your Dragon, I can totally see myself reaching for the new one on occasion. That’s probably the finest compliment I can give to a movie like this.

How to Train Your Dragon (2025) is in theaters everywhere.

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My Reaction to ‘The Life of Chuck’

I only have time to offer brief thoughts on The Life of Chuck so for now, I’ll just say that I really liked the film but did not love it. Told in three acts in reverse chronological order, The Life of Chuck takes us through the life of Charles Krantz (played by Tom Hiddleston, Benjamin Pajak, and Jacob Tremblay in different periods of his life) and offers lessons about life and love along the way.

Without getting into spoilers, I really like how the film is structured. Based on a novella by Steven King, the narrative of the film pulls off some clever tricks and allows the audience the pleasure of potentially realizing what the film is doing before it even gets there itself. I also appreciated what the film was trying to say. Chuck affirms the importance of living life to the fullest and asks us to contemplate our place in the universe.

But the main issue with the film is Chuck himself. The time we spend with Hiddleston’s take on the character is wonderful but it is tantalizing and short compared to the other segments. And for the movie to fully land emotionally, I really think we needed to understand more about who Adult Chuck was and what he had learned about life, the universe, and everything during his time on Earth.

Still, the film had me in tears by the end and the fact that it’s dedicated in memory of Scott Wampler (a former Filmcast guest and a Twitter Spaces collaborator) is enough for me to recommend the film by itself.

The Life of Chuck is in theaters most places.

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Other Stuff David Chen Has Made

• Over on Decoding TV, Patrick Klepek and I reviewed Jesse Armstrong’s new film, Mountainhead. I loved the satire in this film but it’s not for everyone and it definitely feels unrefined compared to Armstrong’s other work.

• [PAID ONLY] On my personal Patreon page, @joyofnapping and I discuss a bunch of current events. Plus, I recount my experience playing in the 2025 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

• On The Filmcast, we recently reviewed Bring Her Back, a new horror movie that is well made but a real downer! Listen here.