Movie Review: HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2025

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: June 13th, 2025 / 04:55 AM

Rating: PG
Stars: Mason Thames, Nico Parker, Gerard Butler, Nick Frost, Gabriel Howell, Julian Dennison, Bronwyn James, Harry Trevaldwyn, Naomi Wirthner
Writer: Dean DeBlois, based on the screenplay for HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON by William Davies and Dean DeBlois & Chris Sanders, based on the novel by Cressida Cowell
Director: Dean DeBlois
Distributor: Universal/DreamWorks
Release Date: July 13, 2025

The original 3D-animated HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON was released in 2010. Directed by Dean DeBlois (who subsequently directed the sequels solo) & Chris Sanders, who both wrote the screenplay with William Davies, based on the novel by Cressida Cowell, the film was developed into a trilogy and a TV series.

Other studios have been doing live-action remakes of animated favorites, and now Universal/DreamWorks takes on the challenge with the live-action HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON. It is scripted and directed by DeBlois, by this time a veteran interpreter of these flying saurians and their human counterparts for the screen. The live-action version is fairly faithful to its animated predecessor, to the point where the synopsis of that still serves.

To state the basic premise, if only Vikings and dragons weren’t so afraid of each other, medieval Scandinavian life for both groups would have been greatly enhanced.

Hiccup (Mason Thames) is a teen resident of the small clifftop village of Berk, where rebuilding the houses after dragon attacks is an almost nightly event. Hiccup’s father Stoick (Gerard Butler, who voiced the character in the animation movies) is the village chieftain, who is chagrined that his only child is scrawny and brainy, rather than large and athletic like everybody else. (Not to be judgmental, but it might have helped to have named the kid something other than Hiccup.) While everyone else is out at least attempting heroic feats, Hiccup assists village blacksmith Gobber (Nick Frost) in making tools.

However, Hiccup manages to bring down an elusive Night Fury, the rarest and most dreaded of all the dragons. Trouble is, no one believes Hiccup, so he goes off to find the beast himself. Hiccup can’t bring himself to kill the wounded, terrified creature and instead begins a tentative friendship with the dragon he calls Toothless, large retractable choppers notwithstanding. After Hiccup repairs Toothless’ injured tail with an artificial piece, Toothless allows Hiccup to ride on his back.

Hiccup inadvertently discovers the dragons have their own sizable problem to contend with, which likewise affects the Vikings. But with dragon-slaying as the most prized skill among the dwellers of Berk, will anyone listen to Hiccup’s claims that the villagers would be better off befriending the fire-breathing beasts than fighting them?

The messages remain unsubtle, but they are put forth with heart. Anybody who’s a sucker for a boy and his dog, horse, dolphin, etc. story will find the rapport between Hiccup and Toothless hard to resist. Thames is all boyish sincerity and decency, and interacts well with Toothless, who is played by a set of VFX that bridges the distance between the original animated character and something a little more reptilian; nobody is going to mistake Toothless for a giant cat this time around. The other dragons pretty closely resemble their animated antecedents.

One notable difference between the original and new versions is that the animated HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON was an hour and thirty-eight minutes; this one runs two hours and five minutes.

It feels like most of the additional time is used to develop the supporting characters of Hiccup’s cohort of trainee dragon-fighters, including love interest Astrid (Nico Parker), dragon info geek Fishlegs (Julian Dennison), outwardly self-impressed, inwardly fearful Snotlout (Gabriel Howell), and fraternal twins Ruffnut (Bronwyn James) and Tuffnut (Harry Trevaldwyn).

This may seem counterintuitive – with dragons in the title, they’re primarily what we’re here for – but DeBlois pairs the character definition with lots of dragon interaction, so that the adolescents register as people rather than necessary shapes on the landscape.

The third act here plays as bit more JURASSIC PARK than the animated movie did. There’s also the somewhat unfamiliar sensation of beholding full-throttle special effects and production values in the type of story that doesn’t normally get them – never-never-era family fare usually looks cheaper than this, which has big scale (pardon the pun), yet an earnestness uncommon to contemporarily-produced period drama.

Bottom line: if you liked the original HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, you will probably like this. If you didn’t, you probably won’t. If you never saw the first one but like the sound of the concept, this is a perfectly fine place to start.

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