On March 21, 2010, the first How To Train Your Dragon movie was released, capturing individuals’ attention, making over 450 million dollars worldwide. But on June 13, 2025, the How To Train Your Dragon live-action remake was released making over 600 million dollars worldwide, and despite distaste with the casting, the live-action remake grossed higher than the original. Why is the remake better than other live-action remakes? Why did it make more money than the original? This eye-catching film takes on a new perspective for the movie.
How To Train Your Dragon is an eye-catching animated movie about a Viking boy and dragon. Displaying themes of friendship, (the relationship between Hiccup and Toothless), identity (Hiccup realising he can’t kill dragons), and overcoming societal norms (Dragons and Vikings working together).The live-action release pleased over millions of people, and has excited many with its director, Dean DeBlois, who is the director for the original movies.
Composer John Powell teamed up with Icelandic singer Jonsi to create a beautiful soundtrack, featuring a meaningful credits song,“Sticks and Stones”. Both of them will continue to work together throughout all three movies, creating an advancing intensity of musical ambiance in each movie.
What makes this movie even more magical is the visuals. From the majestic sun beams to the glow of Fireworms, watching the trilogy is an epic experience. When the live-action came out, many were afraid that the dragons would look weird, or Berk, the island village the movie takes place on, would look fake, but we were all pleasantly surprised with the outcome of how the movie looked while watching. This movie pulls our existence into the setting, and gives an undeniable feeling of realism.
However, there were many controversies with the actress who played Astrid Hofferson. Nico Parker, a Zimbabwean British actress with dark brown eyes and braided brown hair. Contrastingly, Astrid in the animated movies and shows is a blue-eyed, blonde haired girl. Many disliked this difference. When the casting of the movie was released, multiple individuals were disappointed with the choosing of Nico Parker. They didn’t realize that they would be amazed with how well she played her in the live-action movie.
Impressed with her ability to mimic the animated version of Astrid. Parker seemed to deal with all the backlash in a positive way, dismissing the idea that she was a bad choice to play Astrid due to her race and appearance. During an interview with The Times, Parker said “For the people that just hate inclusivity, hate change- when it comes to that side of things, I just don’t care. If I wouldn’t value your opinion on most things in life, I can’t value your opinion on my hair. If I did, I would go mad.”
While there may be differences, the tone of the music and scenery helps make this movie to be more authentic to the original one, which pleases watchers. Many say that Disney needs to step it up in many ways, in comparison to Dreamworks live-actions. Dreamworks remakes have a clear priority of making sure the movie is big in its faithfulness towards the original movie. It is not clear if Dreamworks is officially trying to compete with Disney, but many fans are indulged by the comparisons. So much so that there are videos like “Ten Ways Dreamworks Just DESTROYED Disney Live-Action Remakes,” (WatchMojo.com). In many remakes, there is always something that makes the movie arguable, in a way that can angle the watchers to be more opinionated. It can be the overuse of A.I, like in Disney’s “Snow White” remake, or a dramatic change in the storyline. Instead, this remake portrayed the storyline almost exactly as the original did. This would exceed the imagination of viewers’ minds and remove the possibility of inconsistencies that would ruin the show.
Since this movie is similar to the originals, it gives fans a sense of satisfaction. While the remake is not necessarily “better” than the original, some fans say that it lacks some magical aspects. It is really a matter of personal preference on which is superior to the other. No matter the differences, How To Train Your Dragon has truly been brought to life.
