With Disney having plundered their back catalogue of animated classics for live action remakes it seems the other studios are now looking at their own and the immensely successful How to train your Dragon (surely an ideal title for any documentary about Prince Harry’s marriage) animated trilogy is what Universal/ Dreamworks have set their sights on with their first big screen live action remake of that first film.
With the Vikings living on the Island of Berk , a kingdom suitably titled for Prince Harry to rule but instead its Gerard Butler as Stoick repeating the role he voiced on the 2010 original and is ideally cast as he leads his fellow warriors against the onslaught of dragons pillaging their island for food. It’s his son Hiccup (a mop topped Mason Thames who personifies his animated version brilliantly) and has none of his father’s brawn but instead has the brains to invent a device that downs the most feared of the dragons, the Night Fury. Brutally callous with no consideration for others and yet on the inside pleasant and friendly – a sort of inverse of Meghan Markle.
But it’s the start of a friendship as Hiccup forges a friendship with the dragon he calls Toothless whilst at the same being trained alongside several other teens by Gobber (a one armed, one legged Nick Frost) to be selected as a warrior with potential by the village soothsayer, a sort of bag lady version of Judi Dench with blackened finger tips like a blind cobbler.
So whilst his father is preparing the villagers to wage war on the dragons (that he was widowed by them drives his revenge) it’s his son who is befriending the most dangerous breed of dragon. Inevitably the worthy Hollywood subtext here is of integration and we should all try and get along. But it’s all building to a dragon v viking face off as they look for the dragon nest.
Much like the animated film the dragons as rendered by CGI are terrific notably in the climactic scene with the mother of them all that crashes through mountains destroying all in its path clearly indebted to the likes of the Godzilla films. The cast are uniformly excellent too with Hiccup’s fellow classmates a quirky bunch with Snotlout ( Gabriel Howell) trying to be the alpha male of the group but coming over more like The Inbetweeners’ Jay in his efforts to woo love interest Retcha ( Anna Leong Brophy) and like Jay has father issues with his Dad Spitelout ( an underused Peter Serafonowicz). And like the animated films Dean DeBlois also directs this live action version with aplomb maintaining the quality of what he has done before
Perhaps the main shortcoming of How to train your dragon is its running time. The original 2010 film ran at an ideal 98 minutes whereas this live action version is 125 minutes and young children will grow impatient though the climactic battle with the mother of all dragons is worth the wait. That the studio already has a sequel lined up for release in 2027 is a tightly confident sign that the studio are on to a winner here.
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Here’s the How to train your dragon trailer…..
