By now, you’ve probably lost count of how many animated classics Hollywood has “upgraded” into live-action movie spectacles. Most of them, let’s be honest, feel like fancy AI adaptations with no soul (umm, 2019’s The Lion King, cough cough). But DreamWorks and Universal Pictures’ How to Train Your Dragon (2025) bucks the trend in the best way possible by doing the one thing Disney should’ve done ages ago: They brought back the original director, Dean DeBlois, to helm the live-action remake. And it makes all the difference.
The writer-director of the 2010 animated masterpiece returns to helm this new adaptation. And you can feel it in every frame of the remake. This isn’t just a studio cash-in with more CGI, bigger spectacle and less heart. It’s a lovingly crafted recreation that stays true to the original story while enhancing it for the big screen, without ever feeling hollow or desperate.
Set once again on the island of Berk, where brawny Vikings and fiery dragons have been at war for generations, the plot remains faithful. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, the awkward, skinny son of Chief Stoick the Vast, still befriends Toothless, a Night Fury dragon with beautiful big eyes. Their unlikely bond, formed in secret, turns everything upside down.
If you’ve seen the original film more than once, you’ll quickly notice a few extended scenes and a bit more time spent with secondary characters, but that’s where the differences mostly end.
Gerard Butler returns as Stoick, gruff as ever. Nico Parker takes on Astrid and gives the character a little more sass. She’s a standout. But a lot of the film rests on Mason Thames’ shoulders as Hiccup, and thankfully, he absolutely delivers.
But the real stars here are the dragons. Unlike Game of Thrones, where you might wait four episodes to spot the beautiful but scary creatures, How to Train Your Dragon gives you fire-breathing, sky-diving action throughout. There are more dragons, bigger battles, and more aerial sequences than before. And yes, it’s as epic as you’re hoping. Watching Hiccup ride Toothless through the clouds or a monstrous dragon descend from the sky in live-action is a theatre-shaking experience.
And this is where the remake shines. While many live-action adaptations trip over themselves trying to outdo the originals, the 2025 version of How to Train Your Dragon embraces the past wholeheartedly. The iconic scenes we loved in the original animated feature film are all here. They’re just a bit more fleshed out and grounded in real life.
If you’re wondering whether it’s worth catching on the big screen or waiting until it hits your 75” OLED at home, go big. This is the perfect movie theatre experience – the kind that earns the overly expensive popcorn price. At the screening I attended, kids were crying during the emotional beats and grown-ups were clapping during the sky battles. That’s the kind of film this is.
How to Train Your Dragon (2025) may just be the best animated-to-live-action adaptation we’ve seen so far. And that’s not just dragon hype, it’s fire-breathing fact.
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The Review
How To Train Your Dragon
The best live-action remake so far.
