The live-action adaptation of How to train your dragon It appears to be a perfect, scene-for-scene remake of the original, but it came too soon. The original film was an instant success, receiving positive reviews and starting a How to train your dragon film and TV franchise. The species of dragon in How to train your dragonThey are all different, but the story focuses on Toothless, a Night Fury. When future dragon slayer Hiccup wounds Toothless, he is unable to kill him and discovers that the two species can live together in harmony.
When the list of How to train your dragonThe cast and characters were announced, it was an exciting surprise to see that Gerard Butler would reprise his role as Stoick the Vast in the animated film. The trailer shows a brief clip of him in the role, looking almost exactly like his animated counterpart. However, the trailer also shows a perfect recreation of one of the film’s most emotional scenes, and that raises some concerns. If the film is a shot-for-shot remake, then How to train your dragon it’s coming 10 years early.
How to Train Your Dragon Adaptation Feels Authentic to the Source Material (Which Is What Everyone Wants)
The live-action adaptation could be very faithful to the original How to Train Your Dragon
While there has only been a teaser trailer and some initial images released so far, the How to train your dragon the adaptation appears to have remained authentic to the original film. The teaser trailer shows the iconic scene where Toothless allows Hiccup to touch him for the first time, and it has been recreated down to the smallest detail. This may come as a relief to viewers, considering that not every live-action adaptation of an animated property has managed to capture the magic of the original.
Audiences wanted the live-action adaptation to remain faithful to the original film, but almost every scene in the How to train your dragon trailer is a direct copy. This means the film may not offer anything new to potential audiences beyond the live actors. Adapting a beloved film is often a gamble, with changes to the source material drawing criticism, but there is a risk of playing too safe, as How to train your dragon seems to be doing. A perfect recreation could have been better in 10 years if the original films felt outdated.
It’s Too Soon for a Live-Action Adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon
A live-action spin-off could have been a better play on how to train your dragon
While there are many Disney live-action remakes, most of them adapted films from the 1990s, or even earlier in the case of Snow White. Even so, Disney often updates the story for a modern audience or changes significant plot points to make the new film different from the original. This makes the moment of a scene-by-scene recreation seem even more strange. The last film of How to train your dragon franchise was only launched five years agoand the original was released 14 years ago, making a copy of such a recent story seem redundant.
Many sagas, like the Jurassic Park and Disney princess franchises, have successfully expanded with spin-off series. They often look different from the original films, but are based on the worlds they show. A much better choice for How to train your dragon the franchise would have been to further explore the world around Hiccup and Toothless, as it would have been a natural continuation of the films. Each of the How to train your dragon films present a new and exciting locationand a live-action spin-off could offer another, with the actors bringing something new to the story.
Live-Action How to Train Your Dragon Has Always Been a No-Way Scenario
Adapting how to train your dragon would probably be a challenge even 10 years later
THE How to train your dragon filmmakers have already faced a challenge because making a completely different film would probably be criticized. The filmmakers could have gone the Disney route and made the same film with a few changes, but that would also likely have been unpopular based on the mixed reviews Disney’s live-action films tend to attract. There was no way to make this adaptation a success so soon after the original film.
How to Train Your Dragon Movies |
||
---|---|---|
Title |
Year |
Rotten Tomatoes critics |
How to train your dragon |
2010 |
99% |
How to Train Your Dragon 2 |
2014 |
92% |
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World |
2019 |
90% |
How to train your dragon |
2025 |
– |
To make a successful adaptation, it is usually necessary to improve something in the original. Many Disney reboots change outdated stories for a modern audience, and old science fiction film effects can be transformed with a remake. However, As is clear from the near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score, there was nothing wrong with How to Train Your Dragon, Nor does its look seem outdated. How to train your dragon It’s a timeless story and it’s hard to find a reason for a live-action remake to exist.