The live-action How to Train Your Dragon already made a mistake with its new Toothless

The first trailer for the live-action remake of How to train your dragon has just been launched and with it a series of questions related to the project have arisen. The original film was released in 2010 by DreamWorks, telling the story of a young Viking named Hiccup who befriends a dragon named Toothless against the wishes of his dragon-hating village. ONE How to train your dragon the remake always seemed like an odd choice, as the original film is already a timeless classic, and unfortunately, the live-action version has already made a misstep when it comes to fan-favorite dragon Toothless.

While the live action How to train your dragonthe cast looks good and a single teaser trailer isn’t enough to nullify an entire film Toothless is one aspect the live action film needs to get right and so far there’s a part of his introduction that the new film seems to have missed. Although visually, the live action How to train your dragonToothless looks good and faithful to the original, some moments shown in the trailer indicate a major departure from the character.

How to Train Your Dragon’s Live-Action Trailer Doesn’t Make Toothless Scary

Toothless being scary is an important part of the original

Despite looking more or less like a shot-for-shot remake, the live-action film How to train your dragon seems to have made Toothless’ first appearance less scary, looking more like he does in later films. An important aspect of all the films is the relationship between Toothless and Hiccup, which naturally starts off very antagonistic, as dragons and humans are sworn enemies. In the animated film, Toothless starts off as a frightening creature, something that a casual viewer could see it as a monster that would kill Hiccup without thinking twice.

There is a moment in the new How to train your dragon trailer that shows this disconnect, when Hiccup is about to kill Toothless after knocking him to the ground. In the original, Toothless’ eyes are squinted and reptilian during this scene, giving him a much more animalistic and monstrous look, reflecting the audience and Hiccup’s preconceived beliefs about him. However, the live-action trailer shows this moment with Toothless’s eyes round, looking more like Toothless from the later films, a cute pet as opposed to a ferocious animal.

Toothless being scary at first makes the film’s payoff that much better

Toothless’ transition from monster to friend is well defined in the original

Although making Toothless seem less scary might not seem like a big deal, like in the original How to Train Your Dragon, Either way, Toothless and Hiccup end up becoming fast friends, it’s actually a very important part of the film, especially when it comes to Hiccup’s character. When he makes the decision to spare Toothless’ life, he doesn’t do so because of the dragon’s innocent and sweet appearance.he does it because he knows it would be wrong no matter what kind of creature it is.

It would be easy to spare the cute cat-eyed Toothless, but Hiccup choosing not to kill the evil Night Fury gives a great insight into the character’s deeply empathetic nature and makes Toothless choosing not to kill Hiccup a much more interesting plot development. The eventual friendship that develops between the two is made even stronger by how antagonistic the characters are to begin with. By toning down this aspect of the first act, the live action How to train your dragon will suffer, especially when compared to the original.