How To Train Your Dragon (2010) is one of Dreamworks Studios’ most iconic IP’s (Intellectual Properties, which includes things the company created/owns). Even those who haven't seen the movie have heard the main theme “Test Drive” composed by John Powell, or know the names Hiccup and Toothless. It is no surprise now, in a time where almost every classic seems to be getting a sequel or a live action, that the executives decide to bring the franchise back to the big screen in the form of a live action.
As exciting as it sounds, live action movies in recent years have a track record for being…disappointing. Most notably, Disney’s recent live action takes have become laughing stocks of the company, and some would even say it’s the beginning of the end for Disney holding the title of “most imaginative company.” Their two latest remakes, Snow White and Lilo & Stitch, were met with backlash and criticism for how poorly the IPs stories were treated. But that’s an essay for another day.
In the wake of a wave of terrible live action films, how did Dreamworks choose to adapt the beloved franchise? And, most importantly, did they cook?
After seeing how poorly received Disney’s live actions were, Dreamworks basically had a “How NOT to do a live action” guidebook. As the company whose legacy has always been built on clowning on Disney’s wrongdoings, it was a necessity for them to not fall down the same drain their competitor had.
So Dreamworks did the opposite of what most Disney live actions failed at.
They kept the original story and its values the exact same. They hired the same directors (Dean DeBois, Chris Sanders) and composer (John Powell), two iconic storytellers, to come back and work on the project they loved. This is arguably the best decision they could’ve made for this film. Nobody knows a film like the guy who made the original; nobody knows how to build the mood like the original composer. Instead of making the mistake they did by handing The Hidden World off to another studio, they decided Dean Deblois and Chris Sanders were the best hands to have in it.
And so the story remained the same. It’s almost a shot-for-shot remake of the original movie, just with CGI dragons and live actors instead of fully animated characters. Instead of retconning the story, they used that extra budget to build onto already-existing lore for the tribe of Berk and the characters. Most notably, Berk is given a small backstory and Astrid is given motivations for her bitterness towards Hiccup. These things are minor, but they work very well in bringing this fantasy world to life, filling in cracks that the original film didn’t have the budget or screentime to do. It gives me hope for what they have planned for the rest of the trilogy.
But of course, there’s more to a good film than the story. Let’s talk about it.
As exciting as it sounds, live action movies in recent years have a track record for being…disappointing. Most notably, Disney’s recent live action takes have become laughing stocks of the company, and some would even say it’s the beginning of the end for Disney holding the title of “most imaginative company.” Their two latest remakes, Snow White and Lilo & Stitch, were met with backlash and criticism for how poorly the IPs stories were treated. But that’s an essay for another day.
In the wake of a wave of terrible live action films, how did Dreamworks choose to adapt the beloved franchise? And, most importantly, did they cook?
After seeing how poorly received Disney’s live actions were, Dreamworks basically had a “How NOT to do a live action” guidebook. As the company whose legacy has always been built on clowning on Disney’s wrongdoings, it was a necessity for them to not fall down the same drain their competitor had.
So Dreamworks did the opposite of what most Disney live actions failed at.
They kept the original story and its values the exact same. They hired the same directors (Dean DeBois, Chris Sanders) and composer (John Powell), two iconic storytellers, to come back and work on the project they loved. This is arguably the best decision they could’ve made for this film. Nobody knows a film like the guy who made the original; nobody knows how to build the mood like the original composer. Instead of making the mistake they did by handing The Hidden World off to another studio, they decided Dean Deblois and Chris Sanders were the best hands to have in it.
And so the story remained the same. It’s almost a shot-for-shot remake of the original movie, just with CGI dragons and live actors instead of fully animated characters. Instead of retconning the story, they used that extra budget to build onto already-existing lore for the tribe of Berk and the characters. Most notably, Berk is given a small backstory and Astrid is given motivations for her bitterness towards Hiccup. These things are minor, but they work very well in bringing this fantasy world to life, filling in cracks that the original film didn’t have the budget or screentime to do. It gives me hope for what they have planned for the rest of the trilogy.
But of course, there’s more to a good film than the story. Let’s talk about it.
Firstly, it wouldn’t be a How To Train Your Dragon review without reviewing the dragons. The original film was known for its expressive art style and its portrayal of our familiar reptilian friends. Their designs were very deliberate and stylized—and of course the fan favorite, The Night Fury, is also known for its interesting style. Instead of being lined in spikes and colorful patterns like many of the other dragon designs of the franchise, The Night Fury is known for its pitch black scales and sleek, salamander-like shape. The species still widely remains a mystery to the audience, even after 3 movies and several series. The original Night Fury featured many cat-like motifs, as it’s stated in the art book that felines were the primary inspiration for Toothless. Additionally, the dragon itself can visibly reach speeds as high as the common Peregrine Falcon (250 MPH), as the distinct whistling sound that often accompanies Toothless’s screentime is literally the sound of his body cutting through the wind. The sound design for The Night Fury’s dive is almost as iconic as the franchise’s main theme.
The hype and excitement around HTTYD’s action scenes can be attributed to several main factors: camera work, soundtrack, and sound design. The original film excelled in these categories, which made little kids around the world wish they too could fly a Night Fury like Hiccup or wrangle a Deadly Nadder like Astrid.
But, knowing all this about the original Night Fury, does the live action live up to it? Does the live action have flight scenes as invigorating as its predecessor? Well…kinda.
One of my biggest gripes with live action movies is the strange murkyness the cinematography seems to gravitate towards. Some color edited versions of the scenes in the live action were phenomenal, so the choice to keep colors like gray and brown completely prominent in most of the movie is baffling. It’s even more baffling in scenes like “Battling The Green Death” and “Counter Attack”, where you’d want to emphasize the massiveness of The Green Death and have audiences able to pinpoint what’s happening on screen. But, most of the screen is shielded in thick murky brown smoke, and instead of using this smoke as a device of movement or emphasis, it obscures one of the best dragon designs in the entire movie and makes the scene a bit hard to follow; one of the most anticipated animated battles is just utterly…smokescreened. It’s one of my biggest gripes with the movie, on top of many small nitpicks I hope will be fixed with the coming installments of the 2nd and 3rd remakes.
Another small but meaningful pet peeve is Toothless’s design itself. The new Toothless feels like a parody; he’s lost his aerodynamic shape, cat-like motifs, and the sound design that was exclusive to The Night Fury doesn’t feel as strong or prominent. The new Toothless exhibits a lot more behaviors like a dog, drooling and jumping around. He’s noticeably got way more weight to his character than the original, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing when trying to make a CGI dragon feel realistic, but it doesn’t feel like Toothless. Again, bringing back the questionable color editing for the film, the swirly patterns that were visible on the original Night Fury are nearly invisible on the new Toothless. His teeth are strangely far apart, making him feel uncanny, and the bat silhouette his wings once had now has a more maple-leaf like shape, which can be a bit grating to look at, especially on the action figures made for the film. Regardless of these small gripes, the design kind of grows on you by the end of the film.
Toothless isn’t the only dragon with a strange new design. While the original Monstrous Nightmare features spines that resembled flames, the new version of the dragon looks a lot more like the common European dragon, and the blazing spines are now nowhere to be found. The other dragon’s design changes were…interesting. Their faces were adjusted to fit the hyper realistic style of the franchise, but they lack the charm and characterization the originals had.
The hype and excitement around HTTYD’s action scenes can be attributed to several main factors: camera work, soundtrack, and sound design. The original film excelled in these categories, which made little kids around the world wish they too could fly a Night Fury like Hiccup or wrangle a Deadly Nadder like Astrid.
But, knowing all this about the original Night Fury, does the live action live up to it? Does the live action have flight scenes as invigorating as its predecessor? Well…kinda.
One of my biggest gripes with live action movies is the strange murkyness the cinematography seems to gravitate towards. Some color edited versions of the scenes in the live action were phenomenal, so the choice to keep colors like gray and brown completely prominent in most of the movie is baffling. It’s even more baffling in scenes like “Battling The Green Death” and “Counter Attack”, where you’d want to emphasize the massiveness of The Green Death and have audiences able to pinpoint what’s happening on screen. But, most of the screen is shielded in thick murky brown smoke, and instead of using this smoke as a device of movement or emphasis, it obscures one of the best dragon designs in the entire movie and makes the scene a bit hard to follow; one of the most anticipated animated battles is just utterly…smokescreened. It’s one of my biggest gripes with the movie, on top of many small nitpicks I hope will be fixed with the coming installments of the 2nd and 3rd remakes.
Another small but meaningful pet peeve is Toothless’s design itself. The new Toothless feels like a parody; he’s lost his aerodynamic shape, cat-like motifs, and the sound design that was exclusive to The Night Fury doesn’t feel as strong or prominent. The new Toothless exhibits a lot more behaviors like a dog, drooling and jumping around. He’s noticeably got way more weight to his character than the original, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing when trying to make a CGI dragon feel realistic, but it doesn’t feel like Toothless. Again, bringing back the questionable color editing for the film, the swirly patterns that were visible on the original Night Fury are nearly invisible on the new Toothless. His teeth are strangely far apart, making him feel uncanny, and the bat silhouette his wings once had now has a more maple-leaf like shape, which can be a bit grating to look at, especially on the action figures made for the film. Regardless of these small gripes, the design kind of grows on you by the end of the film.
Toothless isn’t the only dragon with a strange new design. While the original Monstrous Nightmare features spines that resembled flames, the new version of the dragon looks a lot more like the common European dragon, and the blazing spines are now nowhere to be found. The other dragon’s design changes were…interesting. Their faces were adjusted to fit the hyper realistic style of the franchise, but they lack the charm and characterization the originals had.
Aside from the dragons, the casting choices for most of the human actors can also be considered…questionable. While Hiccup and Astrid are mostly fine, I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the cosmetics chosen for Fishleg’s character. The stuffing in his vest looks awkward and artificial, and unfortunately it's not ignorable like other minor things in the film. The actors themselves are fine for what it’s worth--I think they’ll get better once they really slip into their roles for the franchise. But I can’t help but feel a bit displeased seeing the actors for the character meet-and-greets at the parks be almost perfect interpretations of the film’s characters compared to the live action movie.
Fortunately, as mentioned before, the film takes time to add in extra bits about the characters that add motivations and background to them. For example, Astrid is determined to be the best because she believes she has to be in order to build onto what her family came from--she has nothing, compared to Hiccup, and that motivates her. She is angry with Hiccup because, despite coming from one of the most legendary chiefs Berk has ever seen, he does not take Berk’s struggle seriously nor does he live up to Stoick’s expectations. It upsets her because despite coming from everything, he aspires to do nothing that’s important in the eyes of the viking tribe. Exhibit B: Snoutlout. Snoutlout has always been known as having his head up his own ass, but with a few simple on-screen interactions we learn it’s because his father is not proud of him. His father hardly claims him as his own son, so Snoutlout likely has to fill in that missing piece with self-praise and ego validation.
Fortunately, as mentioned before, the film takes time to add in extra bits about the characters that add motivations and background to them. For example, Astrid is determined to be the best because she believes she has to be in order to build onto what her family came from--she has nothing, compared to Hiccup, and that motivates her. She is angry with Hiccup because, despite coming from one of the most legendary chiefs Berk has ever seen, he does not take Berk’s struggle seriously nor does he live up to Stoick’s expectations. It upsets her because despite coming from everything, he aspires to do nothing that’s important in the eyes of the viking tribe. Exhibit B: Snoutlout. Snoutlout has always been known as having his head up his own ass, but with a few simple on-screen interactions we learn it’s because his father is not proud of him. His father hardly claims him as his own son, so Snoutlout likely has to fill in that missing piece with self-praise and ego validation.
Before this rant goes into how the franchise has slowly degraded after the first two movies, I will cut it off here. Those are medias I will need to cover in another article, lest this one reach more pages than the BALM editors can handle. TLDR, The live action was actually pretty decent, and I’m excited to see how they will take this opportunity to improve upon the rest of the storyline going forward.
Note to directors: please revert The Light Fury to her original concept art. The studio you handed the 3rd movie to did a terrible job at sex-based dimorphism and sub-species storytelling. And while you’re at it, scratch out The Hidden World and Night Fury extinction as a whole. It doesn’t actually make that much sense when you think about it. Thanks!
Note to directors: please revert The Light Fury to her original concept art. The studio you handed the 3rd movie to did a terrible job at sex-based dimorphism and sub-species storytelling. And while you’re at it, scratch out The Hidden World and Night Fury extinction as a whole. It doesn’t actually make that much sense when you think about it. Thanks!
