How To Train Your Dragon

Rated PG • Theaters

Some folks complain every time another live-action remake of an animated classic gets released, but these remakes serve a real need. They give families a chance to experience the magic of the movies in the theater together in a low-risk way. Since parents have seen the original, they’ve in a sense “prescreened” the movie for their kids, giving them a good idea of whether the message fits with their family’s values.

When Disney’s Snow White bombed earlier this year, talking heads started wondering whether the era of live-action remakes might be over, but these movies continue to make money, as evidenced by the massive success of the Lilo & Stitch remake in May. It’s unsurprising DreamWorks has decided to follow Disney’s lead and mine its own animated library for live-action grist. The studio is starting with the 2010 animated classic How To Train Your Dragon, and parents who loved that film and are looking for a sure bet for their kids will likely find everything they want in this year’s remake.

Per the original story, the live-action How To Train Your Dragon follows the inventive Viking, Hiccup, on the island of Berk as he defies the rules of his people to befriend the Night Fury dragon “Toothless” and save both humans and dragons from their never-ending war against each other.

This new version of How To Train Your Dragon—written and directed by Dean DeBlois, who co-created the original—largely delivers by being almost beat-for-beat and line-for-line faithful to the 2010 film. This is both a blessing and a curse. The remake benefits from everything that made the original great, but it also invites comparison, which isn’t always favorable.

The remake’s biggest strengths are its cinematography, production design, and cast. The scenes of aerial acrobatics filmed with IMAX in mind are truly stunning, and impressive costumes and sets take the very particular child-friendly, fanciful Viking aesthetic from animation and make it work with real people. As a nod to current trends, this remake reimagines the dragon-hunting Vikings of Berk as a multicultural people, but the film takes the time to explain why Asians and Africans live in this Scandinavian tribe. Nearly all the main cast is likable and believable. Mason Thames convincingly balances the “adorkable” and inspiring qualities of Hiccup. Nico Parker captures both the cranky and warm sides of Hiccup’s rival and love interest Astrid. And Gerard Butler’s Chief Stoick feels lifted from the animated version because Butler voiced him in the original.

But staying so close to the source material sometimes creates problems. Animated scenes can move faster than live-action ones because animation includes less detail for the eye to process. In the opening, which introduces Berk, Hiccup, and the rest of the main cast with a pacing that matches the original, the audience doesn’t get much chance to register the characters’ faces and connect with them because everything’s happening too quickly.

The cast is good, but at times the actors seem to be performing like cartoon characters or doing imitations of the previous iconic voice actors. Take comedian Nick Frost, for example: He gets hamstrung by largely doing a watered-down impression of Craig Ferguson’s performance as the cranky blacksmith Gobber. Some fans of the original movie might feel that the way the actors attempt the inflections and gestures of their animated characters creates an “uncanny valley.” This is disappointing. If the film had given its actors just a bit more room to be their own versions of these people, we could have fallen in love with them on their own merits, perhaps almost as much as the originals.

But these quibbles will likely not bother the families who make up the film’s target audience. They’ll be pleased this live-action version preserves all the treasured moments and positive messages of compassion and courage. And despite the “live-action” dragons being a little scarier than their 2010 counterparts, the movie maintains its PG rating—so parents fine with the original will probably be fine with this one too.

I’m always rooting for these remakes to be the best version of themselves—becoming high-quality works in their own right. However, the original How To Train Your Dragon is such a powerful film that this version, which sticks to it so closely, albeit imperfectly, proves to be a similarly moving experience.