“How to Train Your Dragon” is the latest animated hit to make its way to live action, soaring on the strength of its visuals and emotion, even as it’s all too familiar.
Director Dean DeBlois returns to the helm after directing the animated trilogy that grossed more than a billion dollars. What he produces is a near shot-for-shot replication of the 2010 animated original, which might sound like a lame cash grab—like so many other animations-turned-live-actions—except the original was such a visual piece of storytelling that it translates beautifully: Our hero soaring through the clouds on a dragon, ships sailing into the mist, and the concluding showdown with the queen dragon—it’s all pretty darn cool to look at.
The story is familiar to most by now: Vikings are constantly battling dragons, and young Hiccup is the laughingstock of his village because he doesn’t share the aggression of his father, Chief Stoick, or the other villagers. Hiccup is played by Mason Thames (“The Black Phone”), who perfectly looks the part though he lacks the awkward charm of 2010’s Hiccup, voiced by Jay Baruchel.
Viking culture was known for displays of strength and violence, and Chief Stoick the Vast is disappointed that his son lacks a killer instinct. Having voiced Stoick in the original, Gerard Butler again lends his talents to the role. Rocking the Viking beard and thick furs, he talks down to his son in exchanges that might strike today’s audiences as toxic masculinity—don’t be weak, be a man!
It’s a timeless theme that many children still deal with today. So when Hiccup traps the most elusive and mysterious of all dragons, the Night Fury, he sees the chance to pull out his knife and live up to his dad’s expectations, changing his image from embarrassment to legend.
Holding the knife, he finally gives in to the fact that he’s not a killer; he releases the dragon. To his surprise, the dragon doesn’t kill him either. In fact, the dragon—whom Hiccup names Toothless—is a tamable beast and, before long, his loyal sidekick.
Which, of course, is problematic when your entire village sees slaying dragons as the greatest display of one’s worth—and perhaps Hiccup’s only way to gain his father’s approval.
Hiccup and a few other youngsters are put into training to become the next batch of warriors. They’re led by Astrid, played by Nico Parker (“The Last of Us”), daughter of actress Thandiwe Newton. Some audiences are unhappy that Astrid, originally blond-haired and blue-eyed, is played by a mixed-race actress, but Parker successfully pulls off the quiet determination of Astrid, a young woman trying to make a name for herself in a society where valor is measured by brute force.
In doing so, you may see a parallel: With the role, Parker is trying to make a name for herself in a white-dominated movie industry.
Ironically, the heart of the story is about being who you are—not who others expect you to be, because real strength is self-acceptance in the face of tradition.
4/5