How to Train Your Dragon: 15 Years On

A pointless live-action remake may be on the way, but the spirited 2010 animated original still has adventure, wit, and heart to spare

Credit: Dreamworks

That collective groan you presently hear in cinemas worldwide is the sound accompanying millions of eye-rolls at yet another artistically redundant live-action remake of a beloved animated feature. In this case, the trailer for the live-action take on How to Train Your Dragon, which will be out later this year. Of course, we shouldn’t pre-judge it. Who knows? Perhaps it will prove a rare case of a remake having genuine cinematic value, like Guillermo Del Toro’s intensely personal stop-motion reimagining of Pinocchio (2022). But somehow, I doubt it. I expect when the dust settles on the 2025 film, it will be every bit the mindless cash-grab, shot-for-shot remake we already suspect it is, based on images in the trailer.

In contrast, the sublime 2010 animated film still stands up beautifully after fifteen years. Based on the book by Cressida Cowell, it tells the story of Hiccup (Jay Baruchel); teenage son of beefy Viking chief Stoick (Gerard Butler), who looks akin to a character from an Asterix comic, and like much of the cast, speaks with an inexplicable Scottish accent. Deemed too weak to fight the marauding dragons who constantly half-inch flocks of sheep from their coastal village, Hiccup is considered a bit of an oddball, though he is clever and inventive. However, when he accidentally shoots down a particularly rare and feared dragon known as a Night Fury, he finds he is unable to kill it. In fact, Hiccup discovers it is a he and names the dragon Toothless.