How To Train Your Dragon Is... (REVIEW)

0:00 How to Train Your Dragon is the latest liveaction remake. A first though for Universal, where we are again telling the story of Hiccup and Toothless, two characters on opposite sides of a war having to come together to become friends. And that's not pretty any spoilers, you guys. This will be a spoiler-free review. How to Train Your Dragon. I'm not going to lie to you, man. I thought it would be years before we got to this exact point. And the point I'm talking about exactly is 3D animated movies getting the liveaction treatment. We've known for the longest time that Disney has been milking the liveaction trend with a lot of their classics, but they're really starting to run out, and other studios are taking note how easy money makers they are, even if the quality isn't up to par.

0:46 Dedicated movie fans in the space are now very harsh on liveaction remakes, but general audiences that outnumber us a lot love just seeing something that was once animated turn live action and they'll happily spend the money for. So, it was no surprise that Universal had finally decided to dip their toes into this same market. And I really didn't know what to expect. All the trailers seemed to be very faithful to the animated counterpart. Not much of a design change was made to Toothless Mason Thes's hiccup looked all right. Honestly, the thing that intrigued me the most with this live-action remake is how different a studio can be compared to Disney. And since these liveaction remakes are not going to stop, maybe this healthy competition of another studio doing liveaction remakes better could motivate Disney to do a little

1:33 better job with theirs. All this to say though, went in. Not sure where my expectations were. Of course, I love the animated movie and I consider myself a little bit more friendly to these live action remakes cuz I know some people get enjoyment out of them and I don't want to completely party poop on their parade. And having walked out of the movie, man, people are going to love this. And I think it's going to make a lot of money. And when I say people are going to love it, I truly mean general audiences are going to eat this movie up because it's literally the exact movie you got with just the littlest amount of new stuff to kind of try and make it its own but not stray too far from the original material that you feel alienated to it. And you know, it's so funny trying to review these liveaction movies cuz if I'm being honest with you, I could easily say movie is amazing.

2:20 This thing was awesome. I love the story. I love the characters, the sequences they had, but all of that is also true for the animated counterpart. And that's where I get into the struggle of like, how do I go about reviewing this? Because a lot of the people will argue, Chris, if you compare it to the original, well, of course, you're going to be negative on it. You're going to be nitpicky. Review it as its own thing. The How to Train Your Dragon movie is one of those occasions where it's so much a shot forshot remake of its original counterpart. It's kind of really hard to also just review it as its own thing. But trying to do my best on focusing on the live action elements cuz once again, no point telling you how amazing the story of this movie is, the great moments you have between the characters, cuz that's all stuff you know from the animated movie. I think Mason Thes as Hiccup was a really nice

3:07 rendition. I was very happy that he didn't try to do an exact imitation of voice actor Jay Barell because no offense to that actor that voice can get on my nerves. But Mason Thames was able to still find the dorky, quirky, fumbly side of Hiccup while still making it his own and not falling into that voice trap. Nico Parker, who plays Astrid in the movie, I thought also did a good job. In fact, I would even be willing to say the live action version kind of develops the relationship between Hiccup and Astrid slightly better. There's more of a tense situation going on between them and they add this story beat that Astrid is actually not fond of Hiccup because he's the son of the chief thus he has privilege in the town. Little things like that I thought help ground it and make it its own. And really all of the live action cast members I feel

3:52 are perfectly cast. I know Gerard Butler plays his voice counterpart here in live action. Of course, he does a good job, but the trio of friends in Dragon Training and Nick Frost as Gobbber all really fit the world. One thing I also liked is I was very fond of the atmosphere that they have built up in here. Sometimes with these live action remakes, they are actually held back by what they could do visually because in animation so much more is possible. So much more can be lively, vibrant, thus making for better visuals. And while I'm not going to say the How to Train Your Dragon movie has any visuals better than the animated film, they at least do their best. And I think seeing a lot of these dragons, this village, the arenas, and even that final act with the dragon's nest, all of the scale and the look of it, I thought was actually really fun and inviting to see in

4:39 liveaction form. To me, that is one of the funner parts of a liveaction movie. And seeing sometimes that action translated and I thought the How to Train Your Dragon movie does handle those moments well, whether Hiccup is soaring on top of Toothless, the flying sequences at times I felt were very majestic and help with those emotional beats. I think a lot of that is also in part to the CGI in this movie looking really great. Of course, there's a couple of wonky moments or situations where characters feel a little more digital than they are, but for the most part, I was really blown away by the effects in this movie and thought it complimented the world nicely. I know I might regret saying this cuz I never want anything to replace animation cuz animation gets enough scrutiny or belittling by general audiences just because they think live action is a superior format to tell stories. And even after this movie, while I think there's still yet a liveaction

5:26 adaptation that can replace the original film, there were moments when I was watching this towards the ending and I just found myself really enjoying the story, the characters, everything was falling into place that I thought if someone had watched this over the animated movie, they would still get really close to capturing everything that was special about that first film. And while I still recommend that be the priority and the thing you check out, there are a lot of other liveaction animated adaptations where I'm like, "No, you are doing yourself a giant disservice if that is the version that you're going to be sticking to and watching first." But again, I don't know how much of that is a compliment and more of the movie just playing it safe with just doing the beats by beats. And I realize that's a real catch22 situation, right? You either tell the story exactly as it is and get called

6:11 lazy and an instant cash grab, or you add too much new stuff, alienate yourself from the story, and then get giant backlash from fans going, "What was the point of remaking it really, there's never a happy ground with these live action remakes, but I did find myself quite enjoying How to Train Your Dragon." I am iffy though on whether I'd want them to do the whole trilogy because like I said, I still think the way the animated films did best if they're following the same formula they did with this with copying the exact story with just slight minute different details. I don't know if you really justify your existence other than just whoa that's what Hiccup would look like in real life. Pretty cool. If I really had to get on though on some negatives that like I said hold this movie back and keep the original film superior is the first I want to say 40 minutes of

6:59 the movie. It did feel really strange because it's such a shot forshot remake that it's following the pace and rhythm of its animated counterpart and that translating to live action was really wonky down to the narrating to what was going on. It's like you could tell the beats weren't hitting. It isn't really until Toothless and Hiccup start interacting, having their bond that the movie really soarses and takes off, and you also grow accustomed to a liveaction movie following the rhythm of an animated film. But again, like I said, I think enough people are going to come out extremely happy with this. It's the most safest version you could be because you are just translating that already amazing movie. Part of me wonders if maybe this is what they should just be because it's not really much to offend or get upset about. Like I thought the

7:45 Lilo and Stitch movie was perfectly fine and for Disney quality that was one of their better liveaction remakes and that got insane amount of hate for its ending and changes it made. I think some people were even going as far as to twist the ending into something evil. Maybe How to Train Your Dragon is doing it right. We're just uh how about just add one or two new things and keep everything else exactly the same. So when it comes to live action How to Train Your Dragon movie, I'm going to give Action three and a half stars. In liveaction form, I actually really did like the look of the dragons. The flying sequences I did find kind of majestic and that big battle at the end with the scale and scope did feel kind of grand in live action. Coming to the movie, I'm going to give it two and a half stars. I do think a bit of the humor is lost in live action form. There are just things I found funnier in the animated movie than in live action, but that could also be

8:31 because a lot of the jokes from the animated movie are repeated a second time here. So, it's just not funny hearing the same joke twice. Drama in the movie. This is really tough cuz the How to Train Your Dragon story is easily like a four-st star movie for me. But because you can kind of tell that sometimes it's just hitting the beats and repeating a story out there while trying to keep the same rhythm of the animated form instead of for live action. It brings it down to like a three and a half star. But of course, I love the How to Train Your Dragon story. Horror in the film, I'll give half a star, too. Since it is a kids movie, there is one scene where Toothless just roars on screen. And I thought that was actually pretty frightening for some kids. And suspense the movie. I'm going to give it two stars because you're familiar with the story. It does take away some of that suspense. Casual movie goers, I'm gonna give this an A+. Like, they knocked it out of the park for them. Cinnaphiles, I'm going to give it

9:17 a B+. And critically, I'm going to give it a B minus. For the live action How to Train Your Dragon movie, it plays it perfectly safe in copying an amazing film. Thus, it's kind of hard not to deliver an already amazing movie that I think is worth watching in theaters. Again, that's just my opinion on the movie, guys. If you are someone that likes seeing something translated over, I think the CGI and how safe it plays it, I think is going to keep most people happy. But I toss it off to you guys. How do you feel about the live action How to Train Your Dragon? And are you happy with this 3D animated trend turn live action now? Who's next? Toy Story, Shrek, Kung Fu Panda's around the corner. I can feel it. Don't forget to like, subscribe, follow me on Twitter at 3C Films, or on Tik Tok at 3C Films. But as always, I'm Chris. Take care.