The Dreamworks Animation film is adapted for live action with How to Train Your Dragon. For generations, the Vikings of the Isle of Berk have been subjected to regular dragon attacks. Hiccup (Mason Thames), the teenage son of the chief Stoick (Gerard Butler), longs to join in on the fight against the dragons, but he is forced to work as an assistant to the blacksmith Gobber (Nick Frost). However, during an attack, Hiccup is seemingly successful at trapping a feared Night Fury dragon.
As Stoick departs to find the dragons’ nest, Hiccup is placed into dragon training along with other young Vikings, Astrid (Nico Parker), Snotlout (Gabriel Howell), Fishlegs (Julian Dennison), and twins Ruffnut (Bronwyn James) and Tuffnut (Harry Trevaldwyn). In between lessons, Hiccup sneaks away and begins to tame the downed Night Fury, which he names Toothless. It is during his time with Toothless that Hiccup comes to realize that dragons are not as much of an enemy as they appear.
How to Train Your Dragon (2025) Synopsis
Six years after the animated trilogy concluded with How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, franchise writer/director Dean DeBlois returns to reimagine the original story, based on the novel by Cressida Cowell, into live action. Mason Thames (The Black Phone) takes over the lead role of Huccup from Jay Baruchel, while Nico Parker (Dumbo) plays Hiccups rival/love interest Astrid, originally voiced by America Ferrera. The rest of the young cast includes Julian Dennison (Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Deadpool 2) as Fishlegs, Bronwyn James (Wicked) as Ruffnut, with Harry Trevaldwyn as her twin brother Tuffnut, and Gabriel Howell as Snotlout, the arrogant son of Spitelout (Peter Serafinowicz). Returning from the original animated cast is Gerard Butler reprising his role as Chief Stoick, while Nick Frost plays Gobber, voiced in the animated films by Craig Ferguson.
The plot of How to Train Your Dragon plays out more or less the same as the original 2010 film. Hiccup befriends his captured Night Fury, Toothless, while using the tricks he learns to excel at dragon training. This all comes to a climax with an epic battle against an Alpha Dragon at its volcano lair.
My Thoughts on How to Train Your Dragon (2025)
After more than a decade of Disney adapting their animated classics to live action, DreamWorks jumps aboard the bandwagon with a live-action adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon. Like all live-action remakes, the instant question is whether this film was necessary. The answer is probably no, but at least How to Train Your Dragon is once again written and directed by Dean DeBlois, who made all three films of the original animated trilogy and has already begun work on a live-action adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon 2, which is arguably the best film of the three.
While Dean DeBlois removed scenes featured in the animated film and added others, How to Train Your Dragon is more or less a carbon copy of the original, right down to the recreation of iconic shots. This is ultimately a positive thing, since the story of How to Train Your Dragon is quite a well-developed one. That said, when forced to choose between the two, I would probably pick the original animated film over this new live-action version.
While I don’t hang myself up on superficial criticisms of live-action remakes, I do have to note that it is sad that the biggest criticism of the live-action How to Train Your Dragon involved the casting of Nico Parker as Astrid. Parker is mixed race and the daughter of Thandiwe Newton, so the criticism of her playing Astrid is the latest backlash against so-called “race swapping” featured previously in The Little Mermaid and Snow White, among others. The irony here is that despite Astrid being portrayed as blonde-haired and blue-eyed in the animated films, she was voiced by Hispanic actor America Ferrera. As such, I have no issue at all with Nico Parker playing the character.
Thanks to having the original franchise director at the helm, How to Train Your Dragon is a rare live-action remake that is at least on par with the original. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the film justifies its existence. We probably didn’t need a live-action remake, but at least this one is respectful to the legacy.
Trailer for How to Train Your Dragon (2025)
