Fifteen years ago, DreamWorks Animation released How to Train Your Dragon (2010), a funny, charming, gorgeous movie that became an instant animated classic. An entire generation of kids fell in love with the Hiccup, Toothless, the village of Berk, and all of the adventures had there. Fast forward a decade and a half, and those children are mostly grown-up now. So, DreamWorks needed a new film to capture the imaginations of a new generation. While most studios might have gone to the drawing board and tried to devise a new franchise, DreamWorks took the unorthodox route of simply remaking one of their biggest hits, almost shot-for-shot, in live action. I am not entirely sure how I feel about the fact that it mostly works.

For those who somehow don’t know the story, How to Train Your Dragon (2025) takes place in the Viking village of Berk, where the tough and stubborn villagers find themselves under regular attack from dragons. When Hiccup (Mason Thames), the chief’s son and possibly most useless Viking in the village, manages to bring down a feared Night Fury dragon, he’s elated because now he’ll get to be a dragonslayer like everyone else. Unfortunately, Hiccup has a kind heart and cannot bring himself to finish off the dragon, who he names Toothless. The two form a friendship, and Hiccup becomes the first dragon rider in Berk.

It’s a touching tale elevated even further by stunning visuals and great performances. Thames plays Hiccup with a mix of sincerity and cunning that sells the character well, though I never really believed that he was somehow weak and useless. It’s not his fault, he does everything in his power to demonstrate Hiccup’s lack of strength, but it’s a little ridiculous to hear other characters talk about how skinny, small, and scrawny he is when he just very clearly is not those things.

Gerard Butler reprises his role from the 2010 version as Stoick, the Viking chief and Hiccup’s father. He’s probably my favorite performance in the movie, even if there are times when it feels like he’s in a totally different film. He opts to take the role completely seriously and really dives into it. It’s great, though I kind of wish everything else was played as realistic as he was.

Far too many of the scenes, however, simply try to replicate the animated movie. When I call this a shot-for-shot remake, I mean it literally. Director Dean DeBlois, who also co-directed the original, crafts much of the movie with nearly identical costumes, shot framing, visual effects, and dialogue. There’s plenty of times where it all combines well and sucks the audience into a beautifully constructed world. I’m shocked, for instance, how great the dragons look and how seamlessly they integrate into the setting.

Other times, however, the various elements just don’t mesh well with the live-action visuals and it all looks a bit like a very well made local theater performance. This is perhaps most obvious in the costumes and dialogue, both of which sometimes seem jarringly cartoonish.

It is admittedly very difficult to know how to critique How to Train Your Dragon (2025). Should the original be completely discarded and this version evaluated entirely on its own merit? That might be possible, were it not so incredibly faithful to the animated version. At the same time, though, it’s probably not fair to judge it against the earlier film either. This is a mostly new cast, putting their own spin on the characters. Even if the story and dialogue are almost entirely the same, the cast and crew still deserve to be judged on the work they’ve done. In which case, it’s hard to say this isn’t a fairly good movie. Sure, maybe it’s propping itself up on the back of the original, but much like Hiccup when he and Toothless soar through the skies, it’s still flying.