Following Sunday’s Super Bowl announcement, a new trailer for one of the big 2025 movies, How To Train Your Dragon, has arrived, and it’s a nostalgic one for DreamWorks fans like me. Ahead of Universal sharing a new look at the live-action How To Train Your Dragon, in addition to viewing the new trailer early, I had the opportunity to see some early footage of the upcoming movie, and I want to talk out my current thoughts about the movie’s release.
As you know, Disney has been putting out a slew of live-action Disney remakes over the years, which continues this year with Snow White and Lilo & Stitch. Since this trend of movies have generally made for some forgettable blockbusters, in my opinion, I’m understandably skeptical about this project now that DreamWorks is officially joining the game with a live-action version of 2010’s How To Train Your Dragon. After writer/director Dean DeBlois showed us a few scenes from the movie at Universal’s offices, there are some things I’m more excited about seeing from the summer release (and some reasons why I’m still concerned).
I’m Most Excited About Seeing Toothless And Hiccup’s Friendship In Live Action After Seeing Their First Flight
On January 30, Universal showed us three scenes (which were not completely finished yet) from the new How to Train Your Dragon. The most impressive of them was definitely the first flight between Hiccup and Toothless teased a bit in the new trailer.
Now, I haven’t seen the 2010 classic in a while, but seeing the scene of the best friends flying through the air for the first time in this format did exactly what I want to see in the concept of live-action remakes. It brought about the nostalgia of seeing the scene in animation, while also showing how cool it is to see a more grounded take on the moment between the boy and the dragon. The emotional and thrilling sequence was my favorite thing I saw from the movie, and it reminded me how rare it is to see a family movie with dragons feel this real.
While Dean DeBlois, who wrote and directed the original Dragon animated trilogy, along with this new movie, said this live-action adaptation allowed them to build on elements of the story that wasn’t found in the trilogyhere were some instances where they felt it was important to “honor” the scenes from the original - sometimes nearly shot-by-shot, and this was one of them. I am really happy that Toothless’ look wasn’t completely reinvented, and he looks very cute and is oozing with personality.
He helped me realize why there needs to be some recycled shots, and now I’m officially invested in seeing the live-action movie and hopefully recapture their friendship. After seeing the footage on their first flight I am more confident about them being successful with that aspect. Additionally, I think it's a huge plus the man who originally crafted the animated movies was at the helm for all of it.
It Also Looks Like The Remake Will Deepen Multiple Storylines
Ever since Mason Thames and Nico Parker were cast as Hiccup and Astrid, I’ve been more into the idea of How To Train Your Dragon in live action because I think they are good picks. During the event, DeBlois told us that the movie gave them the opportunity to build upon how a previously “underserved” character with Astrid was handled, and I totally know where he’s coming from. While I appreciated the character in the original animated movies, I always felt her character was a bit flat at times, and I’d be interested in a new generation getting to see an improved version of her.
The early footage included a scene where the trainees are learning how to go head-to-head with a dragon, and Astrid definitely has a cool action scene. While I will say that so far the movie definitely looks more geared to kids and families (which totally makes sense of course) heads up, it also makes some of the lines a bit cheesier in live action than I would imagine from a movie about Vikings. It did open my eyes to how multiple storylines between characters may be deepened by being played by humans.
I’m especially looking forward to Gerard Butler’s Stoic and Hiccup’s father-son relationship after seeing the third scene they showed us featuring the character, which has Hiccup coming face-to-face with a fire-breathing dragon for his “graduation.” It’s fun to see Butler looking completely different in his costume as Stoic, and I could feel the deep emotion seeping back in regarding their contentious relationship in the key scene.
The Setting Of The Franchise Does Lend Itself To A Live-Action Movie
Finally, the imagery of How To Train Your Dragon did impress me in live action. While there've been a few remakes of beloved animated movies that didn’t make sense to me to be revived, I like that this was filmed on location around Belfast, Ireland, among other places. Not every dragon I saw in the footage looked particularly impressive in CGI, but seeing the scale of the storyline in front of me on a big screen did remind me how said scale could be really amazing to re-experience in this way.
What I’m Still Concerned About After Seeing Early Footage Of The Movie
As you might be able to gauge my general thoughts on the early footage, while I’m more excited, I still have my reservations about this movie. Honestly, I think I'd rather have seen an original movie that takes place in the same universe or about the topic of vikings and dragons, but I do think there’s a possibility here that this live-action movie could deliver on being a really fun and heartwarming action family movie for the summertime.
At the end of the day, it’s hard to judge how good a movie will be based on three scenes and a trailer, just like the same can be said about a trailer on its own. I definitely had some major nostalgia over the franchise after going to this press event that had me wishing I could have stayed in the theater longer to see the whole movie. Anyway, we can all decide for sure if this How to Train Your Dragon remake was a good idea once it hits theaters on June 13.
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