HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (2010)
A hapless young Viking who aspires to hunt dragons becomes the unlikely friend of a young dragon himself, and learns there may be more to the creatures than he assumed.
2025 is a significant year in the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, marking the 15th anniversary of the first film’s release and the year its live-action remake arrives in cinemas. Taking a carefully crafted and immersive animated film, whose cuteness and archetypal characters are so much more appealing in this medium, and turning it into live-action goes against any semblance of reason. Then again, given the proliferation and popularity of live-action remakes of beloved animated films, one can’t be surprised by this development. After all, this is the age of the remake. Why should only Disney films get this lazy treatment? Granted, this film is an unusual choice, with not nearly enough time having passed to cement it as an animated classic. Still, How to Train Your Dragon remains one of DreamWorks’ most memorable and accomplished movies. It was also a huge box office success, earning just under half a billion dollars and spawning a multimedia franchise that includes two sequels.
Is How to Train Your Dragon a classic film? Not really. It’s too low-key and inconsequential for that. But it presents a funny and heart-warming animated that will appeal greatly to animal lovers. While dragons are one of the main focuses of this film—and the much-despised and feared enemies of the Viking village of Berk, where 15-year-old protagonist Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III (Jay Baruchel) resides—pet owners will doubtless be thinking of beloved furry friends when watching the blossoming friendship between Hiccup and Toothless (Randy Thom), a rare dragon known as a Night Fury.
Unbeknownst to the rest of his Viking clan, Hiccup managed to injure this deadly foe and is now helping it recuperate in secrecy. Despite having the ability to annihilate entire towns full of people or take on formidable dragons, friendship and acceptance of charity are still terrifying concepts for the adorable Toothless, who hesitates to take food from Hiccup at first. As this protagonist gradually comes to understand that dragons aren’t intrinsically bloodthirsty (at least, not any more than humans), he realises that, like all creatures, they have pretty stupid fears, using this knowledge to rise up the ranks of the dragon-fighting classes he attends with his peers.
Thankfully, Toothless doesn’t speak, amplifying the dragon’s cuteness and the purity of the bond between him and Hiccup, where they must learn to accept how confounding their existence is to the other without the aid of language. Baruchel, an actor and stand-up most known for portraying nerdy, neurotic, and anxiety-ridden characters, might seem like an odd choice for this role at first glance. But Baruchel does an excellent job as a sardonic, back-talking youngster who shuns responsibility even as he seeks glory. This protagonist never repels our sympathy since his pacifism is the worthy antidote for his ultra-violent, vengeful peers. Even when he becomes something of a local legend by intimidating dragons through capitalising on their fears, he’s still working within this bloodthirsty system on his own non-violent terms.
That perspective holds no value to Hiccup at the outset of How to Train Your Dragon since he pines for stardom and admiration from his fellow villagers. There’s genuine wit to Hiccup’s opening monologue and sarcastic dialogue, heightened by the no-nonsense and exasperated comments from the rest of this excellent cast. Hiccup’s father Stoick the Vast (also the Viking’s chieftain), and teacher of the dragon training recruits Gobber the Belch, Gerard Butler (Plane) and Craig Ferguson (How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World) are wonderfully expressive voice actors. There are a few celebrities in this film, but unlike many modern animated films that prioritise star power over expressive voice acting, How to Train Your Dragon strikes a perfect balance between recognisable voices and talented artists who feel tailor-made for their respective roles.
Co-directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois (who both wrote the screenplay with Will Davies) ensure that How to Train Your Dragon is as visually absorbing as its cast is pleasing on the ears, with chaotic battle scenes that never lose their visual or narrative focus along the way. There’s a enjoyable rhythm to such set pieces that keenly maps onto the constant movement within them, as dragons tear through the sky and threaten to raze an entire village with their fiery roar, or when Viking villagers shun any reasonable expectation of fear and leap onto these fearsome beasts in an attempt to vanquish them.
The interplay between Hiccup’s training lessons and his evolving bond with Toothless is when this film develops and cements its identity, setting up a compelling internal battle between courting acceptance and acclaim or thanklessly doing the right thing. Hiccup might start as the worst warrior his village has ever seen, but he gradually comes into his own by refusing to compromise on what makes him unique, a positive moral lesson for kids that doesn’t ever feel like it’s too dumbed down to prohibit adults’ enjoyment. This film broadly appeals to people of all ages, with very few downsides accompanying it. One of these is that some of the character rendering is lacklustre, almost always during daytime scenes where one of the characters takes up a large portion of the screen.
As for the film’s story, while there’s some progression on this front, the dynamic between Hiccup and fellow student Astrid Hofferson (America Ferreira)—with whom he can be seen pining for in How to Train Your Dragon’s first scene—doesn’t contain enough conflict to earn its romantic pay-offs. More time spent with these characters in each other’s company, particularly when Astrid dismisses Hiccup or sees him as her bitter rival once he finds success in the recruitment lessons, would go a long way towards building up her gradual appreciation of his efforts.
It might be Hiccup’s out-of-the-box thinking that brings glory to his name and prosperity to his homeland, but the heart of this film rests between this protagonist and Toothless, as their undeniably cute interactions provide a heart-warming basis for the comedy and drama to soar. Speaking of which, How to Train Your Dragon’s climactic battle sequence offers an impressive sense of scale and immersion as Hiccup and Toothless engage in aerial combat, but it also gives way to spectacle. This roughly 20-minute sequence doesn’t entirely forget about its characters or their motivations, but it leaves a core ingredient missing from its creative arsenal.
Perhaps this also stems from the lack of development between Hiccup and Astrid, or that Hiccup’s mother and her death before the events of this film is but a footnote in the tense relationship between this father and son. Whatever the case may be, How to Train Your Dragon‘s climactic showdown is enjoyable but never enthralling. It can also be seen as a microcosm of the film’s qualities as a whole, where its soaring highs ensure that it is one of the best animated films DreamWorks has produced, but it doesn’t have the memorable storytelling required to make it a classic that will be remembered for decades to come.
USA • FRANCE • UK | 2010 | 98 MINUTES | 2.39:1 | COLOUR | ENGLISH
Cast & Crew
directors: Chris Sanders & Dean DeBlois.
writers: Will Davies, Dean DeBlois & Chris Sanders (based on the book by Cressida Cowell).
voices: Jay Baruchel, Randy Thom (uncredited), America Ferrera, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T.J Miller & Kristen Wiig.
