How To Train Your Dragon
The animated-to-live-action pipeline continues to be fed with the arrival of How to Train Your Dragon, a remake of the 2010 animated film. Itself a loose adaptation of Cressida Cowell's 2003 children's novel, it follows a young Viking-in-training who befriends a winged beast of legend despite a generations-long feud between their two species.
The Black Phone 's Mason Thames steps into the fur-lined boots of Hiccup, the calamitous son of chief Stoick the Vast played with rugged heart by Gerard Butler, who reprises his role from the original franchise. To his dad's derision, Hiccup has more brain than brawn. He wants to live up to his father's dragon-slaying expectations, but after bonding with Toothless, a feared but injured Night Fury, he endeavours to end the bitter rivalry for the sake of Vikings and dragons alike.
As a children's film, it hits all the fundamental thematic notes. It instills the lessons of accepting differences, not judging a dragon by its scaly skin or fiery breath; letting children become who they are, not what their parents want them to be; and there's an empowering message about disability embedded in Toothless's rehabilitation and other Viking injuries.
Thames and the younger cast – including Nico Parker as star-Viking student Astrid and Julian Dennison (Hunt for the Wilderpeople) as Hiccup's best friend – offer earnest performances. But the rudimentary script and flat direction from Dean DeBlois (who co-directed and co-wrote the animated film) rarely make good on the outlandishly comic vigour he established with the original voice cast, populated by comedy stars like Jay Baruchel, Kristen Wiig and Christopher Mintz-Plasse.
The fictional island of Berk has all the vibrancy of a muddy photo
To the filmmaker's credit, the myriad dragons flitting around the skies, stealing sheep, flaming houses, and causing the tribe a constant nuisance are realised in impressive CGI fashion and bolstered by some comic flourish. Yet the fictional island of Berk has all the vibrancy of a muddy photo.
Its Scottish Viking identity is made far fudgier in a bid to diversify, too. The Scottish accents (bar Butler's) in the adult cast are dispensed with, and colonial references to the Silk Road, Far East, plus an old sage with Bedouin tattoos are thrown in. Sadly, these cultural nods serve as nothing more than window dressing rather than offering any narratively fulfilling exploration of Viking expansion.
The old saying goes: 'Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.' How to Train Your Dragon delivers the bare minimum to warrant its recreation.
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