How to Train Your Dragon (PG) |Close-Up Film Review
Dir. Dean DeBlois, UK/US, 2025, 125 mins
Cast: Mason Thames, Nico Parker, Gerard Butler, Nick Frost
Review by Kristen Platt
It’s everything you know and love about the animated movie, but minus Jay Barouchel’s distinctive whining tone as the original Hiccup. You do however have Gerard Butler giving it his booming-voiced all as Stoik, the village chieftain whose whole existence revolves around killing Dragons. He looks like he’s having a lot of fun, as does Nick Frost in the role of blacksmith Gobber. Notwithstanding the fact that it feels a bit weird having an actor without limb differences playing an amputee, he is perfect in the role.
Mason Thames as Hiccup is the perfect combination of awkward and assured, managing to capture the gangly limbed awkwardness of the animation. Nico Parker is a great Astrid; fierce, angry and beautiful in equal measure. Gabriel Howell as Snotlout; Harry Trevaldyn and Bronwyn James as Tuffnut and Ruffnut; and Julian Dennison as Fishlegs round out Hiccup’s enemies-to-friends team, even if they look and feel a little older than in the animated version, they all bring the charm, Julian Dennison as the nerdy dragon fan-boy is especially endearing.
And then there’s Toothless. In the animations he’s adorable, all inquisitive head-tilts and big eyes. Nothing is lost in his transition to ‘real’. He’s every bit as adorable, every scale and plate lovingly rendered by a no-doubt enormous army of uncredited VFX artists.
The film is being heavily marketed as “filmed for Imax”. The screening I attended was held at the BFI Imax, and it was worth it. In the animation the flying sequences are exhilarating. In this, they’re positively breathtaking. Toothless carves through the air in and out of rock stacks, up sheer cliff-faces, reveling in the joyousness of flight, and that is very much how it feels to watch. There was always the risk that it would feel gimmicky and forced but director Dean DeBlois skillfully avoids that.
This remake is entirely unnecessary, but it doesn’t stop it being a charming film. You know exactly what to expect, and it gives it to you by the bucketload. There are no surprises if you’ve seen the original film. It’s exactly what you expect, except of course it’s not animated.
