So I watched How To Train Your Dragon…

For the past decade, Disney has been bombarding us with a myriad of live-action remakes of their timeless classics. A few have been enjoyable, but the majority have been disappointing cash-grabs that would have tarnished the legacy of the original animation if they weren’t so instantly forgettable. With this in mind, when I found out that How To Train Your Dragon was set to get the live-action treatment, I was less than enthused. Thankfully, my skepticism proved to be completely unfounded, because while Disney, in my opinion, has yet to find the ideal formula for creating a live-action film that can rival the animation, DreamWorks may have cracked the code on its first outing.

Okay, basic plot: Hiccup (Mason Thames) lives in the remote Viking village of Berk, where residents spend their lives learning how to hunt, kill, and hate dragons. Hiccup is considered a bumbling buffoon by the village and is eager to prove his worth by taking down a dragon. One day, Hiccup succeeds in his mission, but instead of killing the dragon, he befriends it and begins to question everything he’s been taught about these ‘dangerous, savage’ beasts.

I think the biggest challenge a remake faces is recreating the magic that made the original work. Movies essentially all have the same basic components: a script, a cast, a director, set designers, costume designers, etc.— and the way these components come together is what forms the magic. Sounds simple enough, but if it were so simple, every movie would be a hit — an instant, timeless classic. So there has to be something else, something intangible, something incalculable. I don’t know exactly what that ‘thing’ is, but I know that this movie has it.

One of the key reasons this movie works so well is that it leans into its absurdity. Animated films, by their very nature, are inherently absurd. You watch an animated film and you immediately, instinctively accept that the usual laws of physics, logic, and possibility don’t apply to this medium. Characters pull mallets out of their pockets, survive blows to the head with no residual damage besides a few birds flying around their heads. We accept the premise because we know what we’re watching isn’t the ‘real world’. Live-action remakes often force real-world logic onto animated source material, and this leads to the remake feeling false. How To Train Your Dragon embraces the absurdity of its animated roots and crafts a world where that absurdity feels natural.

This movie is written and directed by Dean DeBlois, who also wrote and directed the animated trilogy. He clearly has a deep understanding of the source material and was perfectly suited to helm this live-action remake. Save for a few scenes here and there, this movie is basically a shot-for-shot adaptation of the animation. I haven’t always enjoyed remakes of this nature, yet somehow this movie manages to feel original. There was a dichotomy to my experience watching it: I was aware that it was a remake and judging it against the original animation, but I was also watching it as if it were the first time I’d ever seen this story. This movie doesn’t try to recreate the magic of the original — it creates its own. I don’t know how DeBlois does it, but I have to applaud him.

The film’s cast and their performances are something of a contradiction. At times, they are the film’s biggest asset and brilliantly capture the heart and spirit of the story; at others, they are its biggest weakness, with stale and robotic line delivery. Mason Thames wonderfully embodies the clumsy, eccentric genius of Hiccup. He and Nico Parker, who plays Astrid, have great chemistry. There are moments when their individual performances are inconsistent and not quite of the calibre of Jay Baruchel and America Ferrera, who voiced their animated counterparts. However, these moments are fleeting, and overall the pair do a great job.

I think the real stars of the show are the supporting cast. Gerard Butler reprises his role as Stoick the Vast, and it’s clear this is a character he knows well — he brings the same emotion he delivered in the animation to this live-action outing. Gabriel Howell, Julian Dennison, Bronwyn James, and Harry Trevaldwyn—who play Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut, respectively — are also stellar and form the perfect comedic quartet.

A major criticism of the film is that the production value often seems a bit low. Several scenes look obviously fake, either due to poor CGI or a background or set that feels off. This was probably because so much of the budget and time had to be devoted to creating the live-action dragons. The look and feel of the dragons were going to be a fundamental factor in my enjoyment of this film — and thankfully, they didn’t disappoint. They manage to capture the expressive, childlike wonder of Toothless while still making him feel real — a tricky balance to pull off.

Overall, How To Train Your Dragon manages to be more than just another remake — it sets itself apart as an entertaining film in its own right. There are a few stumbles from the cast and some patchy visuals, but those are minor complaints in the grand scheme of what is a thoroughly entertaining movie. It deserves to be seen in a cinema — ideally a 4DX one, if you can find it. Watching Hiccup struggle to ride Toothless is infinitely more fun when you’re also being tossed about. 8/10