Don’t talk to me; I’m entering my “dragons era” once again.
But, on a real note, the live-action How To Train Your Dragon has finally happened, guys. It’s finally here. It feels like just yesterday that the 2025 movie release was confirmed, and we started to get casting news, story updates, filming posts, and so much more. Now it’s dropped, and honestly…I think it’s the best live-action adaptation I’ve ever seen.
Before we delve into that, however, we need to address the actual concern I had going into this film and how the movie addressed it in a matter of seconds. Let’s talk about it.
The Movie Itself Was So Much Fun And Held Up Well To The Original
Let me be frank and say that this live-action movie is epic on a significant scale. If you’re a fan of the How To Train Your Dragon movies, you’re going to enjoy this film. It’s essentially the same story, and it feels like it was ripped right out of the animation and brought to our eyes in live-action form, which is something that I am so freaking happy about.
It’s not even just that which made this good – the characters’ mannerisms were there, the dragons were there – Toothless looked so good, and I literally felt tears come to my eyes when John Powell’s score swelled as he and Hiccup took their first real flight together. It was like a blast to the past.
This is what a lot of Disney live-action remakes are missing – the heart of the story, the fact that we all love the original – so if you’re going to remake it, keep it relatively the same. We don’t need flashy changes, or at the very least, I don’t. And, this movie had everything you could want and more.
However, like I said, there was one concern I had going into it.
Astrid’s Race – As Well As Several Others – Was Always In Question
I mean, you shouldn’t be surprised.
Honestly, on a typical day, I wouldn’t really care what the characters of a children’s movie looked like in a live-action adaptation. Do I love Astrid from the original films? Of course, I do. But it’s not like she’s inherently unique. She has the personality of a kick-ass girl who knows how to fight and will do whatever it takes to surpass her peers and rule the tribe.
You don’t have to be a particular race to pull that kind of personality off.
But, it’s not like the people that Hiccup and Astrid are based on aren’t real people, though. It’s different with cases like Halle Bailey’s Ariel from The Little Mermaid, who is literally just a made-up fantasy character and could look like anyone. However, with the Vikings – the group this is based on – it is historically accurate that most of them were white, and Nico Parker is not.
Again, I don’t care about race 99% of the time as long as you give a compelling performance. However, Parker’s casting did turn some heads, and then when I saw that there would be more characters of that race within Berk, I started to wonder how they would explain this.
Then I saw the movie, and everything fell into place.
They Answered It Within Twenty Minutes Of The Movie
I’ll be honest and say that this film was quick to answer the questions I had surrounding Astrid’s casting, and they did it in such a way that I can’t help but applaud them.
It’s literally, like, a twenty-second moment where Stoick is trying to hype up his men for a journey across the sea to try and find the Dragon’s Nest, and he mentions to a few of the Vikings there that they have traveled long and far to come to Berk – some from the Silk Road, others from different continents, etc. So, there’s your answer.
Berk isn’t just for natural-born Vikings. Berk is for immigrants, those who have left their country and traveled to Berk to become Vikings. That’s where Parker’s version of Astrid comes from – and where everyone else who doesn’t look like a typical Viking comes from, too.
That’s the kind of explanation that was so quick you might miss it if you’re not paying attention, and it’s the best way to end all this talking about her casting, overall.
It’s Never Brought Up Again, Which Is The Best Method
Do you want to know the best part about this? The fact that it isn’t brought up again at all.
Something that has bothered me a lot about modern live-action remakes, mainly from Disney, is that these movies often feel the need to bombard us with ideas and thoughts, repeating things because they assume the viewer is not paying attention.
For example, in the Mulan remake, I couldn’t tell you how many times it repeated the phrase “Mulan can’t fight because she’s a woman” over and over. We get it. We don’t need to hear this explanation time and time again when that premise was clear the first time we heard it.
This movie did it right – where the explanation was just said, very quickly, so we don’t really have to even think about it – and then we move on to the main story. You know, fighting dragons and stuff, cementing this as one of my favorite fantasy movies ever because yes, it’s so much fun.
I Think More Movies Need To Do This
This is the best example of how to deal with controversy, because I genuinely think that Dreamworks hit it out of the park with this one.
The moment Parker was cast, it was literally all anyone could talk about for ages, and even when the first trailers dropped for HTTYD, people couldn’t stop bringing it up. It was ridiculous. They could have turned this film into a statement, but thankfully, they didn’t, and it keeps the same heart as the original.
And more movies need to do that. You can address the problem without making a big deal out of it. You make a statement without repeating it over and over again as if it’s a nail that hasn’t quite taken hold.
This is the kind of thing we need, and I really hope that if DreamWorks continues to make live-action adaptations of their movies, they stick to this tactic, because it’s killer.
With the release of How To Train Your Dragon, I need to dive back into the world of fantasy – maybe it’s time to binge some fantasy TV shows.