Kids

How To Train Your Dragon is Now a Live Action Movie!

by Kevyn Gohu
November 20, 2024

The beloved dragon-based animated movie series, How To Train Your Dragon, is now becoming a live action movie!

Most children’s movies come out as animations since the graphics technology and reality couldn’t keep up with the demands of storytelling. But with the technology finally becoming more realistic with 4D, 1080p, or Blu-Ray quality, old children’s films like How To Train Your Dragon are being remade into a live action movie. Releasing a teaser trailer on November 19, 2024, How To Train Your Dragon announces its tentative release date in 2025 while showcasing the cast.

How To Train Your Dragon: The marriage of computer-generated imagery (CGI) & Live-Action

But how does a movie with intense dragon fights and movements become a live action? In the animated movie, stories circulated that the How To Train Your Dragon animators based the dragons’ movements on different animals. Toothless, the fearsome Night Fury, reportedly had his behaviors and movements based on one of the creator’s cats!

While some familiar scenes from the animated version are in the live action film, How To Train Your Dragon was originally a book written by Cressida Cowell. However, many of the book’s fans will argue that the plot “deviated” from the book with the movie version of Toothless being very different than how the books depicted him.

Yet, it’ll be hard to debunk its popularity. Dragons, in almost every fairy tale, were depicted as fearsome creatures that devoured humans by the numbers. How To Train Your Dragon was a breath of fresh air with behaviors and mannerisms akin to a pet. It’s probably why kids started wanting iguanas, chameleons, and even axolotls – the aesthetic inspiration for Toothless – as pets.

However, families may hear fans being skeptical about the casting. Hiccup, originally voiced by Jay Baruchel, will be played by The Black Phone‘s Mason Thames in the live action film. Astrid, Hiccup’s love interest who was originally voiced by America Ferrera, will be played by Nico Parker. She appears to be no stranger to live-action and CGI films, playing Milly Farrier in Tim Burton’s version of Dumbo.

The only one who is currently known to reprise his role is Gerard Butler as Hiccup’s dad, Stoick the Vast.

Why are many of the old children’s films being remade?

Children’s films can be remade into live-action ones for various reasons. While we, as parents, enjoy the nostalgia of hearing an old, beloved title, we now can also share those emotions with our kids who are used to a higher standard of graphics. With so many studies concluding how screen time, because of its vibrant colors and sharp sounds overstimulate kids, we often look for movies that are more realistic in graphics while still retaining its entertaining plot.

But is it worth watching? Here’s the trailer for us to judge: