3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): How to Train Your Dragon

2025, Dean DeBlois (How to Train Your Dragon) -- download

The live-action. My post for the original animated movie is here. The original is also a pre-Blog movie, so said post is a rewatch.

 I am prone to say posts about movies that are more Marmy (the Peanut Gallery) movies than mine, are "our" posts.

This movie post wedges in nicely with my current project -- the one about live action remakes of Disney animated movies. Not because it is Disney, but because for some reason, Dreamworks decided that their super-popular animated series about an island of dragon riding Vikings needed to become live-action. 

i.e. if Disney can do it then Dreamworks can DO. IT. BETTER. (screams a purple suit)

I imagine this concept is designed for introducing an older movie to a newer generation, but the old man yelling at clouds in me cannot help but reflect on the "there are no new ideas" rant of the past decade or so. Everything is nostalgia, everything is reused, all that is old is suddenly new again. But, despite me yelling at that cloud, I am not bothered by this ideal at all. Sure, mine my childhood, create something new from it, rework and reboot it to your heart's content. Yet, if its pretty much the same content, same story, same look & feel, then... why?

We have to be careful to not write here what should be said during the post of the first project movie's post, or... gasp... repeat myself.

Didn't repeat myself ! In the Disney post[s], I am not asking "why" at all, well not "Why is Disney Doing this?" but probably going to ask, "Why am I doing this?" more than once. Why did I do this one? Cuz we love the original and I was curious what they would do with this. I am still wondering why.

OK, Berk, an island somewhere.... north? Its all treacherous coastlines, grassy knolls and somewhere out back, pine forests. The Vikings are being attacked on the regular by dragons. There is a commentary on how most of the homes on their island are new, because they keep on having to rebuild, but there are no signs of previous attacks, and all the buildings look well lived in, until the preamble ends and half the houses in the opener are exploded and/or on fire. Part of me will repeat this adage of cartoons -- in animations, even 3D animations, we don't care about these kind of details, cuz its a cartoon, but in Live Action, it annoys me. Details folks, details.

Hiccup (Mason Thames, The Black Phone) is our reluctant hero. Other than the Tiktok hair, he's not as goofy as animated Jay Baruchel, and yes, part of what lent to Hiccup's distinct character in the original was Baruchel's refusal to give up his Canadian-isms. Of the rest, only Gerard Butler (Greenland) plays his original character, which is a fun detail on its own, but I was disappointed they went with Nick Frost (Paul) for Gobber instead of just sticking Craig Ferguson (The Drew Carey Show) in a ton of makeup -- no slight to Frost; love the guy but despite his expanded role, he was lacking for this character. And in the current tradition of Generated Outrage (I hate that an actual marketing tactic is to court the worst aspects of humanity for controversy; even bad publicity is free publicity) they cast a (gasp) black actor for Astrid, one Nico Parker (The Last of Us) and to supplement the idea of black Vikings, they added more to the island. I don't have state the ludicrous nature of disputing that their could be fictional black Vikings in a movie about dragons. If I was going to have any dispute with character change choices, it would be the twins not twins. 

Again, my love for the original is unabashed, and the D&D player in me should love the idea of these cartoony fantasy aspects finding some (real)life but... it all fell flat for me. Sure, the story is the same, and much of the imagery is faithful, but... it did not stir me. No real complaints, but for minor quibbles, but munch... burp... done, and its gone from memory. Even the majestic dragon flight scenes were... yawn. Was it me? The movie? Probably me.

I should at least be gracious and give some credits. Snotty Snotlout is Gabriel Howell (The Fence), giant sized dragon nerd Fishlegs is Julian Dennison (Deadpool 2), the "twins" Ruffnut and Tuffnut are Bronwyn James (Mickey 17) and  Harry Trevaldwyn (Sweet Sue) respectively; and yes, I get the idea they were "identical" twins for hyuk-hyuks. Nods to Peter Serafinowicz (The Tick) and Ruth Codd (The Midnight Club) as Spitelout and Phlegma respectively.

I am not sure this bodes well for this little project, even if you yell at me and remind me that technically, this movie is not part of the project.