Why I'm Not Excited for the Live-Action Remake of How to Train Your Dragon
Posted: Fri May 02, 2025 5:33 am
I have seen so many comments for the upcoming live-action remake of Dreamwork's How to Train Your Dragon. The general opinion is that it looks great and is clearly better than Disney's LARs and to that I have to ask, what version of this film that has been shown are you all watching?
As of right now all I have seen of this film is that it will be a Shot for Shot Remake of the original film. Same plot, same characters, same dialogue, nothing new and nothing of value.
For me the best LARs have been Alita: Battle Angel, Speed Racer and One Piece (and yes it's also kinda weird that these are all anime adaptations) and the reason I love these stories is down to three factors, they were all clearly made with passion, they all wanted to be their own thing while respecting the story they're based on.
But with the LAR of HTTYD I don't get anyone of that, this just looks like the same product that adds nothing new of a film that is 15 years old. I'm not against remakes of any kind but this feels like a Psycho situation to me. It's the same film with a few minor alterations and we really hope you don't notice and it fees like no one is noticing.
Honestly, the praise for this film seems to be more of a case of people wanting Dreamwork's to get one up on Disney so let's praise something that we would normally condemn purely on the grounds that it's not being made by Disney.
I don't see any reason to praise one over the other when they're making the same mistake. This film feels like a lazy cash grab banking on nostalgia and using the excuse that it's in live-action which makes it different and "better" purely by default. Same thing as Disney's LARS and I fear that this will start a trend of Dreamworks remaking their animated films in live-action so instead of just one company turning out lazy remakes of beloved films, well
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD_ag67tH3I[/youtube]
As of right now all I have seen of this film is that it will be a Shot for Shot Remake of the original film. Same plot, same characters, same dialogue, nothing new and nothing of value.
For me the best LARs have been Alita: Battle Angel, Speed Racer and One Piece (and yes it's also kinda weird that these are all anime adaptations) and the reason I love these stories is down to three factors, they were all clearly made with passion, they all wanted to be their own thing while respecting the story they're based on.
But with the LAR of HTTYD I don't get anyone of that, this just looks like the same product that adds nothing new of a film that is 15 years old. I'm not against remakes of any kind but this feels like a Psycho situation to me. It's the same film with a few minor alterations and we really hope you don't notice and it fees like no one is noticing.
Honestly, the praise for this film seems to be more of a case of people wanting Dreamwork's to get one up on Disney so let's praise something that we would normally condemn purely on the grounds that it's not being made by Disney.
I don't see any reason to praise one over the other when they're making the same mistake. This film feels like a lazy cash grab banking on nostalgia and using the excuse that it's in live-action which makes it different and "better" purely by default. Same thing as Disney's LARS and I fear that this will start a trend of Dreamworks remaking their animated films in live-action so instead of just one company turning out lazy remakes of beloved films, well
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD_ag67tH3I[/youtube]