ABC News
Source: ABC
You couldn’t ask for a more faithful remake than How to Train Your Dragon — and in some ways, that’s for the best.
The original animated trilogy, which loosely adapted Cressida Cowell’s book series of the same name, is easily the most beloved fantasy film series of the 2010s.
In translating the initial outing to live action, Dreamworks has tapped franchise steward Dean DeBlois to take the reins, having first brought the Viking isle of Berk to life with co-director Chris Sanders 15 years ago. (Both also directed 2002’s Lilo and Stitch, another recent victim of the budding Gen Z nostalgia industry.)
Some of Disney’s live-action remake trends have rubbed off. The film has been padded out by an extra half hour and augments the story’s darker moments (particularly in the scaled-up showdown of the third act) to better service older, pre-existing fans. Its cast has been diversified in a half-hearted, ‘Disney’s first gay character’ kind of way. The lighting looks cheap.
Otherwise, How to Train Your Dragon offers a re-telling that’s virtually shot-for-shot in its design — an act of cinematic self-mimicry that hasn’t been witnessed in some time. In doing so, DeBlois at least fulfils a baseline promise that few of Disney’s own reheated efforts have realised: if you liked the original film, you’ll probably like this.
Stream the best of Fiji on VITI+. Anytime. Anywhere.
