June 11, 2025
by Carla Hay

Directed by Dean DeBlois
Culture Representation: Taking place on the fictional island of Berk, the fantasy/action film “How to Train Your Dragon” (based on the 2003 children’s novel of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a multiracial people, black people and indigenous people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: In a Berk culture where humans are supposed to hunt and kill dragons, the misfit son of Berk’s leader befriends a dragon and doesn’t want to kill any dragons.
Culture Audience: “How to Train Your Dragon” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the “How to Train Your Dragon” franchise and family-oriented fantasy films that teach respect for animals.

The unsurprising live-action remake of the 2010 animated film “How to Train Your Dragon” has engaging performances and is more visually dazzling than its fully animated counterpart. The remake falls short in the personalities of the teen supporting characters. The sidekick teen characters in the 2025 remake just aren’t as amusing or as interesting as they are in the 2010 movie.
“How to Train Your Dragon” is based on author Cressida Cowell’s fantasy book series that began with 2003’s “How to Train Your Dragon.” The book series has spawned several feature films and short films. The “How to Train Your Dragon” book series is aimed at children, but the movies have wider appeal to many generations.
The 2025 version of “How to Train Your Dragon” reunites some of the same principal filmmakers who worked on the 2010 “How to Train Your Dragon.” Dean DeBlois, who co-wrote and co-directed the 2010 “How to Train Your Dragon” movie, returns as the sole writer and director of the 2025 “How to Train Your Dragon” and adds the title of producer. John Powell continues as the franchise’s music composer for the “How to Train Your Dragon” movies.
Unlike other live-action remakes of beloved animated films, 2025’s “How to Train Your Dragon” doesn’t make any drastic changes to the plot of the animated movie. This “play it safe” approach is fine, but it doesn’t leave room for doing anything groundbreaking or truly unique to the story. Fortunately, the remake has talented cast members who do the best that they can in bringing these characters to live-action life.
In both “How to Train Your Dragon” movies (which take place in an unspecified period time where there is no electricity or modern technology), the Viking humans on the fictional island of Berk are at war against dragons, which are blamed for killing hundreds of people. The human residents of Berk have retaliated by killing thousands of dragons. Dragons are also blamed for killing livestock that are used for Berk’s food supply.
The dragons come in many shapes and sizes. Most of them live in a secret underground nest that the Berk residents are trying to find. Night Fury dragons are considered the most dangerous and the most elusive dragons to kill. The most important residents of Berk are those who are the most successful dragon slayers. Anyone who finds the secret dragon’s next would be considered a hero in Berk.
The chief of Berk is Stoik the Vast (played by Gerard Butler, who reprises the same Stoik role from the animated “How to Train Your Dragon” films), a gruff and macho widower who hates dragons because his wife was killed by a dragon several years ago. Stoik is raising his and wife’s only child—a 15-year-old son named Hiccup (played by Mason Thames)—to become Stoik’s heir. But so far, Stoik is disappointed because he and many other residents of Berk think that Hiccup is a wimpy coward when it comes to many things, including combat and killing dragons.
Hiccup gets empathy from a grizzled blacksmith/dragon trainer named Gobber (played by Nick Frost), who sometimes acts more like a father figure to Hiccup than Stoik does. Gobber is also Stoik’s longtime best friend. Hiccup is an introverted, misfit loner who lacks confidence and wishes that he could get the respect of Stoik.
Hiccup shows skills in making things with his hands. To prove he has some worth as a potential dragon slayer, Hiccup makes a dragon trap that he places in a remote wooded area. This trap will lead to events that will change the lives of Hiccup and many other people in Berk.
Teenagers in Berk are trained to kill dragons. Gobber leads an elite dragon-slaying training program, which is also an intense competition. The winner of the competition is considered to be on the fast track to becoming a future leader of Berk.
Stoik pressures Hiccup to enroll in this training program, even though Hiccup doesn’t want to kill any dragons. The other teens who are in Gobber’s program are ambitious Astrid (played by Nico Parker); insecure Snotlout (played by Gabriel Howell); goofy Fishlegs (played by Julian Dennison); and bickering fraternal twins Ruffnut (played by Bronwyn James) and Tuffnut (played by Harry Trevaldwyn).
It should be noted that in this fantasy world, Berk is a place where people have varying accents, for no reason given. Stoik has a thick Scottish accent. Hiccup and Astrid have American accents. (Parker is British in real life.) Fishlegs has a New Zealand accent because Dennison is from New Zealand. Almost everyone else has English accents.
In the early days of the training program, Astrid is resentful of Hiccup because she thinks he is underserving scion who gets unfair advantages in life because of nepotism. Astrid, who comes from a working-class background, openly tells Hiccup that she plans to become the next chief of Berk when she’s old enough. Hiccup responds by saying that Astrid, not Hiccup, is the type of child that Stoik wants.
Snotlout has similar “daddy issues” because he desperately wants the respect and approval from his emotionally aloof father Spitelout (played by Peter Serafinowicz), who is one of the dragon-slaying warriors in Stoick’s army. Fishlegs is mainly the training group’s comic relief. Ruffnut and Tuffnut are bratty and try to outdo each other, but these two characters are less appealing in the 2025 version of “How to Train Your Dragon” than the 2010 version.
One day, Hiccup finds out that a jet-black, young male Night Fury dragon has been caught in his trap. Hiccup takes out a knife to kill it, but he can’t do it. Instead, he lets the dragon free from the trap. The dragon is hostile to Hiccup but doesn’t hurt Hiccup.
Half of the dragon’s tail is missing from a trap injury, which prevents the dragon from flying. Hiccup feels guilty about making the dragon disabled. And so, he brings food to the dragon and eventually makes a prosthetic that he attaches to the dragon’s tail so the dragon can fly. Hiccup names the dragon Toothless because the dragon has retractable teeth.
As already shown in the movie’s trailer, Hiccup eventually earns the trust of Toothless and learns to ride on Toothless like someone would ride on a flying horse. Hiccup keeps his budding friendship with Toothless a secret because he knows it’s taboo and he could get punished for befriending a dragon. The movie’s trailer already shows that Toothless won’t be kept a secret for very long.
The rest of “How to Train Your Dragon” plays out exactly like you think it will, if you’ve seen enough of these types of movies and especially if you saw the 2010 “How to Train Your Dragon.” The characters of Hiccup, Astrid, Stoik and Spitelout greatly benefit from live-action performances. Thames is especially good at making Hiccup believable in the action and dramatic scenes.
The 2025 version of “How to Train Your Dragon” excels the most in its visual effects, which are award-worthy. Toothless is even more adorable and soulful in the 2025 version of “How to Train Your Dragon” than he was in the 2010 version. The action sequences in the 2025 movie are thrilling, immersive and occasionally stunning. The 2025 version “How to Train Your Dragon” didn’t take any risks in changing major parts of the story, but sometimes it’s better not to mess with a classic.
Universal Pictures will release “How to Train Your Dragon” in U.S. cinemas on June 13, 2025. A sneak preview of the movie was shown in U.S. cinemas on June 11, 2025.