DreamWorks' first live-action remake of an animation classic lives up to expectations -- and a little more. How to Train Your Dragon (2025) is both a faith re-creation and a living work in its own right. Small changes, big emotions and top-notch acting make the film something that feels both familiar and new — without feeling like an empty copy.
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Disclaimer: Apropos Magazine received access or a review copy. As always, we share our own impressions — unfiltered.
Six stars
Dragons and Vikings?
The film takes place — as in the original — on Berserkoo: a tradition-bound, male-dominated island where no one asks too many questions at all, and where dragons are seen as a species of living pest. Hiccup (or Hiccup) is still the thoughtful, slightly embarrassed boy in an environment that celebrates strength, vigor and pragmatism. He doesn't fit in -- and that makes the movie better. His development follows a classic hero journey structure, but what's striking is how much he actually sticks to his core values. This is not the story of one who grows stronger and triumphs—but one who dares to stand by what he has always sensed was true. It gives the narrative a core of integrity, which shines through more clearly in this version, where human reactions and glances are not animated but bodily and vulnerable.
Stoick the Vast — father figure with cracks
The big revelation in this remake is Gerard Butler as the village leader Stoick. He also gave voice to the character in the original animated film, but here he gets a lot more space -- and he uses every scene. The role could easily have ended up as a caricatured patriarch, a stereotypical “father who doesn't understand his son,” but Butler makes him quiver between control and breakdown. One senses all the time that Stoick is struggling with something he has no language for. His wife was lost to the dragons, and the grief is not redeemed, only displaced. He's built a worldview around necessity and strength -- not because it's true, but because he can't afford for it not to be. Butler plays him with precision: when he raises his voice, it quivers not just with authority but also with fear. When he tries to be affectionate, you know he has no idea how. It's clear that the role is worked through -- not just in the script, but in Butler's own understanding of the character. There are moments when, with just a glance, he conveys the tension between responsibility and powerlessness. It feels almost Shakespeare'ish: a man trapped in his own pride, but not blind to it. Just too scared to do anything about it.
Recognizable scenes -- new Gobber, new angles, almost same dragon.
The structure of the film is almost identical to the 2010 original. Some scenes are cropped slightly, others drawn out longer. But where the original version was tightly clipped and energetic, this one takes its time for breaths and gaze exchanges. It never feels slow -- just more human. You could almost call it a kind of director's cut with live actors. And if you know the original well, it's pretty funny to see how certain moments now take on more weight just because you see them from a different angle -- or see the reactions in the eyes rather than in 3D animation. The montage, featuring dragon training and constructing equipment, is still the heart of the film -- and still the best montage since “Fievel in the Wild West.” It balances perfectly between adventure, ingenuity and character development, and it's still just as touching.
Craig Ferguson is missing as the voice behind Gobber, but Nick Frost makes the role his own. His slightly bumbling, immediate energy frames perfectly into Gobber's mix of combativeness, black humour and accidental wisdom. His lines — especially the reverse encouragements — still work, and several of them garnered laughs in the cinema. Some jokes from the original are obviously chosen from -- perhaps because they worked best in the animation universe -- but the balance between humor and seriousness is preserved. It never feels clownish, but always human.
Toothless may be the most difficult character to translate from animation to live-action, but it has succeeded. The new version is still charming, curious and expressive, but with a more realistic texture and movement pattern. Some details have changed, and maybe he feels a little less “comic-cute” — but the emotional bond between him and Hiccup is completely intact. Especially the scenes where they approach each other in silence -- where trust arises without words -- work excruciatingly well in this version. The camera lingers a little longer and it works.
Let's just put it like this...
How to Train Your Dragon anno 2025 does the near-impossible: it respects the original without feeling like a retelling. Gerard Butler brings Stoick to life with a complexity you rarely see in family adventures, and the film balances humour, sadness and heroism in astonishingly elegant fashion. It's a remake that tries not to replace but to mirror -- and it does so with warmth, style and substance. You don't have to choose between the versions. But you'll want to see both.
