HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON Review: Live-Action Remake Fails to Justify Its Existence

'How to Train Your Dragon' Review: Looks Great But is Missing the Animated Film's Heart

Mason Thames as Hiccup with his Night Fury dragon, Toothless, in Universal Pictures’ live-action ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ (Photo © 2024 Universal Studios) DreamWorks is jumping on the bandwagon of live-action remakes with their latest film, a live-action remake of 2010’s animated hit How to Train Your Dragon. It’s not a retooling or a reimagining of the story of a teenage Viking named Hiccup and his best friend, a fire-breathing dragon. No, it…

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON Review: Live-Action Remake Fails to Justify Its Existence

When filmmaker Gus Van Zant (Milk, My Own Private Idaho, Drugstore Cowboy) remade Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece, Psycho, in 1998, critics somewhat justifiably dismissed the end result as a stunt, a prank, a jest, and not an affectionate homage to a filmmaker Van Sant considered without equal or parallel.   Homage or not, copyright/brand extension wasn’t front and center in Van Sant’s mind. But it’s been the primary, some would say, sole rationa…