Anyone who has known me from the age of 12 onwards knows that I adore How to Train Your Dragon. I started with the 2010 film before diving head first into the books, followed the release of the TV shows, and got myself to the theater for the sequel films as quickly as I could. Hiccup, in both forms, is one of my favorite characters in fiction, I have a collection of merch, and have written a whole lot of fan fiction. In fact, How to Train Your Dragon introduced me to fan fiction. The story is one, for so many reasons, that I hold very near and dear to my heart. 

And now we have the first trailer for the live-action adaptation of the first How to Train Your Dragon film, set to release next summer. 

I expected myself to feel either viscerally appalled by its existence or delightfully surprised at any successes displayed. Instead I just feel tired. 

I am tired of all the shot-for-shot live-action remakes of beloved animated classics, of approaching stories with an utter lack of creativity, of feeling that animation isn’t allowed to be the final form of anything since we need to remake things in live-action because of…money? Because animation is still seen as a medium for children? Because studios have become too scared to tell original stories? We’ve been here a hundred times before. 

Though, of the live-action remakes, this one feels particularly desperate.  The first How to Train Your Dragon film came out in 2010. The third film, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, released in 2019. It will be only six years since we last saw these characters before the remake releases. Why revive it so soon? It gives me the same feeling as the live-action Moana. Studios, afraid to produce anything not tied to previous success, fall back on a tried and true franchise. 

Coupling this exhaustion is my lost faith in the director. The first film was directed by both Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders. Sanders has since gone on to direct The Croods and The Wild Robot. DeBlois continued to helm the Dragon films. I am still fond of How to Train Your Dragon 2, despite some personal dislikes.

I liked the third film when I first saw it. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt the movie betrayed the themes and character portrayals that I fell in love with, especially because I stuck with these characters through their adventures on the small screen. Toothless lost much of his loyalty and ferocity. The treatment of the supporting cast, particularly Snotlout, is insulting.  Romantic relationships were framed as more important than friendships, which I always read as the backbone of the series. The Hidden World felt like it spat in the face of everything I liked about the franchise before. And trying to end the story in the same vein as the books didn’t feel right when the two stories have diverged so much.

DeBlois has returned to direct the live-action remake and I just don’t know if he retained that original vision that made the first film so special. 

I am definitely impressed with Toothless’s design, even if I am worried about how he might be written. The original composer, John Powell, is returning so I’m sure the music will continue to be fantastic, derivative of the original or not. Gerald Butler also feels like a win. He voiced Stoick, Hiccup’s father, in the animated films and he maintains the same weight and heart of that performance in the lines we got from him in the teaser. 

I wish I could say I was passionately concerned about the film, because then it would mean that I still wanted to see more out of this interpretation of the story. But I’m not. I’m content to stick my head in the sand and think of it as little as possible after getting my thoughts out. 

If there is anything I would’ve loved to see from the franchise, it’s a faithful adaptation of the book series. The films and series took many creative liberties to the point where the only similarities are the viking setting and the character names. 

I understand if there was reluctance to fully adapt the books, especially when the first How to Train Your Dragon was in development. While the books are fantastic, and I’m convinced adults can read and enjoy them, I felt like they hadn’t quite yet shown off what they were truly capable of. When the first movie came out, the series only went up to Book 8 out of 12. My fellow book readers know that what follows is something else. 

Live-action would definitely be the wrong route for a book adaptation. Animation is much more suited to capture the whimsy charm, especially of the earlier books. And I can’t imagine a better medium to depict the scale, atmosphere, and tug of war between despair and hope that permeates the later volumes. As much as I love (parts of) the How to Train Your Dragon film franchise, I think the books deserve their chance to find their own wider audience. 

It’s a story I find myself thinking of a lot, in light of distressing current events. What began as Hiccup trying to train a rascal of a dragon evolves into a story of becoming a hero the hard way, breaking away from the cycles of history, and doing what you believe is right despite the hopelessness and how impossible it seems. Because fighting for a better world is always worth it. 

And right now, amongst the remake saturated media landscape and the world we find ourselves in, I think that’s the How to Train Your Dragon I would prefer to see.