How to Train Your Dragon Refake
How to Train Your Dragon Refake
The new 2025 How to Train Your Dragon remake is positioned as nothing more than a live action screening of the animated movie from 2010. This remake is anything but.
The way I usually describe it to people who haven’t seen it yet is that you are either a passing or casual fan of the original and think it good, or you’re an actual fan of the original who will dislike it.
And then there’s me, the unhealthy fan of the original who had at one time every single line, frame, grunt and growl from the first two movies memorized who hates this remake with every bone in his body.
The remake copies the camera angles sure, but it amputates everything else.
And yes, I’m going to be addressing things all the way from “deletes the entire possibility of later movies” down to “minor grievance”, as with a world as tightly knit as How to Train Your Dragon, even just changing the scene where Hiccup uses the catnip-like Dragonnip plant will delete entire episodes of the later series like Race to the Edge.
Spoiler Alert
For all of the first movie, the refake movie, and a little bit of the second movie.
Primary Moral Shift
This is not necessarily a complaint, or wouldn’t have been had they written it better, but it is necessary context and a lens via which to view the other detrimental changes I will be discussing.
In the original movie the tone and message was about how sometimes when you don’t fit in it’s because you’re trying to be something you’re not, and you don’t need to be what everyone else is or what they say you need to be.
In the remake that tone is moved moreso to be about parents having undue expectations that you don’t necessarily need to fulfill.
There are a lot of changes to or that support this change, but one that doesn’t fit elsewhere is that the parents are made more prominent. Astrid’s parents, the Hoffersons, are actually quite present in this movie, whereas in all of the original source material they’re never shown once, and the Race to the Edge episode all about them only talks about them, never shows. Spitelout Jorgenson, Snotlout’s father, is named in and present in this movie as opposed to the second movie in the originals.
Lines being Flattened
Nick Frost is constantly saying his lines as Gobber the Belch differently purely because he can. He’s taking all of the edge and characterization of Gobber away and flattening him into a sarcastic tired old guy who barely cares, not the overenthusiastic dope we know him for.
Mason Thames’ Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III suffers from a similar issue. A lot of his sarcasm is just flat out removed. The script writing leans much more into the “I’m useless” lens than the original did, which had more of the “My luck is ludicrously bad and I feel useless for it” edge.
Dragon training is no longer just teaching the gang how to fight dragons, but a ritual “Trial of Flame”. The twins now have an added line to say they’ve been doing this for four years longer than the rest of the group, when in the original they were all the same age at 15 together.
And this one is subjective, but I found that the soundtrack and dragons seemed to be less epic in the remake than the original. I came to the soundtrack conclusion just listening to the Spotify album before I saw the movie, and still under the impression a live action remake was going to be epic visually. I didn’t find this to be delivered on in many cases. One that sticks out is Stoick’s leadership in the opening scenes, it’s a lot more muted in the remake than in the originals. And this is not just the limitations of using the real actor, compare the Stoicks flicking the fire off their shoulder, and it looks way cooler and in many ways more real… in the animated 2010 movie.
Stoick: Not just Butchered, Obliterated by Plasma Blast
Stoick in the originals is a misguided but incredibly skilled leader doing his best to protect his people and they love him for it.
In the remake he’s a self destructive obsessive mess leading his people to the same destruction and they know this and don’t just hate him for it but actively are plotting against him.
In the originals the dragons are being pushed to retrieve food by the Red Death, and all peoples are suffering for it. Stoick is heroed for his resilience and skill, holding the primary place of prominence in the gathering of Viking chieftains to discuss the dragon scourge they all faced, which Drago attacks and Stoick is the only one to survive. It takes more than a little fire to kill this guy. The people are hesitant to follow him to battle against the Red Death, but greatly prefer it to staying and having to look after Hiccup, as it is the best path to their long term survival and the end to the dragon war. Stoick is famous, important, and trusted. This is why Hiccup has so much pressure on him to be more than all of… Hiccup.
In the remake it’s purely Stoick’s personal vendetta against the dragons who attack out of revenge for the war Stoick is stated to have started. What’s the Red Death’s part now? Just a Stoick parallel. The people hate Stoick and are constantly passive aggressive towards him. Stoick now has to weaponize the Berkian religion to get the people behind him. Astrid has a whole plan to usurp the throne. Hiccup has pressure on him because everyone hates Stoick. They don’t hate Hiccup for being Hiccup, that’s Stoick’s thing. They hate Hiccup for being related to Stoick and in line for the throne. Berk is implied to be the only one dealing with dragons, and that it’s self-imposed.
Astrid: Expanding a Character the Wrong Way
Astrid isn’t fleshed out in the first movie because she wasn’t supposed to be. She’s incredibly skilled, Hiccup has a crush on her, she is one of the fire brigade, she’s upset at losing to Hiccup who she sees as a dweeb, and is genuinely turned around by Hiccup’s honesty and display.
Astrid in the remake is the only competent one on all of Berk and hates everyone. She’s upset at Hiccup because how dare her plan to usurp the throne be interjected against. Which she has now. She gets three different added scenes, which no other character does, other characters just get added lines. Hiccup, Toothless, and the Terrible Terrors lose a scene. Another scene de-emphasizes Hiccup, Stoick and Toothless to focus on Astrid and Hiccup - we’ll touch on that.
One of these scenes is at her introduction where she starts doing crazy stunts to show off how skilled she is at fighting the fire.
The second expanded scene is at the end. In the original, she and Stormfly are Kirby’d into the mouth of the Red Death. Hiccup and Toothless swoop in and shoot the mouth, causing Stormfly to get away and throwing Astrid off Stormfly’s back. Hiccup and Toothless then swoop down to stop her from hitting the ground. In the remake, when being Kirby’d in, she hops off her dragon into the mouth to start chopping teeth off in single swings, before jumping to Hiccup and Toothless when the dragon begins to breathe fire.
The third scene extends the scene where Hiccup starts looking into the book of dragons. In the original Hiccup suggests they read it together or take turns, but Astrid says she’s read it and stomps off. In the remake, she starts chewing out Hiccup and lore dumping her intentions. As part of this she reveals she wants to usurp the throne from Stoick, and Hiccup says he never wants to be chief anyway. In general Astrid gets added lines and references to show that her parents are trying to push her to be politically positioned to usurp the throne, not that she’s just super skilled because her parents’ war is about to become hers.
Her scene on Toothless’ back is reworded and reinflected. When contextualized by the book of dragons scene earlier, it reads as her just being manipulative. In the original, she says sorry genuinely and means it, despite being terrified. In the remake, she says it after she realizes Hiccup has no control.
FINE! I’m sorry.
- Astrid Hofferson, How to Train Your Dragon Refake 2025.
Hiccup: He is a Loser, Actually
In the original movie Hiccup was being asked to do what he was not born to do and thus didn’t fit in. When doing what he’s good at, he excels.
In the remake they remove all of his achievements. They’re all mistakes, or Astrid’s now. They recontextualize all of Hiccup’s scientific findings and implementations into mistakes. The only right thing he does is the saddle now. When he gathers the dragon riders at the end, psyche that was Astrid doing it now. When he finally comes into his leadership role as they take on the Red Death, psyche that was actually Astrid leading everyone now.
The scene where Toothless blows up a bit of the Terrible Terror’s firepower on the beach, leading to Hiccup remembering they’re not flammable on the inside and intentionally blowing up the Red Death that way? That scene isn’t in the remake, they deleted it in favor of making it a happy accident that Hiccup fires into the Red Death’s mouth. Now granted, the scene showing Toothless blowing up the Terrible Terror but not severely injuring it was somewhat of a plot hole or something to be overlooked and not thought deeply about, but it still contributes to this theme of changing things away from Hiccup genuinely being curious about dragons and learning more, succeeding when put in the right environment, to him just being a dork who chances his way into the few small victories he can.
How to Train Your Hiccup
This movie is only the same in camera angles. When you really look at what they change, they downplay and sideline Hiccup and Toothless every chance they get. This is most ludicrously egregious to me in the Monstrous Nightmare scene.
Hiccup has placed first in dragon training, sorry I meant the Trial of Flame. He now must kill Hookfang. He nobly refuses. In his last moments before facing the beast, he makes Astrid make him a promise.
Astrid… if something… goes wrong, just make sure they don’t find Toothless.
- Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, How to Train Your Dragon 2010
Look… I’m going to try to put an end to all of this but if something goes wrong… just… don’t get involved. My dad respects you too much.
- Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, How to Train Your Dragon Refake 2025
In the remake? Hiccup makes Astrid promise she won’t go in the arena to help. Stoick trusts her too much and Hiccup doesn’t want Astrid to lose everything she’s worked for.
Then after the Monstrous Nightmare is scared into attacking by Stoick, in the original Stoick is trying to get Hiccup out of there and save him. In the remake, he’s more upset that Astrid does in fact enter the arena and help Hiccup.
Like this is just asinine. The movie is no longer about Hiccup coming around to Toothless but about Astrid coming around to Hiccup. Why did they feel the need to do this? Astrid is always seen as the more skilled warrior. Hiccup is always seen as the more empathetic leader. When they take the leadership away from Hiccup, and give it to Astrid, what is Hiccup if not just a thin Fishlegs who rides a Night Fury instead? In the original their strengths complemented each other. In the remake, only one of them has strengths.
Implications for the Future
Dean Deblois, the director for all of the How to Train Your Dragon movies, is on the record saying he has to significantly rewrite the sequel they already decided to make before even releasing the movie.
Why?
Because Astrid is now set up to be chief. It’s not Hiccup coming into leadership roles, it’s Astrid. Throughout the entire remake we time and time again see the accomplishments Hiccup is making being given to Astrid. This is no longer about Hiccup. This is about Astrid.
Drago’s motivations hinged on a scene wherein a great gathering of Viking chieftains ridicule him for his views on how to handle the dragon scourge they all face. That scourge is now entirely Berk centric and by Stoick’s own hand. Will Drago be rewritten into a disgruntled Berkian who clashed with Stoick back in the day?
Your chief, is dead. No one, can protect you now.
- Drago Bludvist, How To Train Your Dragon 2
But Stoick is not their protector in this new version, he’s their crazy chief who’s driving everyone to extinction because he has a personal vendetta against dragons because Stoick.
When Stoick dies in How to Train Your Dragon 2, is it really going to depress and horrify all of the villagers, or will they cheer and begin chanting the name of their new preferred chief? Will they really carve a Mt Rushmore style statue for him, or will they put his name down as the worst thing to have happened to Berk?
How to Train Your Dragon 3 is actually largely unaffected by this when you come down to it, HTTYD3 was always the low point of the trilogy and could benefit from some touch-ups anyway.
Conclusion
The How to Train Your Dragon Refake suffers from the same problem as the Super Mario Bros. Movie of 2023. It’s taking the female side character/secondary star and removing all of their character flaws or perceived weaknesses to “update the story for the times”. There’s a case to be made for Princess Peach benefitting from being portrayed in a bit less of a damsel role, I’d argue not to the extent the 2023 Mario movie takes it to but I digress. Astrid was never in the damsel position to begin with. She was always definitively stronger and more capable than Hiccup in literally every way. That wasn’t the point. The point was Hiccup finding his place in the world, and learning that he doesn’t fit in because he’s destined for something greater. The refake strips that away to empower a character that wasn’t lacking in this regard, and it flattens the emotional arc of the story. Hiccup was a loser, and now he’s a loser with a dragon. Astrid was the only competent one, now she’s the only competent one with a dragon and a crew of lackeys with dragons.
In the original, Hiccup was a loser, and now he’s the one who saved the village and ushered in a new era of peace. Astrid was a warlord, and now she’s having to learn to put that skill to different ends.
The Refake is being represented as a faithful shot for shot remake of the original movie. It’s anything but.