Have you ever imagined what it’s like to fly? Not flying like in a plane or jet protected from the fierce winds, but actually flying in the air. For those who skydive, paraglide and do all other sorts of crazy air stunts, flying is just par for the course(or wings in the sky). But flying smoothly in the air is something that creatures real and fictional all get to enjoy when spreading out their wings and moving with the winds. Seeing birds fly is one thing, but seeing a fictional reptilian beast fly is something else.

There have been plenty of movies showing the winged creatures of legend in live-action and animated form over the past several years and there is a mixture of good and bad in there. From the fierce and fiery Smaug from “The Hobbit” trilogy or the more friendly and green adaptation of the title character in Pete’s Dragon to the enslaved beast in Iron Mask starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jackie Chan, there are plenty of dragons to choose from. But one dragon stands out above them all and he is the most awesome and heartwarming dragon ever seen on the big screen. And he just made his transition from being an animated beauty in the 2010s to becoming a live-action CGI hero in 2025.

The live-action adaptation of Dreamworks Studios’ How To Train Your Dragon just released this month and it is a basic carbon copy of the 2010 animated flick except with some differences regarding the characters’ appearances, added scenery and emotional overtone. For those who didn’t see any of the animated HTTYD films in-theaters, this was a fresh take and introduction to them into the “Dragon-Verse”. But for those who did see the original animated flicks in theaters, this movie was just a live-action reboot that we didn’t necessarily want but needed for the sake of childhood nostalgia. Different faces(save for Gerard Butler’s) playing the same old Viking characters on the fictional Isle of Berk, where Viking warriors fight to keep their village safe from fire-breathing dragons that take their sources of food and farming(sheep mostly) constantly.

The main character is obviously Hiccup, who is the thin and brooding son of the village chief Stoick the Vast(played by Gerard Bulter, who voiced the character in the animated DragonVerse). Hiccup’s desire to kill a dragon for recognition and respect is turned on its head after he shoots down a Night Fury, the most terrifying and unseen dragon ever encountered by the Nordic peoples of Berk. Hiccup is played by young American actor Mason Thames, who provides a good acting job of the animated dragon-flying character that young audiences born in the mid-1990s and early 2000s loved seeing(Jay Baruchel was the voice of Hiccup in the 2010s).

Young Hiccup is held back by his father Stoick the Vast, who is the ultimate dragon fighter and despises dragons as much as anything in his life, and his blacksmith boss Gobber the Belch(played by Nick Frost, who dons the same Viking-style mustache for the half-amputee warrior voiced by Craig Ferguson in the animated trilogy). Nevertheless, Hiccup took his chance to shoot down a Night Fury and succeeded, albeit at the cost of the village’s sheep supply and being chased down by a fiery dragon called the Monstrous Nightmare that Stoick had to fight off. Hiccup is chided by his father and told that he is not a dragon-killer, a description that would ring true for the rest of the movie(up until the end).

While Stoick held a more extended meeting with the village warriors of his tribe(which are more diverse in this live-action film when compared to the animated one), Hiccup went to find the dragon he shot down and came across the tree-beaten path that would lead to his encounter with the Night Fury that becomes his best pal. Hiccup saw the black-colored dragon lying unconscious tied up in the trap weapon that he shot the night before and thought that he had killed it, but a grumble from the beast proved the boy wrong. The reptilian green eyes of the dragon opened and Hiccup saw the look of “You got me” on the dragon’s face. In a trailer to the movie, Hiccup was saying his classic line of “I’m a Viking!” when he held a knife over his head in preparing to strike into the dragon’s skin. In this actual scene, that line was not said by Hiccup and instead he held the dagger over his head and the Night Fury we all love closed his eyes in preparing to meet his end. However, Hiccup did not use the knife to kill the dragon, but to free it from the ropes that it had been caught in. We then see the intense moment of “Toothless” pouncing with fury at Hiccup, who is completely at the dragon’s mercy. Toothless let out an angry screech and proceeded to fly uncontrollably away from the area where Hiccup was spooked out of his skin.

The awkward scene of Hiccup failing to sneak past his dad in their house was a good one, where Stoick and Hiccup say conflicting statements at the same time and Hiccup yields to his father. Of course, Stoick wanted Hiccup to learn how to fight against dragons as he had assigned Gobber to oversee a training camp of teenage warriors that were set to become the next line of dragon-killers to defend Berk. But Hiccup, contrary to his earlier attitude of wanting to kill a dragon, told his determined father “I CAN’T kill dragons!” However, Stoick places an ax onto Hiccup’s slim arms and told his son “When you carry this ax, you carry all of us with you!” Stoick then prepared to leave on an expedition that he would lead to go and find the Dragon’s Nest, telling Hiccup “I’ll be back… probably”. Hiccup replied “And I’ll be here… maybe”.

Hiccup would get into the arena with his fellow peers, who looked different than the animated adaptation but were played to almost-exact perfection by their actors. The main teenage warrior is Astrid, who is portrayed by Nico Parker(a nepo baby following in the footsteps of her mother, Thandiwe Newton). Instead of having blonde hair and blue eyes, this Astrid has brown braided hair and brown eyes. Regardless of the change in appearance, Astrid remains as fierce and devoted to fighting dragons as the animated version of her and she is most likely to be the one who wins this competition to be the young warrior who would earn the chance to kill a dragon in front of the whole village. Next up we have Snoutlout, who is played by Gabriel Howell, and he is the same cocky teenage Viking warrior that he was when voiced by Jonah Hill in the animated trilogy. This Snoutlout seems to want more attention from his dad Spitelout, who refuses to acknowledge his son in public. Also featured is the dragon-nerd Fishlegs, who rambles on about the dragons that the group is going to face. Played by Julian Dennison, who has appeared in a couple of other notable action movies himself, Fishlegs in live-action is almost the same(save for appearance) as the animated version of him. Finally, we have the twins of Tuffnut and Ruffnut, who are both redheaded instead of blonde. Tuffnut is portrayed by Harry Trevaldwyn and Ruffnut is portrayed by Bronwyn James. These two Viking twins are the same argumentative and unfocused pair as they were in the animated feature.

The first training session that the six-pack of young trainees had to endure was with a giant, fat floating brown dragon called a Gronckle. Hiccup ended up getting himself nearly killed by the beast, which barely missed a fireball shot at him with Gobber’s assistance. Gobber said that a dragon would “always, ALWAYS go for the kill”. Later in the meadows, Hiccup wondered why the Night Fury didn’t, with him walking to find the dragon that he shot down stranded in a cliff-surrounded lake area with the inability of flying away on its own. The reason why was because Hiccup shot off part of its tail blade. Without the completed tail blade, the Night Fury was downed and Hiccup drew out a picture of the dragon, then scrubbed the tail blade off his drawing. Toothless would see Hiccup after he dropped his pencil and simply looked at the one responsible for shooting him down.

The dragon-book scene occurred, where Hiccup read out of it, but before that happened we got to see added footage of Astrid telling Hiccup to stay out of her way in the competition that they were in. Astrid also said that she came from nothing and that she was the most worthy candidate to become the next-generation leader of the tribe of Berk. Hiccup agreed with that statement and told Astrid that his dad would’ve been more proud to have her as a child. After Astrid walked away, Hiccup read all the descriptions of the dragons and how dangerous they were, with phrases of “kill on-site” and “extremely deadly” being repeated. Hiccup finally found the description of the Night Fury and saw no picture of it in the book, but read a description of the Night Fury being “the offspring of lightning and death itself”. Hiccup read out loud that the Night Fury was never seen and never misses its target along with “do not engage this dragon” at the end. But Hiccup had a drawing of what the Night Fury looked like from a high lens in his notebook and wanted to learn more about the one that he shot down just a couple of nights beforehand.

The scenes of bonding by Hiccup and Toothless are shown in live-action(with Toothless as a CGI dragon), with the fish-eating scene, tree-drawing-in-the-dirt scene(with the classic game of Don’t Break Your Mama’s Back being played by Hiccup under Toothless’ supervision) and the hand-on-nose scene that captures all beating hearts. Hiccup comes to learn more about dragons and their intangible traits along with potential “weaknesses” against them while batting against the ones in the arena. Hiccup first displays this when dealing with the two-headed Hideous Zippleback dragon, which has one head release toxic gas and the other head release electric bursts of fire. Hiccup also used an eel to keep the two-headed dragon in its cage as he found out that dragons do not like eating eels when trying to feed one to Toothless. While training Toothless how to fly with a prosthetic wing blade that he built and placed on his dragon pal, Hiccup discovers more weaknesses like allergies to flowers and hand scratching below the chin in his training. This made the dragons appear to be like fire-breathing flying dogs in this case, making them more like pets. Astrid did not like this, as the other teenager trainees took on an interest to Hiccup and how he was able to tame dragons in the battle cage. In fact, the whole village population of Berk started to admire and respect the weak-bodied son of the chief as they gathered around him when he ate in the mess hall. All of this occurred while Hiccup kept his friendship with Toothless a complete secret(one scene that wasn’t shown in the live-action one was the scene where Hiccup sneaks Toothless into his workshop and Astrid confronts him about how strange he was acting, only for Toothless to pull him into the workshop and both escaped from the prying eyes of the female warrior meant to become the dragon-slayer).

Elsewhere, Stoick the Vast led an unsuccessful campaign to find the Dragons Nest, which featured extra footage of dragons in the air and in the water attack the wooden boats that the Viking soldiers were in. Only one boat returned back to the docks of Berk and Stoick told Gobber that they didn’t come close to finding the Nest. Gobber then told Stoick about his “successful” ability to train Hiccup in dragon-fighting, even though it was Hiccup doing his own thing. Stoick misinterpreted this statement and a few villagers came by to compliment their chief about his son’s efforts in dragon taming. Gobber said that Hiccup was like a celebrity and that the young dragon fighter needed more time to himself away from the life of popularity that he attained while Stoick was gone.

Before another equally awkward father-son moment occurred, Hiccup was shown flying Toothless with his new saddle on him. The scene of Hiccup rehearsing all of the routes on Toothless in terms of which direction he would fly was shown, but it had a more dramatic flair when Hiccup flew too high and fell off his best bud’s back. Toothless couldn’t fly without Hiccup on him, so Hiccup got back onto the Night Fury’s back and was able to get his “cheat sheet” back. But when they came down, they were faced with a bunch of rocks in front of them and Hiccup decided to throw the sheet in the wind. Hiccup literally winged it with Toothless through all of the rocks and made it out just fine(in the animated flick, Toothless shoots out a fire shot in front of Hiccup, who gets smoked by the fire, that didn’t happen in this case).

Hiccup returned to his quarters and would suddenly see the sight of his dad back from his journey. Stoick had his classic line of “Nothing happens on this island without me knowing about it!” and Hiccup tried to explain to his dad about the dragon situation he was in, but obviously we see Stoick laughing in pure joy just like we did in the animated flick. Stoick thanked the Nordic gods of Odin and Thor for molding his son into a better Viking. Some awkward silence followed, which prompted Stoick to go get Hiccup a helmet(with horns, something that actual Vikings didn’t wear on their helmets) that he would wear in the battle arena for the final challenge. Stoick told Hiccup that the helmet was meant for his mother and that it had part of her breastplate on it. Hiccup hilariously responded in a comment that definitely pushes the boundaries of PG “Thanks for the breast-hat!” That was a funny moment as Stoick exited and Hiccup had to think about how this situation would play out and how his secret relationship with Toothless could be impacted.

The next day in the battle arena, Hiccup was angrily told by Astrid to stay out of her way. Stoick was watching and Hiccup put on the helmet, with Astrid trying to take down the Deadly Nadder dragon that would eventually become her own. But Hiccup used one of his secret techniques to take down the dragon before Astrid could contact it. Astrid was obviously furious about this, as she had tried to follow where Hiccup had gone earlier in the movie when she was throwing axes at the bark of a tree. The village elder of Berk(who was keeping score on which of the six teenage Viking trainees would get the chance to kill a dragon in front of the whole village) would make her decision on which warrior-in-training had won the competition. Her name is Gothi and she appears in the animated trilogy as well. Gothi would not approve of any of the five young warriors, including Astrid, and she gave her approval that Hiccup was the winner of the dragon competition and he would get his chance to kill a dragon in a special ceremony. Stoick was beyond pleased and Hiccup was celebrated by the other four Viking teens, including Fishlegs who picked him up in celebration. But this was a chance for Hiccup to try and escape his fate, as he knew that he couldn’t kill a dragon due to his relationship with Toothless.

The scene of Hiccup walking into the lake ridge where Toothless lived was shown as he was saying out loud to his pet dragon that they were going on a vacation until things settled down on Berk. But Hiccup looked up to see Astrid sitting on a rock in the ridge above him, with her demanding answers from the suspicious son of the chief who somehow went from being a blacksmith to a dragon tamer. Hiccup tried to explain himself to Astrid, but suddenly she saw the sight of a black dragon and she would try to attack it. But Hiccup got in between Astrid and Toothless, with him stopping Astrid from harming him with her ax. Hiccup tried to tell her that Toothless was a kind dragon and told Toothless that Astrid was a friend. But Astrid wasn’t having any of this and she ran away to go and tell everyone about the secret that Hiccup was keeping from the whole village. Hiccup casually said “And we’re dead!”, with him looking back at Toothless, who turned his back to this situation. As we know, Astrid ended up getting picked up by Toothless’ claws while running in the woods and she would be forced to hang from a… cliff over the sea(not a tree branch like she did in the animated flick). Astrid demanded to be let down(not ideal over some rocks, that’s a CGI scene in this case though), but Hiccup told her to let him explain this situation. Astrid didn’t want to hear anything Hiccup had to say, with Hiccup telling her “I won’t say anything. Just let me show you!” Hiccup helped Astrid up and she came onto the back of Toothless, who would take them both on a wild unexpected ride. Instead of going smooth on his flying, Toothless went on a wild flight that including twirling around and going at a very fast speed. Hiccup had his classic line of “Thank you for nothing, you useless reptile!”(Jay Baruchel sounds less scared and more casual saying this comment because he was in a comfortable voice studio, Mason Thames added a more real tone of frustration when saying this as if he was flying through the air on a rogue dragon). Astrid knew that she was wrong to doubt Toothless and she put her hand on the Night Fury’s head, saying “Toothless, I’m sorry!” Toothless then slowed down and took Hiccup and Astrid on an unforgettable ride of beauty and awe. The two young Viking warriors flew in the sunset sky and above the island coastline, eventually making their way up above the clouds, where the night sky showed some aurora borealis(a sight of beauty afforded to anyone living close enough to the Arctic Circle).

As this memorable ride continued, Astrid told Hiccup that she might not snitch on him after all upon seeing how amazing riding on a dragon was and how kind of a beast Toothless showed himself to be. But as this occurred, Toothless was triggered by a sudden sensation and he flew with Hiccup and Astrid on his back with other dragons flying in the air. Hiccup and Astrid saw Toothless fly towards some sort of giant volcano on a remote island in the night and he ended up flying into the volcano. Thousands of other dragons were gathered inside of it and the “uninvited guests” in Hiccup and Astrid would see that the dragons were bringing in “their kill” of food into the volcano and dumping it into a fiery abyss. The dragons were not eating a single bit of their captured food and the reason why would be shown when a small little Gronckle dragon would be eaten up by a massively humongous head of a monstrously giant dragon. This was the infamous Red Death, shown in the animated film, and it was a lot larger in CGI form than its animated form. Hiccup and Astrid saw this in horror, as Hiccup urged Toothless that they had to get out of the volcano. Toothless flew with all the other dragons, with the Red Death prying its mouth to capture another dragon in its gargantuan teeth. This was an insane moment that revealed the Dragon’s Nest, which Hiccup said that his dad would “kill to find”, was where a queen dragon was holding all the other dragons hostage to its supremacy. This was why dragons had been raiding Berk from the sky and taking away livestock.

Toothless returned Hiccup and Astrid to his home area on Berk and Astrid said that this situation all made sense now. Astrid then told Hiccup that they had to tell his dad about them discovering the Dragon’s Nest. But Hiccup urged her that they had to keep this all a secret for now because if his dad found out about his relationship with Toothless, the Night Fury would be killed. Astrid asked Hiccup that he wanted to withhold the information that they found the Dragons Nest so that he could protect his “pet dragon”. Hiccup said that was the case, with Astrid saying that she wouldn’t say anything about Toothless or the Dragons Nest. Astrid then playfully punched Hiccup, telling him “That’s for lying to me!” Hiccup would then get his first kiss from Astrid, who replied “That’s for everything else”. Astrid then ran off and Hiccup would stand in awe of being kissed for the first time by his true love. This was a successful attempt by both Hiccup and Toothless to get Astrid, who envied Hiccup’s dragon-taming skills, to like them and keep their relationship a secret, for now.

The very next day, Hiccup would have his dragon-slaying ceremony occur. Stoick the Vast gave his happy speech that praised his son with statements such as “I can finally show my face in public again!” and “If you told me that Hiccup would go from being… Hiccup to a dragon-fighter, then I would have tied him to a mast!” Hiccup would have an emotional conversation with Astrid before entering the arena(which oddly didn’t include him telling her not to let anyone find Toothless, as was the case in the animated flick). Gobber then opened the entry into the arena and told Hiccup that it was time. Hiccup entered the arena with the whole village audience of Berk watching. Gobber made his way to sit next to Stoick, who would see his son grab a small knife from the set of weapons that could be used to kill a dragon. Stoick said that he would have grabbed a hammer and Gobber told him to give Hiccup a chance. The one dragon among the set of dragons in the battle arena that hadn’t been used in training was released from its cage and it was the fiery Monstrous Nightmare dragon. The beast climbed its way on the chains of the arena and it would make its way down towards Hiccup, who would back away from the dragon and drop his knife and shield. Stoick wondered out loud what his son was doing, with Hiccup telling the Monstrous Nightmare dragon “I’m not one of them!” as he took off his Viking helmet. Stoick was shocked seeing this as was the rest of the village audience, with the chief demanding “Stop the fight!” Hiccup said out loud that the villagers needed to see this. But as he was about to put his hand on the calm big red dragon, Hiccup would see his angry father shout out “I said STOP THE FIGHT!” Stoick would slam his sword on the chains and this triggered the Monstrous Nightmare, which would lose its cool and attempt to attack Hiccup. The dragon would fly around uncontrollably and shoot fire out, with Hiccup running towards the entry way where Astrid was watching. But a fire shot from the Monstrous Nightmare prevented Hiccup from escaping. Seeing that his son was in danger Stoick ran down to stop the dragon from harming Hiccup. Before he got down there, Astrid would sneak her way under the wooden barriers of the entry way to try and help Hiccup. As the dragon screeched and screamed, Toothless heard it in the lake ridge that he was in and knew that Hiccup was in danger. As Toothless climbed his way out of the ridge, Hiccup was trying to avoid the rogue dragon and Astrid would try and help him. Stoick made his way down and would use his strength to lift the doorway up. Stoick shouted out to Astrid to make her way over to him and added “That’s an order!” But Astrid defied the chief and continued to try and help Hiccup escape from the Monstrous Nightmare. Suddenly, a quick flying sound was heard and a fire shot was fired from above that broke the chains of the arena, with Toothless entering the cage to defend Hiccup from the Monstrous Nightmare, which was urged back into the cage by the defensive Night Fury. Upon seeing this dragon fight occur, Stoick would attempt to attack Toothless, who defended himself from the dragon-blood-hungry warrior. Stoick took out his sword and tried to stab Toothless, who would turn himself to avoid the sword and he had Stoick on the ground. Hiccup shouted out to his dad not to harm Toothless and he did the same with his dragon buddy, who tried to let out a fire blast at Stoick. But Toothless refrained and was instead dog-piled by the Viking warriors who came to help Stoick, who angrily held his son back. Stoick was also disappointed in Astrid and he would order his warriors to put the Night Fury in a cage with the other dragons.

This emotional situation only got worse when Hiccup had an emotional conversation with his father in trying to convince him that Toothless wasn’t a bad dragon and that the other dragons were mostly not bad as well. Stoick had his argument of dragons killing “hundreds of us” and Hiccup responded in a more raw tone “And we kill thousands of them!” Stoick told Hiccup that dragons had killed his mother and asked him why he couldn’t see the danger that dragons bring. Hiccup then said that the dragons were only stealing their livestock so that they could feed their queen dragon in the Dragons Nest. Upon hearing this, Stoick urged his son to tell him about the Dragons Nest and how he found it. Knowing that he had just spilled the extra secret, Hiccup told his dad that he found the island because of him riding on Toothless and that only a dragon could find the nest. Stoick then had a look of awe on his face and this would prompt him to think up a new battle plan to rid the dragons from their land for good. Hiccup saw this and told his dad that he couldn’t win this battle and added “You don’t know what you’re up against!” Hiccup tried to stop his angry father, who pushed him aside as the latter was exiting the hall where this scene took place. Stoick told Hiccup that they would proceed with a battle plan to rid the dragons and added to him “You’re not my son!”

The battle plan of using Toothless as bait to lead the fleet of Berk towards the Dragons Nest was put into place, with Toothless being lifted in a chained restraint of his head, legs and wings onto the ship where Stoick would be along with Gobber and a bunch of other troops. Elder Gothi looked on with sadness along with a couple of children at her side in seeing the brutal treatment of Toothless. Stoick then ordered his sailers to set sail for “Hellheim’s Gate”, where they had gone before but were unsuccessful in finding the Dragon’s Nest. But now that Toothless would be used as a guide, the Viking warriors of Berk were looking to have more success this time. Stoick then looked up to see his “son” in Hiccup looking on and he turned away, telling the Night Fury in chains “Take us home, devil!” The fleet of Berk set sail to find the Dragon’s Nest, in not knowing what they were in for in this battle.

Later, the scene of Hiccup talking with Astrid about how he should have never kept Toothless alive was shown. Instead of occurring at the docks over the harbor, the scene was shot on a hill away from the village. Hiccup told Astrid that statement of regret for not killing Toothless and Astrid replied that any one of them would have killed the Night Fury, adding to Hiccup “So why didn’t you?” Hiccup asked Astrid why she wanted to hear him say this, with Astrid replying “Because I want to remember what you say right now!” Hiccup then said that he was a coward, he was foolish, and added that he “wouldn’t kill a dragon”. Astrid picked up on that and urged Hiccup to explain, with him giving a lame response at first and then he told Astrid that when he looked into the eyes of the Night Fury he befriended “I saw myself”. Hiccup said that he couldn’t kill a dragon that looked as scared as he would be if the roles were reversed. Astrid then replied that Toothless was pretty scared right now, with her telling Hiccup that he lost his home and his tribe along with his dragon and she asked her friend “What are you going to do now?” Hiccup then said casually “Probably something stupid”. Astrid told Hiccup that he already did something stupid and Hiccup replied “Then something crazy!” Hiccup then walked off to go execute his grand plan and Astrid said “That’s more like it!”

So, the scene of the Berk fleet rowing into Hellheims Gate was shown as Toothless was in captivity on the ship that Stoick was on. When the fleet entered the same location where they had been stopped beforehand, Toothless ended up making some weird noises and sensed the presence of the Dragon’s Nest. Stoick then rowed the ship in the direction of where Toothless’ head was pointing. Back at Berk, Hiccup gathered the rest of his buddies and told them to stay with him as they executed a plan to rescue Toothless and take down the queen of the Dragon’s Nest. Hiccup would have Snoutlout put his hand on the same Monstrous Nightmare dragon that nearly killed him in the battle arena. Snoutlout was scared and wanted to get his weapon, but Hiccup prevented him from doing so and showed him that the dragon was nicer than it had appeared to be. Unlike in the animated film, all the others had their hands on their respective dragons, with Astrid having her hand on the Deadly Nadder(that she would name Stormfly), Fishlegs having his hand on the Gronckle(that he would name Meatlug), and the twins Tuffnut and Ruffnut having their hands on the multiple heads of the Hideous Zippleback(which they would name Barf and Belch).

The fleet of Berk arrived on the island of the Dragons Nest, as the warriors set up wooden sticks to serve as a defense barricade against the dragons in battle. Toothless remained on the main boat in fear as Stoick rallied his troops and told them that today was the day that they would drive the dragons away from their lands. After this speech, Stoick ordered warriors manning catapults to launch rocks at the main volcano where the dragons were hiding. The rocks would break open an entryway and Stoick walked into it, seeing the darkness of the cave that led into the nest. Stoick then ordered a rock with fire on it to be shot behind him and it flew over him in entering into the cave. After seeing the dragons on the walls, Stoick charged to fight them, but the dragons awakened and they flew away from the nest into the sky. Thinking that they had won, the Viking warriors of Berk celebrated their “victory”. But Stoick shouted that this wasn’t over, as Toothless remained chained on the main ship in wishing to join his fellow dragons from fleeing. Suddenly, an earthquake occurred as the monstrous Red Death awakened and Stoick told his fellow Viking warriors to “get clear”. The Red Death dragon then showed itself in breaking through the rocky walls, being redder than its animated form and more massively monstrous as well. Stoick realized that he had made a grave mistake and ordered his troops to retreat, as the Red Death queen belched fire out at the fleet of ships, which started to burn with flames. Toothless was on one of those boats and was in danger. Stoick would order his troops to run to the far side of the island so that they could get away from the monstrous kaiju-sized dragon. Stoick told Gobber to go with the others, but Gobber refused and added that he could stay and double the time that Stoick had to distract the dragon from moving any further. Instead of the macho-distraction scene shown in the animated movie, Stoick simply launched a rock on a catapult towards the gargantuan head of the beast, which had three big eyes on each side of its head. The Red Death dragon felt the rock and turned its aim towards Stoick and Gobber, who were in the line of fire.

As the dragon queen was about to unleash its fire breath on both veteran warriors, it got hit by a shot of fire from behind. That came from one of the dragons flying in the air under the command of Hiccup, Astrid and the other teenage warriors. Hiccup was riding with Astrid on the Deadly Nadder, while Snoutlout was on the Monstrous Nightmare(which would be named Hookfang), Fishlegs on the fat Gronckle that fit his size, and Tuffnut and Ruffnut on the necks of their Hideous Zippleback. Stoick and Gobber were stunned as the training that they had overseen turned out to actually to have the warriors fly on dragons and not fight them(except the monstrous one towering above). Hiccup and Astrid were co-leaders in this operation, with Astrid telling Snoutlout and Fishlegs to fly to the sides of the massive dragon queen’s head to try and disorient it while Tuffnut and Ruffnut were ordered to distract the dragon from the front. Astrid would drop Hiccup off at the burning ship where Toothless was chained onto, with Astrid telling Hiccup to be careful. The attempts by Snoutlout and Fishlegs to disorient the Red Death dragon were unsuccessful, as there was no apparent blind spot that the dragon queen had and banging their axes on their shields only disoriented their dragons. This would be problematic as Snoutlout fell off his dragon and onto the head of the Red Death, which was like a massive mountain moving around. Fishlegs then had his awkward landing with his Gronckle where he landed on the rocky sand of the beach smoothly and exclaimed out “I’m okay!” But when Meatlug landed on top of him, Fishlegs painfully said “Less okay”.

Hiccup would try to free Toothless, but the ship got knocked over and Toothless floated down to the bottom of the seabed. Hiccup swam down to try and release the chains, but he was unsuccessful in doing so as he was losing his ability to breathe. But Hiccup got pulled out of the water and placed on the sand, with him using his eyes to see a massive figure with red hair dive in to go get Toothless. It was his father Stoick the Vast, who swam down to confront the beast that he imprisoned and used as a means of finding the Dragons Nest. Toothless was not too happy to see Stoick, who would nonetheless free the Night Fury from his chains with more strength and Toothless grabbed the chief as he flew both himself and Stoick out of the water. Hiccup would see his father come out of the water and saw Toothless free from his chains on the surface. Hiccup then went to get on the back of his Night Fury, but Stoick told his brave son that he was sorry for everything. Instead of his casual “We’re Vikings. It’s an occupational hazard” comment, Hiccup told his dad that all he wanted was to be loved as a worthy son and Stoick gave Hiccup his blessing and that he was proud to be a father to him. Hiccup replied “Then, that’s all I need!”, with him taking off to join the battle against the Red Death.

With Snoutlout still on the dragon’s head and annoying it with hits to one of its eyes, he got cheered on by Astrid, who shouted out to him that he was the “real Viking”. Snoutlout was being so brave that even his own father had to look up and recognize him. Spitelout was surprised to see the sight of his son fighting against a massive dragon. Astrid then ordered Tuffnut and Ruffnut to help get Snoutlout off the dragon’s head. The crazy pair of twins had an unconventional way of trying to catch Snoutlout on their two-headed dragon and Snoutlout jumped desperately, landing on the in-between area of the Zippleback. Meanwhile, Astrid had flown too close to the head of the Red Death queen, which was trying to confuse the Deadly Nadder that Astrid was flying on. Astrid told her dragon not to let the queen “into your head”, but Stormfly flew too close and got her tail bit by the massive teeth of the Red Death. Astrid got knocked off and she went into the massive mouth of the monster, with Stormfly breaking free and flying away. Hiccup saw that Astrid was not on her dragon as he flew on Toothless towards the monstrous kaiju dragon. Astrid would use her axe to chip away at the teeth of the Red Death that were sized like tree bark and the dragon was feeling the pain from this. Eventually, the dragon queen ended up firing up her throat and sought to burn Astrid alive, with Astrid having to jump out of an opening that she formed through the dragon’s teeth. The dragon let out its fire shot as Astrid fell down towards the ground, but Hiccup flew in on Toothless, who caught Astrid with his legs. Hiccup asked his dragon buddy “Did you get her?” Toothless looked down to see a smiling Astrid in his grasp and he let her down on the sand of the beach. Astrid saw her heroes flying in the air and she simply said “Go!”

The dramatic flight scene then occurred as Toothless shot out fire balls at the Red Death, which screamed in pain and used its massive gargantuan wings to take flight. Hiccup was counting on this being the case, as he sought to take the battle up into the air, where there were clouds covering the night sky(this battle occurred in the evening and not during the day). Hiccup would hide in the clouds on Toothless and the Red Death could not see where its opponent was hiding. Toothless then let out some fire shots that hit the dragon queen, which screamed in even more pain. Toothless then came out of the clouds and shot fire through parts of the big wings on the dragon queen, with there being holes in the wings that both the Night Fury and its rider flew through. This aerial battle was watched from the ground by the other warriors of Berk, who would watch as blasts of fire from the Night Fury and Red Death were exchanged. Hiccup then told Toothless that they would try one last move to defeat the Red Death, with them flying down towards the island and they would have the monster dragon follow them. As the Red Death got closer, Toothless remained sharp and Hiccup told him to turn around. Toothless then shot a fire shot into the open mouth of the dragon queen, which was preparing to use its fire breath to burn the two alive. When the fire shot by Toothless went into its mouth, the Red Death lost control of its breathing abilities and also its ability to fly straight, as the dragon queen saw that it was flying straight into the dirt of the island. The massive dragon crashed onto the soil(away from where the other warriors were watching) and a fiery explosion occurred that effectively killed it. But during that explosion, Hiccup tried to escape it with Toothless, who flew over the back of the defeated dragon queen. But something that they didn’t anticipate was the massive chainball tail of the Red Death flying over them, with Hiccup seeing this and shouting out “No, no, no!” Hiccup then hit the chainball tail and fell off the back of his dragon buddy, with Toothless seeing this and flying into the fire to try and save Hiccup. This was an all-too familiar scene with an almost tragic ending.

When the dust settled and soot filled the air, Stoick the Vast walked to find his son, shouting out for Hiccup. But the chief of Berk saw no sign of his son until he saw Toothless lying unconscious on the ground. Stoick thought that Hiccup had been incinerated to death, lamenting that this situation was all his fault. The rest of the warriors found their way over to where their chief was and Astrid walked forward with a look of sadness on her face. Stoick took his helmet off and he saw Toothless wake up, with Stoick telling the Night Fury “I’m so sorry!” The other dragons that fought the battle joined this somber audience as Hiccup was thought to be dead. But in a repetitive scene from the original movie, Toothless opened up his covered underbody to show that he had caught Hiccup in his wings, with Stoick seeing this and grabbing his son’s body to see if it was still warm enough. Stoick then exclaimed out “He’s alive!” The crowd of warriors and dragons celebrated, with Stoick thanking Toothless for saving his son. Gobber then added “Well, most of him!”, as Hiccup had suffered a similar fate in battle that the village blacksmith had in the past.

Weeks after the battle at the Dragons Nest had occurred, Hiccup woke up in his room and saw that Toothless was in his house. Hiccup was panicked, with the Night Fury flying and jumping onto the wooden ceiling of the room. Hiccup then felt something off about his body, with him getting up to see that his left foot had been lost in battle and that it had been replaced by a steel limb(by Gobber, who else?). Hiccup tried walking in his new prosthetic-limb style with Toothless’ help. When Hiccup made it over to his window, he saw dragons flying in the daylight and he closed his window, telling Toothless to stay inside. Toothless would grunt in obedience, with Hiccup going outside to see a brand new reality in Berk. Instead of fighting against dragons, the villagers were co-existing with them and flying on them. Hiccup would be greeted by his father in Stoick the Vast, who said that he got to fly on the back of a dragon for the first time due to all the ships that the fleet used being scorched in the battle. Hiccup was amazed hearing this and Gobber came over to tell Hiccup that the prosthetic leg was his design. Astrid then greeted Hiccup and punched him playfully, telling him “That’s for scaring me!” Hiccup was dumbfounded by this rough treatment that he was getting from Astrid, who then kissed him on the lips. Hiccup then saw the other teenage warriors flying on their dragons and Astrid asked him if he was ready to fly. Hiccup said that he was, as Toothless came out of his house and he got on. Hiccup then concluded the movie with the same closing speech from the animated movie, which stated that Berk had tasteless weather and the people were even more tasteless. Hiccup then said “The perks are the pets. While some places may have puppies or ponies, we have DRAGONS!”

The movie ended with some end credits and pictures of the scenery of where it was shot. In my opinion, this was a good film that recaptured the childhood images of seeing humans fly on dragons and a reimagined version of the Isle of Berk, which is now part of Universal Studios’ Epic Universe at its theme park in Orlando, Fla. This live-action How To Train Your Dragon movie was something for the youngest Gen-Zers and the oldest members of the next generation to behold. Whether this movie launches another How to Train Your Dragon trilogy or not is of no importance, but the producers of this movie might be set on doing so. They just might have to wait a few years for the youngest actors of their cast to get a bit older(babyface is a curse/blessing for anyone born post-1980). Overall, Mason Thames did a good job playing a more emotionally raw version of Hiccup and sounded more like a teenager would sound these days than the voice actor of Hiccup Jay Baruchel. This movie could definitely springboard the soon-to-be-18-year old actor into a pretty successful acting career, should that be his North Star. As for Nico Parker, she might not have looked the part of Astrid at first, as she was subject to online attacks for not looking like a blonde-haired, blue-eyed female Nordic warrior. But she played the character role of Astrid to modern perfection, even adding an extra spice and tension to the role. This Astrid was as headstrong as the animated Astrid and very much one who enjoyed the adventure of flying on the backs of dragons. Gerard Butler’s live-action Stoick was the same as the animated Stoick character-wise, while being shot in extra scenes regarding the strength of Berk’s warriors and the dragon attack at Hellheim’s Gate in the middle of the movie. We know what Stoick’s fate will ultimately be due to HTTYD2, it’s just a matter of if it’s the exact same in a potential sequel to this live-action dragon movie. Nick Frost’s Gobber the Belch was as humorous and entertaining as Craig Ferguson’s, with some added flair by the comedian from Hornchurch, England.

Overall, the rest of the cast was alright, even though Ruffnut is a bit more overweight(a natural thing seen among Nordic ladies) and Snoutlout was looking for a bit too much recognition from his dad(something that wasn’t seen in the animated film). But I would give this movie an A for nostalgia and scenery. As for everything else, it’s pretty much a carbon copy for those who don’t have access to Peacock(or any other streaming service where HTTYD ‘10 is available) or a DVD player with a functioning disc of the original movie to see. As I said before, this is pretty much a carbon copy film, so it’s unoriginal. The dragon designs are almost the same, just with different more realistic eyes for all of them(except Toothless, he gets to keep his lizard eyes). Berk looked more small and isolated than in its animated form, but that’s just a drawback from where this movie was shot. The village construction is almost the same, with CGI fires on structures occurring. The Rotten Tomato ratings have the flick at a 77% tally, lower than the animated trilogy’s three films. But I’ll give this a movie a nine out of ten because it came out at exactly the right time for me in my life. The dragons are portrayed as being like scared dogs with wings that simply need loving and attention and a better way of life than being enslaved to a monstrous dragon queen. The bonding between Hiccup and Toothless can remind each of us who have owned a pet to remind ourselves of the good times that we’ve had with the animals in our lives(and that their lifespans are shorter than ours). Not sure what the average lifespan of a dragon is, but it being a crossbreed between a lizard and a bird with a massive wingspan(plus the different dragon sizes, including the small ones that are owned by the village elder Gothi) it could be somewhere between 30 years and 130 years. Regardless, the bond between humans and some animal species is strong and that was on display between Hiccup and the Night Fury he shot down and was deadset on killing. Mercy is always important and definitely shows more strength than weakness. That is undeniable. This movie is packed in between a load of other “blockbusters” on the 50th anniversary of the original blockbuster “Jaws”, so it definitely tried to stand out. And I say that it did, in a good way.

As for the future of a potential franchise, I doubt that there would be any shows that come in between this live-action Dragon movie and a potential sequel. It would be too expensive to do something in live picture motion with CGI that has already been done with a load of animated series from the last decade. So, the next time we might see the Isle of Berk and the unexplored lands around it might be in some four to five years depending on if a live-action HTTYD2 is in the works. If that is the case, the big questions have to be asked: Will Cate Blanchett return as Valka, the long-lost mother of Hiccup and wife of Stoick? She voiced the character in the latter two films of the animated trilogy and if she’s willing to sport a redhead hairdo that makes her look as much like Valka as possible, then let’s go. That might be more likely than the other big casting additions. The next question is whether Djimon Hounsou plays the madman dragon trainer Drago Bludvist in a sequel, as he voiced Drago in the animated sequel. Drago is a bit of a bigger warrior with long braidy hair, so maybe a bigger and younger actor might be up for that role. But Hounsou is one of the best actors in terms of action movie roles in the past decade plus, so he would definitely be considered for it. Finally, who is going to play Eret son of Eret? Kit Harrington voiced the character that was a dragon trapper who worked for Drago in the 2014 sequel and also came back in The Hidden World movie that concluded the trilogy. So, we shall see how those big three roles are filled if there’s a live-action dragon sequel in the works. One thing is for sure: dragons are definitely cool, whether in animated form or CGI form. Definitely a jewel from Dean DeBlois and his crew to bring the animated classic from Dreamworks to life. Cressida Cowell is the real genius though, for writing the books in the How To Train Your Dragon series that I have yet to read. Perhaps I should do that someday, especially as a future father. Anyhow, I loved this dragon movie, even as a 25-year old dude who has never airdived or parachuted before. It always feels good to take flight, even if it’s imaginary.