How To Train Your Dragon is the latest animated film, and first from DreamWorks, to be given the live-action remake treatment. However, unlike many of Disney’s live-action remakes, which frequently move around, alter, or otherwise cut significant characters and storylines, How To Train Your Dragon remains extremely faithful to the animated original. This is largely thanks to Dean DeBlois serving as writer and director for both the original and the remake.

But this new film is still a half-hour longer than the original, so there is a fair amount of new material present here. So, after you’ve soared into theaters to check out the new take on Hiccup and Toothless’ classic journey, preferably in IMAX, read on to discover what changed, what didn’t, and exactly how the remake fares in comparison to the original.

The characters of How To Train Your Dragon

Before we go over the plot changes, let’s take a look at what’s new for some of our individual characters. For starters, Gerard Butler’s Stoick gets a bit more play here compared to the original. He has a small, solo action sequence during the opening battle, an extended version of his meeting with the council where he talks directly about how everyone in Berk came from different parts of the world, and there’s a new scene of him leading Berk’s naval fleet as Hiccup starts dragon training.

Also, both Stoick and Hiccup make multiple references to Hiccup’s presumed-dead mother being killed by a dragon. She plays an important role in How To Train Your Dragon 2 but her only mention in the original was the “breast hat” gag. Hiccup remains basically the same, but there is some new material with his friends. Ruffnut and Tuffnut have been more individualized both in terms of physical appearance and personality, Fishlegs is somehow even more of a dragon nerd than in the original, and Snotlout gets a character arc in this where he grows closer to his neglectful father, a new character for the remake.

However, the biggest change is with Astrid. She’s still the capable warrior and pride of Berk she was in the original, but she has more of a chip on her shoulder here; having come from nothing and having to work much harder to be taken seriously compared to Hiccup getting into dragon training basically just by virtue of being the chief’s son. And said dragon training is where that really comes to a head.

Dragon Training and Meeting Toothless

How to Train Your Dragon | Credit: Universal Picture

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A still of Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon (2025) | Credits: Universal Pictures

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Much of the dragon training, referred to as the “Trial of Flame” in this version, plays out exactly the same as it does in the original. They fight the same dragons in the same order and defeat them in the same way, with even much of the dialogue being ripped straight from the original, with all of the trainees vying for the opportunity to kill their first dragon in public. How this is determined is more pronounced in the remake, with the film frequently cutting to the village elder using an abacus seemingly to calculate which of the trainees is most qualified, as opposed to just showing up and picking Hiccup like in the original.

The dragon training does unfortunately illustrate my main issue with the film. Most of the dragons lack a lot of the personality and expression they had in the animated version. They’re still recognizable as the various unique dragon species from that film, but your typical How To Train Your Dragon dragons have very expressive eyes and a particular look and feel that makes them very unique to that world, whereas the ones here could easily fit into any given movie with dragons in it.

The exception to this is Toothless himself, whose as expressive and adorable as ever. Him and Hiccup’s initial meeting plays out almost exactly the same as the original, but with one key change that I believe makes the scene work better. In the original, and in the trailers for the remake, Hiccup repeatedly says, “I’m a Viking” and other such hype-up phrases as he readies himself to kill Toothless before ultimately letting the dragon go. But here, Hiccup raises and ultimately lowers the knife without any dialogue, allowing the emotions of both characters to play out visually in a very effective manner.

From here, most of Hiccup and Toothless’ interactions play out as they did in the original, still as charming and wholesome as they ever were. Though interestingly, in the scene where Hiccup feeds Toothless all those fish, including an eel that the dragon vehemently rejects, he lays out the fish one at a time instead of pouring the whole barrel out at once like in the original. Some bits during the flight sequences, up to and including the flight with Astrid, go on slightly longer, but the core of the scenes remain the same.

The climax and the ending

Hiccup and Astrid in How To Train Your Dragon (2025)

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Gerard Butler as Stoick in How To Train Your Dragon (2025)

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The third act was always the “good but not great” part of the original How To Train Your Dragon and that remains the case here. The scene where Hiccup’s friends bond with their dragons goes on slightly longer, there’s a short sequence with Stoick and Toothless underwater, and a brief scene wherein after Hiccup falls and is saved by Toothless, Stoick discovers Hiccup’s still living body and thanks Toothless for saving him. Otherwise, it’s the same solid but standard battle against the alpha dragon you remember from the original.

As for the ending, the conversation between Hiccup and the others after he wakes up is a little longer and brings back the “You just gestured to all of me” gag one more time, but otherwise it’s largely identical. Gobber still gives Hiccup his prosthetic leg (Also Gobber has a British accent instead of a Scottish one in this because that’s what happens when you cast Nick Frost) and the entire citizenry of Berk start flying around on dragons as the film ends.

The only other change is in Hiccup’s final monologue, where on top of the “meridian of misery” lines and such being removed as they were in the opening monologue, the “ponies or parrots” line has been changed to “ponies or puppies.”

Does the remake live up to the original?

Hiccup and Toothless in How To Train Your Dragon (2010)

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Mason Thames as Hiccup and Toothless in How to Train Your Dragon (2025) | Credits: Universal Pictures

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I’ll admit I was very skeptical of the live-action version of How To Train Your Dragon upon its initial announcement. Live-action remakes of animated films usually don’t live up to their source material and with the original film not even being twenty years old, was an update really necessary? But I am very happy to have been proven wrong here. While I would still give the slight edge to the animated version, the live-action one fleshes out the characters in compelling ways while staying true to the story and heart of what made the original so special.

The live-action How To Train Your Dragon is now playing in theaters