The first trailer for the live action remake of How to Train Your Dragon just has me wondering why we keep bothering to do this.
Oh, brother. Another day, another trailer for yet another live action remake of an animated movie that is beloved by many, all in the name of… well, probably just money this time around, to be honest. This time it’s How to Train Your Dragon, an adaptation of in the first instance a very popular animated film that has already made lots of money, and in the second instance one that still has a lot of fans to this day. The teaser trailer was released yesterday by Universal Pictures, and I just feel a bit exasperated watching it, but before I say anymore, you can check it out for yourself below and make your own judgement.
The film does actually bring back original co-director Dean DeBlois, which is something I suppose, and even though the animated version isn’t the most colourful film in the world, this live action version still somehow manages to sap all the saturation out of it anyway. It’s clearly trying to quite closely replicate the original in a number of ways, but this kind of thing just loses so much when translated to a live action environment. Plus, the lovable Toothless just looks strange compared to the realism of everything else – hell, even the logo opts for a less cartoonish look, though I’m sure a lot of this is down to choices from executives and the marketing team.
At least the cast seems pretty strong, with Mason Thames (The Black Phone) taking over the role of Hiccup, and Gerard Butler playing Chief Stoick the Vast – he actually voiced the character in the animated film, so he’ll work well I imagine. Plus there’s also Nico Parker (The Last of Us) as Astrid, and Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead) as Gobber, another couple of strong additions.
Whether I like it or not, it exists so I’ll just have to live with it, and we’ll all find out how good it is when it releases next year on June 13.
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