Universal Pictures Announces Live-Action Version of HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON

Published: February 17, 2023

Universal Pictures Announces Live-Action Version of HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON

By Movieguide® Contributor

Universal Pictures has announced plans to make a live-action version of HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, set to release on March 14, 2025.

Dean DeBlois, the mind behind the original movies, will return as writer, director and producer for the upcoming movie.

The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the movie is already in development and casting is underway.

Based on Cressida Cowell’s books, DeBlois will adapt the live-action movie from the original Dreamworks Animation trilogy, which was released in the 2010s.

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 and HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD all received Oscar nominations for Best Animated Film.

All three movies also received favorable reviews on Movieguide®. A portion of the review for HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON reads:

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON is funny, entertaining, exciting, and heart-warming family fun. The 3D effects are excellent and exhilarating! The main theme is the reconciliation between Hiccup and his father, as well as the other Vikings. There is also a solid, positive redemptive message about a hero sacrificing himself to subdue and redeem creation and mankind. The movie has some scary scenes, however. And, there are references to the pagan Norse mythology of the Vikings. So, caution for younger children is advised.

Movieguide® also reported on the pro-marriage values in HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD:

In this epic conclusion to the exciting animated trilogy of HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON films, Hiccup is now the chief of Berk, where Vikings and dragons live together peacefully. The arrival of a villainous dragon-hunter, Grimmel, sends Hiccup and his girlfriend, Astrid, on a quest to find a fabled hidden world of dragons, which may provide safe harbor for them all. They discover a female “Light Fury” dragon that corresponds to Hiccup’s Night Fury dragon, Toothless, who tries to court the new dragon. Eventually, Hiccup faces his hardest test yet in his determination to protect his people and the dragons.

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD is a great example of how to make a family movie that appeals to children and adults. The movie’s animated fantasy world of Vikings and dragons is stunning and detailed, the action scenes are exhilarating, the story is moving, and the characters have gone on a real journey since the original movie in 2010. That said, the new movie works just as well as a standalone story for those who haven’t seen the previous two movies.

The story has wonderful Christian elements. A key theme is that Hiccup can only mature and become the leader he needs to be by demonstrating sacrificial love. In a flashback, Hiccup’s father instructs him in words that sound biblical: “With love comes loss, but in the end it is worth it. There is no greater gift than love.” Hiccup is supported and encouraged by two remarkable women, his mother, Valka, and his girlfriend, Astrid. These two characters are very well done, exhibiting biblical feminine qualities of strength, wisdom and dignity. (A comical subplot is the courtship of the widowed Valka by two suitors.) Though one of the trilogy’s comic characters was supposedly “outed” as homosexual in the last movie due to an oblique, unscripted line of dialogue, no reference is made to this in THE HIDDEN WORLD. Ultimately, the third movie’s conclusion gives moviegoers a beautiful vision of a traditional family. That vision will have far more impact on viewers.

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD does have some action violence and suspense, but the filmmakers have taken the scariness down a notch from the last movie. HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD also has some light pagan and environmentalist elements, plus some light crass humor, that are common to this movie trilogy. For example, Norse gods are mentioned, and an old woman uses a staff with an animal carving on it to bless a couple’s marriage.

Because of their family-friendly content and moral messages, the HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON movies did well at the box office. For the live-action version to succeed, it should follow the example of the previous movies.