How to Train Your Dragon (2025) review

DreamWorks' live-action remake of their hit 2010 release should be familiar to many: the village of Berk, with Stoick (Gerard Butler) as their leader, is under constant bombardment from dragons, Stoick's frail son Hiccup (Mason Thames) accidentally knocks out a notorious Night Fury (and damages his tail in the process), befriends the powerful creature and names him Toothless, and then tries to convince his stubborn old man, with some help from gal pal Astrid (Nico Parker), that the dragons are basically gigantic flying puppies.  I think the original is one of the best animated features to come out in the last quarter of a century, so you'll have to forgive me for finding this version to be a superfluous cash grab - the same narrative is there, but it loses a good deal of its wonder and charm by making it seem like a Lord of the Rings spin-off.  Where it does go right is ensuring that Toothless is still a cutie ... and it would have taken an oaf behind the lens to botch the symbiotic relationship that forms between the two main characters.