Dragon live-action remake maintains a safe distance from reality
★★
PG, 125 minutes
Even if your children have never seen the earlier version of How To Train Your Dragon released by Dreamworks Animation in 2010, they shouldn't have trouble predicting the plot of this live-action remake shot in picturesque Northern Ireland, especially if they've seen the Bluey episode that ruthlessly parodied the formula.
'Look, mate,' Bluey's dad reassured his daughter, 'I'm pretty sure that by the end of the movie, everyone will like that the monkey was different.'
Similarly, there's little doubt things will work out for Hiccup (Mason Thames), a sensitive lad who struggles to fit in on an island of rough-and-tumble Vikings, let alone live up to the expectations of his chieftain dad (Gerard Butler, who voiced the same character in the animated version).
This is quite a progressive community as far as Vikings go, non-sexist, racially diverse and welcoming to migrants willing to adopt the local way of life. That way of life does, however, non-negotiably revolve around slaying dragons – which Hiccup supports as much as anybody, until the day he finds himself face to face with the enemy and unable to deliver the fatal blow.
All of this follows the outline of the animated movie, based on a children's novel by British writer Cressida Cowell and directed by the team of Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, also responsible for the original Lilo & Stitch.
Returning here as solo writer-director, DeBlois evidently sees no need to mess with what worked in the past. If anything, he does his best to minimise any hint of topical relevance.
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