One Of The 21st Century's Best Animated Movies Is Now On Max & It's A Harsh Reality For One Upcoming Release

Summary How to Train Your Dragon is a timeless animated classic.

The live-action remake faces a difficult task due to the original's quality.

The movie still holds up after 14 years, making a reboot unnecessary.

The 21st century classic animated film, How to Train Your Dragon, is getting a live-action adaptation, but watching the original movie back highlights a big problem for the remake. How to Train Your Dragon is a light-hearted animated action-comedy aimed at kids. The film was initially released in 2010, and the story was loosely adapted from the 2003 book by Cressida Cowell. The story follows a young viking, named Hiccup, who struggles to fit in with the rest of his tough, dragon-slaying community.

However, when a young dragon named Toothless befriends Hiccup, it becomes clear that everything he knew about dragons may not be the complete truth. The film spawned a larger franchise, including sequel movies and spin-off TV shows, but now, 15 years after the original movie was released, the film is getting a live-action remake treatment. However, after the movie was added to Max, it became clear that the original is still the best.

Related 10 Most Powerful Dragons In How To Train Your Dragon, Ranked How To Train Your Dragon is known for its amazing animation and beloved characters, but the powerful dragons are just as important to its success.

Why How To Train Your Dragon Is One Of The 21st Century's Best Animated Movies

The 2010 Movie Is Now Streaming On Max

Close

How to Train Your Dragon is one of the most impressive animated movies in recent history. Aside from the fact that the movie is from DreamWorks, which delivers quality movies but always appears to be trailing behind Disney, it's largely an original story. The book that it is based on is less of a story book, and more of an encyclopedia of different imaginary dragons, written from the perspective of the fictional Hiccup. So, the movie had some loosely designed characters, but it built everything on top of that limited foundation.

On top of this, the movie went on to score nominations in the Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score against impressive competition, such as Toy Story 3 in the animated category, and The Social Network, and Inception's scores. In addition, this movie clearly connected with audiences as it went on to create a much larger franchise that would collectively earn over $1 billion at the box office (via The Numbers). Ultimately, this underdog movie proved itself, and became one of the best and most notable films of the 21st century.

Your browser does not support the video tag.

Watching How To Train Your Dragon In 2024 Shows Just How Difficult The Remake's Task Is

The Movie Still Holds Up, 14 Years Later

Close

However, years after the first movie came out in theaters, the franchise is getting a reboot, despite the franchise's continued success with recent entries and animated shows. With many franchises in Hollywood hoping to cash in on their biggest IP's, rebooting the series with a live-action version appears to be an ongoing trend. But there is a major issue with this, considering the first movie still holds up today, with the animation remaining incredibly smooth and the film being a good, clean, family-friendly picture.

The How to Train Your Dragon live-action reboot isn't necessarily needed. It is unlikely to drastically change the story, or expand on earlier stories with new information, so it will just be an attempt to take something that is magical and spectacular in an animated form, and attempt to adapt it to live-action. Unfortunately, the creatives will have their work cut out for them as they attempt to bring a variety of incredible and quirky dragons into the real world, and with How to Train Your Dragon's recent release on Max, audiences are certain to compare the two.