Dreamworks has now entered the Live-action Remake game with their version of 2010’s How to Train your Dragon.
Let’s start with what is “good” about this teaser, Toothless looks great and Toothless was a highlight of the original. Toothless looking the same however points to choice that was made by the studio, that this live-action remake is near shot-for shot remake of the original version. Doing a carbon-copy in a new medium is a choice. A choice that suggests that the studio just a wants to make money. The studio knows that this franchise makes money but they exhausted it so they need to do again. So they took a page from the Mouse and did the same this with actors. Gerald Butler is even reprising his role.
In addition to shedding light on the creative bankruptcy of the movie industry, live-action remakes under-cut the art of animation by implying that the better and improved work is the live-action version. After all live-action movies win more accolades ergo are more valuable to the industry. An animated movie will only win a few tech categories and never the top awards. In Hollywood, only three have ever been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture and no wins. However the oscars are seldom the best metric for “best” movies and there is a long history of politics with the academy award wins. Also the academy sequesters animated movies to their own category so they don’t have to recognize animated movies on level with the “prestige pictures.”
It’s hard to really tell from a teaser trailer if this version is just a cash-grab from corporation that wants people to go their theme parks that just so happens to have a lot of How to Train your Train IP with lots of merchandise to buy or if there is a legit good reimagining here that can only be achieved with live actors. Personally I think it’s the former, the original movie is still great.
