The world certainly isn’t aching for more live-action remakes. Disney’s offerings have ranged from the not too bad to the just OK to the downright terrible. But sometimes, a remake is more than a cash grab, and it comes just when you need it.
Such is the case with Dreamworks’s How to Train Your Dragon, whose animated predecessor arrived in theaters 15 years ago to much acclaim, earning Oscar nominations for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score. Its live-action reprisal, now in theaters, is well-suited for a return to the big screen, especially in IMAX: Its dragons are even more thunderous and fearsome than before.
But it’s not just the change in form that makes How to Train Your Dragon worth the ticket price. Its central conflict, between a loving but misguided father and his brains-over-brawn son, feels particularly compelling today as conversations about masculinity dominate headlines and we recognize the importance of modeling manhood for the next generation.
Stoick the Vast, a Viking tribe chief and father to our hero, Hiccup, is not just a guy’s guy — he’s practically a mythical creature himself. He’s the type of dude who punches dragons with his bare fists and bangs his head against a rock until it breaks.
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