The world of How to Train Your Dragon is getting new life in the world of live-action, but is keeping its creative team in place with Dean DeBlois back in the writer and director’s chair. Having gotten his start in the field of animation, DeBlois first found acclaim by co-writing and co-directing the original Lilo & Sтιтch with frequent creative partner Chris Sanders, with whom he also made the first animated Dragon film. DeBlois then went on to write and direct the rest of the trilogy, while Sanders stayed on as an executive producer as he was busy with other projects.

Again written and directed by DeBlois, this time in his live-action fictional debut, How to Train Your Dragon is an adaptation of both the animated hit and Cressida Cowell’s children’s book series of the same name. Set on the Viking island of Berk, the story revolves around the awkward-yet-inventive son of the village’s chieftain as he comes upon a rare type of dragon known as a Night Fury, and begins befriending him, through which he hopes to change his village’s ways of fighting dragons. Mason Thames now leads the How to Train Your Dragon cast alongside Nico Parker, Gerard Butler and Nick Frost, among others.

In honor of the movie’s release, ScreenRant interviewed Dean DeBlois to discuss How to Train Your Dragon. The writer/director reflected on why he hasn’t enjoyed prior live-action remakes of animated films, the early positive reactions to his film being “a relief“, how he landed on the right mix of recreation and new elements from his original films, and the design of Toothless for the live-action format.

The Movie Let DeBlois Test “My Convictions” About Live-Action Remakes

“…I Knew That People Were Going To Be Very Protective Of The Movies That They Loved…”

How to Train Your Dragon comes in the wake of Disney really popularizing live-action remakes of animated films, the most recent being DeBlois’ own Lilo & Sтιтch, which he clarified to us “was done entirely without” him, and which he hasn’t seen yet. His film also, however, comes as Disney’s remakes have found themselves facing more and more criticism from critics and audiences alike, with the Rachel Zegler-led Snow White becoming one of the studio’s bigger box office bombs in recent years.

With his film having its premiere screening at CinemaCon, early reception to How to Train Your Dragon has been quite positive, with reviews now rolling out and the remake netting an 83% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Calling the early reception “a relief“, DeBlois recalls his recurring concerns about how original fans would respond to the film, knowing “people were going to be very protective of the movies that they loved,“ and that “they didn’t want to see [the trilogy] messed with.“

The writer/director went on to express “I share that sentiment,” which led to his push to be the one to direct the new How to Train Your Dragon. He also admitted to not being “a fan of live-action remakes of animated movies in general“, namely because “they’re usually disappointing versions of those movies that I love.” Even still, he acknowledged that directing the film “allowed me to put my convictions to the test,“ challenging him to see if he and his team could “keep everything about the story that people have come to love and bring embellishments in terms of the deeper mythology, richer character interactions” and “more immersive action“.

Universal Were Just As Devoted To Staying True To The Originals As DeBlois

“…We Now Had The Ability To Go In And Sort Of Broaden And Deepen…”

With both his original films and Cowell’s books to pull from, DeBlois certainly had multiple avenues to go down with adapting How to Train Your Dragon into live-action. As the writer/director explains, though, Universal were the ones who asked him to stay true to the animated trilogy, telling him directly, “We want that story. We don’t want a story inspired by” either the originals or Cowell’s books. Instead, they asked him to “use the opportunity” of the remake to “bring more richness in places where it could benefit“.

One primary area where DeBlois turned his attention was to the roster of How to Train Your Dragon characters, namely ones who “felt underserved in the animated movie“, which he explained came because “of the time constraints” of the genre. “We now had the ability to go in and sort of broaden and deepen,” DeBlois explained, “like Astrid, for example, but also just explaining why they’re there in the first place and kind of developing a mythology that supports the story in a deeper and richer way.“

One scene that DeBlois was really excited about recreating from the original movies was that of “Hiccup’s graduation day in the arena“, where he’s not only face-to-face with numerous Vikings, his father and training dragons, but also his peers, who have now begun to come around to his perception. “You have Hiccup and Astrid’s relationship, which has turned, and now she’s willing to support him no matter the cost to her own ambitions,” the writer/director described.

With the scene also comes the “so heartbreaking” moment in which Toothless comes to rescue Hiccup, being “heroic on Toothless’ part“, but also ending “badly for him“. For DeBlois, he saw the scene as “a great opportunity” in order to take a scene “fans might be familiar with from the animated movie“, but then spin it into “a richer experience” as “everything’s sort of dialed up in intensity“.

DeBlois Refused For Toothless’ Design To Be “Anything Less Than The Animated Movie”

“…We Knew That If We Went Away From His Design, We Would Probably Hear About It.”

One of the more divisive elements of various live-action remakes has been how they’ve translated their animated characters to the screen, with Lilo & Sтιтch being one of the better-received recent efforts for keeping said characters nearly identical to their original counterparts. For DeBlois, he similarly felt he “didn’t want to deliver anything less than the animated movies” regarding both the “Dragon performances” and Toothless. As such, he and his team “designed him to be probably the closest one to one“, namely because they knew “if we went away from his design, we would probably hear about it“.

However, even with CGI largely being used to design the iconic character, DeBlois revealed there was a very practical element to Toothless appearing in How to Train Your Dragon, with the production having “a puppeteer on set working with the actors“. “We had foam heads built to the specifications of our dragons, and they could be scene partners with all of our human actors,” DeBlois explained, “and that gave us a rich performance that the animators could then take and bring all of their skill in order to give us a fully dimensional dragon performances.“

Stay tuned for and check out our other How to Train Your Dragon interviews with:

• Dean DeBlois (Pre-Release)
• Mason Thames & Nico Parker
• Gerard Butler
• Nick Frost
• Julian Dennison, Gabriel Howell, Bronwyn James & Harry Trevaldwyn

Source: ScreenRant Plus