Summary
- The success of the How to Train Your Dragon live-action movie hinges on the realistic yet cute design of the dragons, similar to how the Sonic the Hedgehog film faced backlash for its initial design.
- The fact that the Sonic the Hedgehog filmmakers were able to respond to and redesign the character successfully gives hope that future live-action adaptations of animated films can do the same.
- The How to Train Your Dragon live-action movie is crucial for DreamWorks, as it is their first live-action adaptation of a successful animated film and will determine if they continue to pursue live-action remakes of their other movies.
The How to Train Your Dragon live-action movie risks repeating the Sonic the Hedgehog design curse. The original computer-animated DreamWorks film is about Hiccup Haddock, a young Viking who befriends the Night Fury dragon Toothless. The first How to Train Your Dragon film, inspired by the book of the same name by Cressida Cowell, was so successful it spawned a franchise of three movies, multiple streaming shows on Netflix connecting the movies together, and several short films.
Paramount's Sonic the Hedgehog film was the live-action debut of the famous video game character. It made headlines after its first trailer thanks to the negative reaction to Sonic's initial design. The criticism was so strong that the filmmakers went back to the drawing board and redesigned Sonic, delaying the film's release by three months. The live-action How to Train Your Dragon live-action film could encounter a similar problem after the initial designs went out for the dragons that will appear in the movie.
The Live-Action How To Train Your Dragon Hinges On Its Dragon Designs
It can't be denied that much of the success of How to Train Your Dragon is thanks to the adorable design of Toothless, and the same will be true for the live-action adaptation. If the How to Train Your Dragon live-action movie doesn't manage to turn the stylized dragon into something both realistic and cute, audiences will react like they did to the original Sonic design. Part of what makes Toothless so charming is also how expressive he is. A "realistic" dragon would not necessarily be so expressive, so the filmmakers will have to find a balance to avoid suffering the "Ugly Sonic" curse.
Why The Sonic The Hedgehog Movie Makes A Live-Action HTTYD More Promising
Hope is not lost, however. Sonic's original look in his video games is arguably more stylized than the animated Toothless, who—despite being a mythical creature—was based on real reptiles and amphibians more than Sonic was ever based on real hedgehogs. The first live-action Sonic design wasn't popular, but the film itself was met with relatively positive reviews and may have been successful even if Sonic's design hadn't been changed. The fact that the Sonic the Hedgehog crew was able to respond to , re-design Sonic, and still create a successful product is a good sign that future live-action adaptations of animated films will do the same.
The well-loved animated How to Train Your Dragon trilogy will be hard to follow up on. Hopefully, the designers of the live-action adaptation will look at the Sonic situation as something to learn from and do their best to make Toothless and the other dragons look good. This one detail could make or break the How to Train Your Dragon live-action movie.
As The First Live-Action Adaptation, DreamWorks Has To Get This Right
The How to Train Your Dragon live-action movie has a huge task ahead of it. Disney has been hard at work on live-action remakes of its classic animated movies. However, not everything has gone over well for the studio. There were a lot of complaints about the look of the animals in the live-action Lion King movie, and it seemed no one liked how the Genie looked in Aladdin, but Disney hasn't slowed down. This is because Disney has seen a lot of success in its live-action remakes, with The Jungle Book a high point and a movie that even earned Oscar notice.
This is the first DreamWorks live-action movie based on one of its successful animated films. While it seems unlikely that a movie like Shrek or King-Fu Panda will get a live-action remake, it is still important for the How to Train Your Dragon live-action movie to do well if DreamWorks wants to even consider doing more. If DreamWorks has dreams of bringing something like Madagascar or Rise of the Guardians to the big screen again as a live-action movie, this is where the studio has to knock it out of the park. There is a lot riding on the How to Train Your Dragon live-action movie, and it's important that it looks right.
