How To Train Your Dragon

How To Train Your Dragon (2025)

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is the live action remake of the original animated movie (though that is also based on a book series). The dragons are especially well done, which is good as Toothless remains a pivotal character in the movie. There are definite highlight moments in the movie, and overall it follows the animated movie very closely, making it more enjoyable for fans of the original series. Some of the line changes don't make much sense or are delivered in a very deadpan tone however, which lessens the acting rating in comparison. Still enjoyable and glad we finally watched it, but it won't outrank the animated series in terms of favorites.

DreamWorks Dragons: What Flies Beneath

DreamWorks Dragons: What Flies Beneath by Tina Gallo

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The story very closely follows one of the TV series episodes, along with the pictures for the book. It's familiar, but also very simple in how it's written, making it enjoyable for small children. Add in that my kids love the DreamWorks Dragon series, and you have a mix for instant fun. Not a long read, but that's usually a good thing for smaller children.

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Dragons: Titan Uprising

Dragons: Titan Uprising (Android)

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is a lot like other connect 3+ type games like Bejeweled Blitz, Frozen: Free Fall, Sailor Moon Drops, or Disney Tsum Tsum. The difference is that it's for Dragons and also includes hatching and training the dragons to increase their levels for the battles (where the connect 3+ comes into play to charge up their attacks and help defeat the other dragons). While there are many recognizable types and you see the characters from the movies and TV series make appearances to further the story line and give you directions, I have yet to see any recognizable named character as being playable. I'm not sure how big of a hit it'll be yet as I rather quickly ran into the wall of needing to wait to level up my dragons before I could beat levels to continue on the story. My kids are in a major Dragons frenzy however, so they love to play this game with me after school and work are done for the day.

How To Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World

How To Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World (2019)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is both happy and sad, as is common for Dreamworks movies. Hiccup and Toothless are still a great team, but they have some hard choices coming up. Despite needing to maybe relearn to live with their own kind, they still prove that they'll never forget or stop caring about the other. Light Fury is both adorable and aggravating at the same time as she continually leads Toothless away from his previous home.

How To Train Your Dragon: Hiccup the Hero

How To Train Your Dragon: Hiccup the Hero by Catherine Hapka

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


How To Train Your Dragon is one of my favorite series that the kids have slowly joined in on. My daughter especially loves Toothless and Astrid. While we don't see much of any reference to Astrid in this book, it is essentially a very basic overview of the first movie. Several things are abbreviated or adjusted slightly that might not make sense if you're trying to fit the movie's events to it exactly. For a simple learning to read book though, this is a fun one for any Dragons fan.

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How To Train Your Dragon

How To Train Your Dragon (DS)

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


I really wanted to like this game as I love HTTYD. Sadly, this is not the case. The game is very boxed in and repetitive, with very slow battle sequences and forced "quests" to unlock new parts of the village or build new armor. If it was a little more free range like Rise of Berk, then it would probably be more enjoyable. The web games downfall is the need for runes (the "freemium" currency of the game). Those don't exist in this game, but it has plenty of pitfalls of it's own instead. The upside? It's Toothless.

Dragons: Rise of Berk

Dragons: Rise of Berk (Android)

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Based on the popular movies How To Train Your Dragon, this android game lets you train up various dragons and complete quests to expand Berk as you'd like it. Some of the challenges can take a long time though unless you are willing to fork out money for runes to buy everything outright. If you don't care about competing to get everything first though, then this can be a fun momentary distraction with some favorite characters dragons on screen.

How To Train Your Dragon 2

How To Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars


A great sequel to the original film that keeps the action coming and fills in some gaps while leaving others. For example: when did Stoick and Gobber acquire their dragons? This could have easily been filled in either in the movie or in the two TV seasons that aired between the two films, but it did not. It also would have been nice if the TV series showed some progressive aging so the characters changes weren't so jarring coming into this new piece. Valka is an interesting and fun twist. It's hard not to be happy for Stoick in the end, while also feeling bad for Valka as well. Movie summaries show Astrid as still being the dominant in her relationship with Hiccup, and while she certainly is still self-assured and assertive, she's also a lot more open with her teasing and follows Hiccup much easier, bolstering his position as the future/new chief of Berk. In the same vein, it is Hiccup who makes a move at the end of the movie rather than Astrid, who took charge at the end of the first film. There's also Stoick's rather loud cheer of "that's my future daughter-in-law" during the early dragon race to reinforce their relationship is still strong. On the flip side, the boys who were all clamoring for Astrid's attention are all now focused on Ruffnut, which is very strange.

Admittedly, I also expected Eret to take a larger part in this film from what I'd heard, though he is by far a minor character that just happens to be there more often than not. It does appear that between him taking over Skullcrusher and Ruffnut's interest in him, that this could change in the third film. Drago, despite being the main "villain" of the film, is also seen very little and is rushed through. His "mystery" might be meant to be part of his overall appeal, but it just leaves him feeling very rough around the edges instead of as a fleshed out main character. Sadly, Dagger the Deranged is better fleshed out in the TV series, and that is one very disturbed opponent.

Toothless is by far still the best character of the series. Can't help but feel bad for him when the new Alpha starts stepping on toes and forcing the dragons to act against their wills. It's sad that Hiccup could reach him in the final battle, but not when Toothless was forced to attack him and hurt Stoick. Should have probably seen Toothless taking on the Alpha coming, but it was a nice twist. Would have been an interesting change had he kept the supercharged plasma glow he had during that confrontation full time. Toothless is definitely the better "alpha," especially with his close connection to Hiccup and obvious integration in life on Berk. Even Cloudjumper acknowledges him, and he seemed to treat Toothless more as an errant child than a full fledged dragon (I wonder if that's partly because he's the last living Night Fury and/or because he appears to be the same age as Hiccup).

It will be interesting to see how things change with Valka back home now and what more discoveries will be happening with the dragons. Between her inside knowledge, Hiccup's discoveries, and the vast number of new dragons that have joined the island since the attack, there's an entirely knew world on the island. Good thing Hiccup seems to be so good at engineering whatever new contraption they need for their peaceful coexistence. Too bad it had to wait for him and Toothless instead of taking effect when Valka was still home.

Dragons: Book of Dragons

Dragons: Book of Dragons (2011)

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


We see the Book of Dragons in the original film, How To Train Your Dragon, as Hiccup is looking for information about the Night Fury. This short film is basically going through the book by dragon "class" and showing their different attributes. Many of the dragons shown are not seen in the movie however. Some have been shown in previous short films or the TV series, Dragon Riders of Berk, but there were a few that I didn't recognize as being additions from either of those medias. New dragons for the next film or possible series continuation? It left it rather open ended with statements that apparently they were finding new dragons still and it was up to the trainers to add new information about discoveries and dragon personalities as they worked with their chosen dragons. Interesting information, but not a lot of new material as far as characters or plot goes.

Dragons: Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon

Dragons: Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon (2010)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The story told here is beyond ridiculous  though it apparently does have some base in truth as the legend is proved to be real. Not much is seen or mentioned of the other dragons as this is purely about the Boneknapper. The dragon riders don't even take their own dragons to go looking for the mythical beast - instead rowing on an old Viking boat as they used to before dragon days. An interesting new dragon added to the mix; hopefully will be included in the next movie as well.

Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury

Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury (2011)

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I still love Toothless - he totally makes this series for me. This is a cute little short film that was aired last night during Fox holiday specials. Apparently original released in a separate DVD package back in 2011, I'm surprised I hadn't yet heard of it as it is beyond adorable. Hiccup thought he had the perfect idea for a gift to his dragon. While Toothless certainly made surprisingly good use out of it, he had better ideas for their holiday. Talk about an intelligent dragon - he's got this Christmas thing down pat.

Dragons

Dragons (2012)

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I adore How To Train Your Dragon, so it's little surprise that I was thrilled to find this new series. Hiccup is back with Toothless and friends as they go through daily adventures and complications in a Viking's life on Berk. Toothless is as lovable as always, and still reminds me of my cat, Midnight. The other boys are still comedic filler as they otherwise can only really be classified as "losers." Astrid is still the glue that keeps it all together and does amazingly well with her dragon, second only to Hiccup who now runs the Dragon Academy. New dragons are introduced and it is too hilarious to see Stoick, Hiccup's stern and brute force father all excited to be riding a dragon - felt bad for Toothless for awhile there. No new episodes in awhile, but I hope the series keeps going. It's adorable and a lot of fun.

Note: Each season is titled slightly differently, though all share the "Dragons" origin.

Season One: Riders of Berk
Season Two: Defenders of Berk
Season Three: Race to the Edge

How to Train Your Dragon

How to Train Your Dragon (2010)

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I adore this movie! Not for the vikings, which more often then not annoy me. If anything, it's the dragons that win this show, especially Toothless. We got a hoot out of watching it the first time as there were many expressions and behaviors that reminded us very much of our Midnight, straight down to being all black with big wide green eyes you can't help but adore. This movie is fun all around as Hiccup and Toothless not only learn about each other, but help their species learn there's a much better side to life then the war they've been fighting so far.