This weekend, the 2025 movie schedule belongs to the dragons, and the Vikings that try to tangle with them. In the world of reality, that means that the How to Train Your Dragon remake’s impressive opening estimates have paid off, as who doesn’t want to see Toothless on the big screen yet again?
Those feelings, as well as backlash from Sonic the Hedgehog’s original character design, are part of the equation that director Dean DeBlois discussed with CinemaBlend. As we sat down with the returning creative force from the 2010 original, the question of how that infamous scenario factored into planning the “live-action” variant of Toothless needed to be asked. In response, DeBlois’ response to this query involved this thought process:
Yeah, we steered it. I was part of that committee that we were trying to think backward, like if Toothless was a simplified version of a real creature, then what did that real creature look like? And the more exploration we did, the more we realized that there are certain proportions that make him iconic.
You know you’re a big deal when you have an entire committee dedicated to speculating how your redesign is going to play out. Though that could be underselling the situation How to Train Your Dragon’s live-action redo found itself operating in. It’s the sort of thing that tends to happen when you’re embarking on a flesh and blood makeover to a wildly successful trilogy of animated pictures.
But as Dean DeBlois signaled above, his previous work on both Lilo & Stitch and Dragon’s animated protagonists came from an animation background. Creatures in that medium thrive on circular and tube-like shapes, but that doesn’t necessarily carry over into the realm of photorealism.
That leads to these further notes on how DeBlois and his Toothless committee tried to strike the balance:
We tried making his eyes smaller because no animal on earth has eyes that big -- not even a blue whale. … we tried making his mouth smaller, and as we did, we lost his personality. There are just Stitch-like proportions to Toothless' head that are just who the character is. So as an alternative, we kind of leaned into the body, and we really studied like panther movements. And with the skeleton, the musculature, and the iridescent scales, [we] tried to find credible cues in those departments, so that he remained the character as we know him.
The results practically speak for themselves, as How to Train Your Dragon’s CinemaCon screening yielded excited raves from the crowd pretty early on. Just as Dean DeBlois’ previous comments on said reaction intended, it looks like tears and cheers will be had by all who are about to take this flight. So if you had any doubt Toothless would look any less cute in live-action, you can proceed with confidence.
Hiccup, Toothless and the rest of the Isle of Berk await you in theaters now. But if you’re curious whether How to Train Your Dragon’s 3D/4DX variant keeps the thrills flying high, you can read our rundown to learn more of those technical details.
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