Movie review
June 6, 2025 · 125 min · PG
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
The 2025 live-action remake is a near shot-for-shot retelling of the 2010 animated film. Hiccup befriends Toothless the Night Fury and challenges his Viking village’s tradition of killing dragons. The core story engine is unchanged: fantasy adventure about empathy and coexistence. The main modern additions are diverse casting (mixed-race Nico Parker as Astrid, who was white and blonde in the animated version) and a new in-film speech explaining why Berk’s Vikings come from many cultures worldwide. Director Dean DeBlois and Parker publicly defended the choices as inclusivity wins. Average viewers familiar with the original will notice the representation push and lore tweak, but there is no new political dialogue, queer arcs, or act
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for How to Train Your Dragon.
Woke representation / casting
Diverse casting (mixed-race Astrid replacing white animated version) plus multi-ethnic Vikings and added lore explanation; director publicly framed as inclusivity.
Woke political dialogue
No explicit modern political or activist lines; dialogue faithful to original fantasy script.
Identity-driven story themes
Narrative driven by human-dragon friendship and ending prejudice against dragons; no race, gender, or queer identity arcs.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Challenges Viking dragon-killing tradition exactly as in the 2010 source material; not expanded to real-world institutions.
Woke character or canon changes
Race swap for Astrid and new multi-cultural tribe origin story added to support diverse cast; publicly discussed as departure from animated canon.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Clear anti-woke backlash over casting as race-swapping/DEI; covered in news and social media (only counting “too woke” complaints).
Creator track record context
Director no strong prior activist history but defended diversity here; one producer (Platt) has pattern on representation-heavy remakes.
Production
